The Girl Around The Corner

Come around and talk awhile,

I need your smile

Like so many gay kids growing up in the 80's, my best friend was the girl around the corner.  We hung out after school, we played games, put on shows and watched hundreds of movies.  One of the movies on a loop at her house was Grease.  She had a copy on VHS and I'm sure eventually wore it out.  I knew the music as my mother had the soundtrack album, but it was my friend who really introduced me to the blonde beauty and the music of Olivia Newton-John

So much of the coverage of Olivia's death involves Grease and her biggest hit Physical.  I understand that, many know her from the film, and Physical was her biggest hit, and the song and video brought her a ton of attention.  Physical however, is not one of my favorites.  The video was boundary pushing for sure, but Olivia had so many other great songs in her catalogue.  Given this is FH however, images from the Physical video were certainly in order.

One of my favorites was 'Sam' a song I remember singing in one of those backyard variety shows we put on.  Because Sam was both a male a nd female name, I thought I was cleverly hiding when I sang it.  As simple as it's lyrics and melody are, I still love that song.  I also especially loved Please Mr. Please and for some reason was always drawn to The Promise. (The Dolphin Song)

R.I.P Olivia, it's been wonderful to hear how loved you were, and the kindness you exuded wasn't a persona, but who you really are.  Thanks also for helping me connect with that girl around the corner.  I haven't seen or heard from her in years, but today, I think I'll try to find her on-line and shoot her a message.