Biography
Born in Brooklyn, Jane Cohen reinvented her identity during the early 1970s downtown Manhattan club circuit, emerging as the French-cabaret stylist Jane Olivor. Her forceful delivery prompted comparisons to Edith Piaf among some observers and to fellow Brooklyn native Barbra Streisand among others, quickly earning her a devoted audience of gay men and other enthusiasts of classic pop. At such rooms as Greenwich Village’s Reno Sweeney’s and the Garment District’s the Ballroom, she recast material including “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific and the Fleetwoods’ 1959 smash “Come Softly to Me” into deeply personal expressions. Columbia Records took notice and issued her debut album, First Night, in 1976. Although the LP itself failed to register on the charts, positive reviews accompanied a belated minor singles-chart appearance by “Some Enchanted Evening” just ahead of the September 1977 arrival of Chasing Rainbows, which climbed into the Top 100 and lingered there for three months. The momentum soon translated into bookings at prominent concert halls nationwide.
Issued in spring 1978, Stay the Night contained another modest chart entry—her reading of the Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine”—that modestly bettered her previous commercial showing. She then partnered with Johnny Mathis on “The Last Time I Felt Like This,” the theme from the 1978 film Same Time Next Year. The duet reached the easy-listening Top 20 and, after earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, was performed by the pair at the Oscars. Olivor was now headlining prestigious stages such as Los Angeles’s Greek Theatre and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Her fourth album, The Best Side of Goodbye, appeared in winter 1980 and became her strongest chart performer to date. In December 1981 she taped concerts at Boston’s Berklee School of Music; those recordings surfaced the following spring as her fifth album, In Concert.
Stage fright, unease over the rapid pace of her ascent, and negative industry encounters prompted what she initially planned as a one-year break. She married, yet her husband soon received a cancer diagnosis; she withdrew from performing to nurse him until his death in 1986. During the same period she entered a financial dispute with Columbia. Olivor did not resume live work until 1993, when she discovered a still-devoted national following. Activity increased gradually, culminating in fall 2000 with the release of Love Decides on Varèse Sarabande Records—her first new studio album in more than two decades. A holiday set, Songs of the Season, followed in fall 2001.
Issued in spring 1978, Stay the Night contained another modest chart entry—her reading of the Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine”—that modestly bettered her previous commercial showing. She then partnered with Johnny Mathis on “The Last Time I Felt Like This,” the theme from the 1978 film Same Time Next Year. The duet reached the easy-listening Top 20 and, after earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, was performed by the pair at the Oscars. Olivor was now headlining prestigious stages such as Los Angeles’s Greek Theatre and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Her fourth album, The Best Side of Goodbye, appeared in winter 1980 and became her strongest chart performer to date. In December 1981 she taped concerts at Boston’s Berklee School of Music; those recordings surfaced the following spring as her fifth album, In Concert.
Stage fright, unease over the rapid pace of her ascent, and negative industry encounters prompted what she initially planned as a one-year break. She married, yet her husband soon received a cancer diagnosis; she withdrew from performing to nurse him until his death in 1986. During the same period she entered a financial dispute with Columbia. Olivor did not resume live work until 1993, when she discovered a still-devoted national following. Activity increased gradually, culminating in fall 2000 with the release of Love Decides on Varèse Sarabande Records—her first new studio album in more than two decades. A holiday set, Songs of the Season, followed in fall 2001.
Albums
