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Saturday, 19 July 2014

Soundtrack Saturday: Grease (1978)

Image: knebworthhouse.com
Summer is pretty much here in the UK - with glorious sunshine all of this week (we'll ignore the thunderstorms for now). Schools are breaking up for holidays and all of this reminds me of the great summer musical classic - Grease. Let's revisit and groove to this much loved soundtrack.

This is one of the first film musicals I watched avidly growing up, wishing for a 'Pink Ladies' jacket and pining after John Travolta! The soundtrack is one of the most popular ever. To date the album has sold a staggering 40 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling soundtrack album of all time. In the UK, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had a number one for an incredible nine weeks with You're the One That I Want:


This song only took an afternoon to film and those tight leather trousers Newton-John wears? She was sewn into them after the zipper broke. She looks fab-u-lous (as you can tell from Danny's reaction).

Summer Nights has to be the best big sing-a-long, especially at the end with Travolta's ridiculous falsetto. Let's face it, we've all tried and failed at that part! 



Possibly my favourite sequence in the movie is Greased Lightnin'. 
You can't help but do the infamous dance moves to the chorus:



Other highlights include the solo songs There Are Worst Things I Could Do sung by Rizzo and Danny's song at the drive-in, Sandy. Although I'm not a huge fan of this song, Sandy's Hopelessly Devoted to You was nominated for an Academy Award. It was written and recorded after the movie had wrapped as producers felt the film needed a strong ballad.



As well as romantic ballads, Grease has two hilarious comedic songs. Rizzo's bitchy Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee and Frenchy's Beauty School Dropout sung by Frankie Avalon. Did you know that Elvis Presley was offered the role of the Guardian Angel in the dream sequence? Also if you take a look below, the scene actually features Patty, Rizzo, Marty and Jan, along with the three T-Bird counterparts right at the end: 



We Go Together is the perfect summer soundtrack tune as the T-Birds and Pink Ladies graduate from high school. Celebrating at the carnival, the entire cast have a big musical rock out. However, I never understand why that car has to fly at the end. Sandy's face is ridiculous, but I guess you can get away with anything cheesy in a musical!



Available on Spotify? Yes

Best track? I haven't mentioned the fantastic title song, Grease, written by Robin Gibb and sung by Frankie Valli. But if I had to pick one of the top tracks, I'd go for Summer Nights.


Do you agree? 

What's your favourite Grease track?

Let me know in the comments below or tweet @TicketStubBlog



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