'I was the original madonna/whore before that Madonna whore!'

Everyone's favorite 30-year-old high school senior, Olivia Newton-John, turns 63 years old today.

Semi-recently

My first memories of her are from my older cousin, Cathy, loving her and wanting her records for Christmas. This meant she must be somehow cool, a grown-up thing, if Cathy liked her. (Forget that Cathy wore rainbow-colored socks with individual nooks for each toe and was into other '70s silliness like every other teenager!)

Submitted without judgment—just an interesting echo!

I was aware of Grease and drawn to Xanadu against my better judgment, but wasn't really drawn to ON-J herself until "Physical" became one of the most popular songs in history and she was transitioning from countrified wholesomeness into faux ho. Then I started buying her singles and had to catch up with greatest-hits collections in order to appreciate the entire career's worth of stuff she'd already sung up until that point.

The Markie Post years

In college, I was embarrassed by her song "The Rumour" with Elton John. I thought the line, "One the rumour spreads" was a tacky double-entendre and the song was kinda silly for her. But a guy named Andrew Cartt did once give me his number at a Chicago bar after watching me dance to it. And I was absolutely transfixed by "I Need Love"'s club mix, still one of my favorite ON-J pleasures.

Plus I can't forget her delectable ex, Matt Lattanzi

Following, my humbly offered grouping of essential ON-J tidbits...