1980 · Behind the Songs
A ballad from the Xanadu soundtrack that never needed a single release.
The Xanadu soundtrack of 1980 is remembered for its big singles — Olivia Newton-John’s “Magic,” a four-week American number one, and the Electric Light Orchestra’s exuberant title track. But the album’s emotional center is a song that was never released as a single: “Suspended in Time,” a lush ballad sung by Newton-John and written and produced by John Farrar.
In the film — a fantasy musical co-starring Gene Kelly in his final film role — the song underscores the love story at the heart of the tale. Farrar gives it a sweeping, almost classical arrangement, and Newton-John sings it with a stillness that sets it apart from the roller-disco energy around it. It is one of the purest vocal performances on the record.
Xanadu the film was a box-office disappointment; Xanadu the soundtrack was not — it went double platinum in the United States and kept selling for years. “Suspended in Time” is the deep cut that fans of the album return to, proof that the record had more on its mind than neon and roller skates.