Rewind: Olivia Newton-John - "Physical"

It’s pretty amazing that way back in 1981 Olivia Newton-John got away with a music video that features a bunch of sexy, gay hunks.

"Physical" was Newton-John's fifth No 1. single and the most successful song in her career, selling 10 million copies. It featured hyper-sexualised lyrics, clashing with the clean-cut image Newton-John had been known for.

"A dear friend of mine wrote the song and I thought, 'This is a great song!' And I recorded it with John Farrar, who's my producer and also my friend, and after it was finished, that's when I freaked out," she explained. "I went, 'I never even thought about the double entendre here!' I called my manager and said, 'We have to, we have to kill it! Let's stop it because I think I've gone too far.' And he said, '[It's] already on the charts, doll. It's doing really well, we can't stop it.'"

"I'm finding that very often the things you are most afraid of or tentative about doing are the things you need to do," she said. "So I'm very thrilled that I didn't pull it off the charts." 

Some markets did ban it, probably helping it become an even bigger success!

But the video didn't cause as much fuss. In it, Newton-John plays a fitness instructor to a group of out-of-shape men. But when the men transform into sexy Adonises, Newton-John discovers they're not much into women. They all hook up with each other.