Olivia Newton-John

Olivia Newton-John has died.

It’s hard to exaggerate what a big deal Olivia Newton-John was in pop cultural terms in the late 1970s, after the movie Grease and the accompanying soundtrack featured her and John Travolta.

She had an interesting life to say the least — she was the granddaughter of the great physicist Max Born — that was marred by various tragedies, most notably the unsolved mystery of the disappearance at sea of her boyfriend Patrick McDermott in 2005.

She was also one of my earliest crushes, so I’m not in a position to be objective about her. And I retain a lasting fondness for her cheesy faux-country pop hits of the mid-1970s. (Don’t taze me Erik.)

RIP