The relationship between Xanadu, Meat Loaf, Yellow Submarine

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Xanadu, Meat Loaf, Yellow Submarine all share something in common.

Part One

The first part will feature Xanadu. At the end of part three the connection between the two movies and the singer Meat Loaf will be revealed.


Xanadu is a 1980 musical/romance film directed by Robert Greenwald. It is an unofficial remake of the 1947 film Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth. The title of the film is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment." by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province where Khan establishes his pleasure garden in the poem.

Xanadu stars Olivia Newton-John (fresh from her role in Grease), Michael Beck, and Gene Kelly, and features music by Newton-John, Electric Light Orchestra, Cliff Richard, and The Tubes.

The critics can harp on about Xanadu all they want, but I found it a blast - here was my favourite singer on great form, she was looking out of this world and singing on a great soundtrack with ELO who performed rather well too. Fantastic - I went and saw this four times at the movies in London's Fulham Road and in Oxford St. It was Olivia heaven - who needs plot ;-) It was a million selling soundtrack album, Olivia was #1 on Billboard in the US with Magic - but the movie didn't draw the same numbers as Grease... However, the movie is a visual treat, with a great animation sequence by Don Bluth where I could start to believe that modern animation could actually cut it and have soul like it used to . Great music, fantastic costumes, Don Bluth on the animation, what else could you need?

Well, I suppose non-Olivia fans needed a plot and maybe some better acting, but that's a whole new story. To see what can be done with the plot you need go no further than the movie Down to Earth (1947) starring Rita Hayward as Terpsichore which was the original, and far better as a movie to be honest. But you're here because you like Olivia and Down to Earth naturally didn't have her in it since Olivia was not to be born for another year after it came out! I agree with Hollywood casting that Olivia makes a perfect goddess, but she doesn't have much luck in movies which feature heavenly figures - her next movie, Two of a Kind, bombed out bigtime at the box-office, but that didn't have the redeeming feature of a topselling soundtrack. Still, Olivia is a singer rather than an actress IMHO - and I have to say that she made an excellent Muse in Xanadu. Here's a little bit more about the movie.

From and to read more:
Olivia Newton-John : Xanadu

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