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Olivia Newton-John Duets Collection, ‘Just the Two of Us,’ Coming

by Best Classic Bands Staff

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Olivia Newton-John is getting a posthumous duets album. Just the Two of Us: The Duets Collection, Volume One, will be released on May 5, 2023, via Primary Wave. The album’s first release is a duet of “Jolene” with the classic song’s writer, Dolly Parton. The performance was the last song Newton-John ever recorded. Watch the video below.

Parton and Newton-John became friends after the latter won 1974’s Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year award. (To this day, Newton-John is the only non-American born artist to win the award.) As a nod to their friendship, she recorded a version of “Jolene” for her 1976 studio album, Come On Over.

“My first memory of Olivia was when her song ‘Let Me Be There’ was a hit. I have loved her ever since,” said Parton.

“We had many occasions that we got to share together, either backstage or performing on the same shows, and I loved every moment that I ever got to spend with her. I’ve always been inspired by her grit, tenderness, willingness, and determination.”

The icon continues, “My last memory of Olivia was when I sang with her on my song ‘Jolene’ which she recorded for an album not so very long ago. I cannot wait to hear that album and Olivia may you rest in peace. You left a spot that one else will ever fill.”

“I have always wanted to record with Dolly,” said Newton-John during an interview in 2021. “She was always there for me and what she did for me early on in my career in Nashville is something I will never forget.”

“This duet seems like the perfect bookend to their decades-long friendship,” says Michael Caprio, Newton-John’s longtime publicist and friend of nearly 25 years. “Knowing that Dolly was there at the start of Olivia’s U.S. Country music career and here she is, one half of a duet of Olivia’s final recording, is pretty special.”

The 17-track Just The Two of Us album features duets with such stars as Mariah Carey, Michael McDonald, John Travolta, Barry Gibb, Jon Secada, her daughter Chloe Lattanzi, and more.

Four-time Grammy winner Newton-John will be remembered in a globally live-streamed memorial service in Melbourne, Australia on Feb. 26. More information on tune-in and special guests, to follow.