| Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by John Travolta / Olivia Newton-John / Various artists | ||||
| Released | April 1978[1] | |||
| Recorded | 1977 | |||
| Genre | Pop, rock and roll | |||
| Length | 61:14 | |||
| Label | RSO, Polydor | |||
| Producer | Louis St. Louis John Farrar Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson |
|||
| Olivia Newton-John chronology | ||||
|
||||
Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 1978 film Grease released by Polydor Records. The song "You're the One That I Want" was a US and UK #1 for stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. To date, it has sold over 28 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth best-selling soundtrack album of all time.[2]
Contents |
The soundtrack was released in April 1978, two months ahead of the film's release.[1] The cover gives credit to, and prominently features, the two stars of the film - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John - although they only appear on seven of the 24 tracks. The remainder of the album is sung by various cast members and Sha Na Na - a group who performed many of the 1950s numbers in the film. The title track was recorded by Frankie Valli, who had no other connection with the film.
The most successful songs from the soundtrack were written specifically for the film. They included the Billboard number-one hits "You're the One That I Want", "Grease" and the number-three, Academy Award-nominated "Hopelessly Devoted to You".[3] In the UK, the album proved even more successful where "You're the One That I Want" reached No.1 for nine weeks, "Summer Nights" reached No.1 for seven weeks, while "Grease", "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Sandy" all became top three hits.[4][5][6][7] The soundtrack album hit the top of the charts in the U.S. during the summer of 1978, replacing The Rolling Stones' Some Girls. In the UK, it remained at the top of the charts for 13 consecutive weeks.[8]
Two of the bass players who recorded on the Grease soundtrack were (at different times) members of Toto. One of these, David Hungate, also performed on Olivia Newton-John's album Totally Hot with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather. Other musicians here have previously worked with Elton John, Steely Dan, The Bee-Gees and others.
The album sold 28 million copies worldwide.[2]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [9] |
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic rated the soundtrack four-and-a-half stars. He stated that "the originals hold up better than the '50s tunes", but that they "are so giddily enjoyable" "that everything works." He also said that "the sleek pop production the movie's soundtrack boasts and the cast's enthusiastic performances go a long way in making this Grease the definitive Grease."[9]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Grease" | Barry Gibb | Frankie Valli | 3:24 |
| 2. | "Summer Nights" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 3:35 |
| 3. | "Hopelessly Devoted to You" | John Farrar | Olivia Newton-John | 3:04 |
| 4. | "You're the One That I Want" | John Farrar | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 2:48 |
| 5. | "Sandy" | Louis St. Louis and Scott Simon | John Travolta | 2:31 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Beauty School Dropout" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Frankie Avalon | 3:59 |
| 7. | "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, Dinah Manoff and Jamie Donnelly | 1:40 |
| 8. | "Greased Lightnin'" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | John Travolta | 3:13 |
| 9. | "It's Raining on Prom Night" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Cindy Bullens | 2:51 |
| 10. | "Alone at the Drive-in Movie" (instrumental) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | -- | 2:24 |
| 11. | "Blue Moon" | Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart | Sha-Na-Na | 2:18 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Rock n' Roll Is Here to Stay" | D. White | Sha-Na-Na | 2:03 |
| 13. | "Those Magic Changes" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Sha-Na-Na | 2:18 |
| 14. | "Hound Dog" | Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | Sha-Na-Na | 1:24 |
| 15. | "Born to Hand Jive" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Sha-Na-Na | 4:37 |
| 16. | "Tears on My Pillow" | Sylvester Bradford and Al Lewis | Sha-Na-Na | 2:02 |
| 17. | "Mooning" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Louis St. Louis and Cindy Bullens | 4:37 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18. | "Freddy, My Love" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Cindy Bullens | 4:37 |
| 19. | "Rock n' Roll Party Queen" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Louis St. Louis | 2:11 |
| 20. | "There Are Worse Things I Could Do" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Stockard Channing | 2:22 |
| 21. | "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" (reprise) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | Olivia Newton-John | 1:28 |
| 22. | "We Go Together" | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 3:00 |
| 23. | "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" (instrumental) | Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster | — | 1:23 |
| 24. | "Grease" (reprise) | Barry Gibb | Frankie Valli | 4:37 |
The CD of the soundtrack has been released twice in the US. In April 1991 it was released as a single disc replicating the sequence of the original 1978 LP. In September 2003 it was released by PolyGram as a 2-CD digitally-remastered "Deluxe Edition" containing additional tracks. As with the LP and single-disc CD, the songs are not presented in the order replicating their appearances in the movie.
| Deluxe edition bonus disc | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Vocals | Length | |||||
| 1. | "Grease" (Instrumental version) | Barry Gibb | Gary Brown, saxophone | 3:23 | |||||
| 2. | "Summer Nights" (Sing-a-long version) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | – | 3:34 | |||||
| 3. | "Hopelessly Devoted to You" (Sing-a-long version) | John Farrar | – | 3:03 | |||||
| 4. | "You're the One I Want" (Sing-a-long version) | John Farrar | – | 2:32 | |||||
| 5. | "Sandy" (Sing-a-long version) | Louis St. Louis and Scott Simon | – | 2:30 | |||||
| 6. | "Greased Lightnin'" (Single version) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | John Travolta | 3:20 | |||||
| 7. | "Rydell Fight Song" (Previously unreleased instrumental) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | – | 0:20 | |||||
| 8. | "Greased Up and Ready to Go" (Previously unreleased instrumental) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | – | 4:49 | |||||
| 9. | "Grease Megamix" ("You're the One That I Want" /"Greased Lightnin'" /"Summer Nights") | John Farrar / Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 4:48 | |||||
| 10. | "Grease Dream Mix" ("Grease" /"Sandy" /"Hopelessly Devoted to You") | Barry Gibb / Louis St. Louis and Scott Simon / John Farrar | Frankie Valli, John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John | 3:45 | |||||
| 11. | "Summer Nights" (Martian remix) | Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 3:37 | |||||
| 12. | "You're the One That I Want" (Martian remix) | John Farrar | John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John | 3:25 | |||||
|
|
| Release date | Single title | US | UK |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1978 | "Grease" | 1 | 3 |
| May 1978 | "You're the One That I Want" | 1 | 1 |
| August 1978 | "Summer Nights" | 5 | 1 |
| September 1978 | "Hopelessly Devoted to You" | 3 | 2 |
| September 1978 | "Sandy" | 2[13] | |
| November 1978 | "Greased Lightnin'" | 47 | 11[13] |
| Preceded by Some Girls by The Rolling Stones |
Billboard 200 number-one album July 29 - September 15, 1978 September 23 - October 6, 1978 October 14 - November 3, 1978 |
Succeeded by Don't Look Back by Boston |
| Preceded by Bat out of Hell by Meat Loaf |
Australian Kent Music Report number-one album August 14 - October 1, 1978 November 20 - December 3, 1978 June 30 - July 20, 1991 August 16 - August 22, 1998 |
Succeeded by War of the Worlds by Various artists |
| Preceded by Nightflight to Venus by Boney M |
UK Albums Chart number-one album 7 October - 30 December 1978 |
Succeeded by Greatest Hits by Showaddywaddy |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||