"Twist of Fate" is a song recorded by British-Australian singer

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Awards, Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one s ...

for the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

to the 1983 film '' Two of a Kind''. Written by

Peter Beckett Peter Beckett (born 10 August 1948) is an English musician and songwriter who has written songs for many prominent recording artists, his own bands and solo work, and for several films. He is likely best known as the lead singer and guitarist ...

and

Steve Kipner Stephen Alan Kipner (born 1950) is an American-born Australian songwriter and record producer, with hits spanning a 40-year period, including chart-topping songs such as Olivia Newton-John's "Physical", Natasha Bedingfield's "These Words", an ...

, and produced by

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian musician, composer, arranger, record producer and music executive who chaired Verve Records from 2012 to 2016. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His music career spans mor ...

, the song was released as the first single from the album on 21 October 1983, and reached number four in Australia and Canada. It reached its peak position of number five on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in January 1984, becoming Newton-John's last top-ten single on the chart. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

'' magazine ranked "Twist of Fate" as the 42nd most popular single of 1984. Due to its loud synthesizer-rock-oriented sound, "Twist of Fate" did not make it to the ''Billboard''

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

chart. However, its

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

, "Take a Chance" (a duet with her ''Two of a Kind'' co-star,

John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom '' Welcome Back, Kotter'' (1975–1979) and starring in the box office successes '' Carrie'' ( ...

) did reach the Adult Contemporary chart and became a hit, peaking at number three. Its accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

was nominated for Best Video, Short Form at the

27th Annual Grammy Awards The 27th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 26, 1985, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live in the United States by CBS. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1984. Award winners Record of th ...

, but lost to

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's ''

Jazzin' for Blue Jean ''Jazzin' for Blue Jean'' is a 21-minute short film featuring David Bowie and directed by Julien Temple. It was created to promote Bowie's single " Blue Jean" in 1984 and released as a video single. The film won the 1985 Grammy Award for " Best ...

''. In 2017, the song was featured in the second season of the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

series ''

Stranger Things ''Stranger Things'' is an American science fiction horror drama television series created by the Duffer Brothers, who also serve as showrunners and are executive producers along with Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen. Produced by Monkey Massacre Prod ...

'' and included on the soundtrack album, '' Stranger Things: Music from the Netflix Original Series''. The album was nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media at the

61st Annual Grammy Awards The 61st Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held on February 10, 2019, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Singer-songwriter Alicia Keys hosted. During her opening monologue, Keys brought out Lady Gaga, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jennifer Lopez, and ...

Track listing and formats

All tracks produced by

except "Coolin' Down" and "Jolene", produced by

John Farrar John Clifford Farrar ( ; born 8 November 1946) is an Australian music producer, songwriter, arranger, singer, and guitarist. As a musician, Farrar is a former member of several rock and roll groups including The Mustangs (1963–64), The Stra ...

. *Australian 7-inch vinyl single (Interfusion Records) #"Twist of Fate" (Beckett, Kipner) – 3:39 #"Coolin' Down" (Farrar)– 3:57 *UK 7-inch vinyl single (

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

)’’’ #"Twist of Fate" #" Jolene" (

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

) *US/Canadian 7-inch vinyl single (

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

) #"Twist of Fate" – 3:39 #"Take a Chance" (with

) (Foster, Steve Lukather, Olivia Newton-John) – 4:05 *US 12-inch vinyl single – Promo Only (MCA Records)’’’ #"Twist of Fate (Extended Version)" – 5:18 #"Twist of Fate" – 3:39

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{Authority control 1983 songs 1984 singles Olivia Newton-John songs Song recordings produced by David Foster Songs written by Steve Kipner MCA Records singles Songs written by Peter Beckett