Clearly Love

Reception

The album's peak of number 12 in the US was also something of a disappointment, considering that Newton-John's previous two albums, If You Love Me, Let Me Know and Have You Never Been Mellow, had both reached number 1. Nevertheless, the album did earn a Gold certification, and both of the album's singles were Top 20 country chart hits, with "Something Better to Do" reaching number 19 and "Let It Shine" (written by Nashville songwriter Linda Hargrove) reaching 5. In the United Kingdom it was a different story, as neither the album nor its singles charted at all there. The market in which the album was most successful in terms of chart position was the Netherlands, where it went to number one. Clearly Love also did well in Japan, reaching number 3 on the Oricon Albums Chart.

Singles

"Something Better to Do" and "He Ain't Heavy...He's My Brother" were released as singles from the album, with the latter single (in the US) featuring Newton-John's version of "Let It Shine" as its B-side, and the former topping the charts in the Netherlands. This song became popular on country music stations, hitting the top 10 on the Country chart. Both singles were number 1 Adult Contemporary chart hits in the United States, but performed comparatively poorly on the Billboard Hot 100 at numbers 13 and 30 respectively, the beginning of a decline at Newton-John's popularity at Top 40 radio in the US that would not be reversed until her starring role in the movie musical Grease in 1978.