\u201cGrease is the word, is the word that you heard\/It\u2019s got a groove, it\u2019s got a meaningGrease is the time, is the place, is the motion\/Grease is the way we are feeling\u201d<\/p>\n
The title track to the 1978 film Grease, starring John Travolta<\/a> and Olivia Newton-John<\/a>, brought three generations together and hit number 1 on the Billboard Charts<\/a>. The song is based on a movie about teenagers in the \u201850s, sung by a legend from the \u201860s and written by one of the biggest hitmakers of the \u201870s. In other words, there was almost no one alive at the time who didn\u2019t love Grease!<\/p>\n (And did you know that Grease was a Broadway musical<\/a> years before the film? The story and songs, in many instances, are wildly different between the two, however.)<\/p>\n Grease was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees<\/a> but sung by doo-wop legend Frankie Valli<\/a>. Although the Bee Gees toured in the late \u201870s and made a comeback in the \u201990s, they never played the song live until 1997 when it was part of their \u201cOne Night Only\u201d concert and album featuring many of their biggest hits.<\/p>\n What\u2019s impressive about the song is that even though Valli does a great job singing it on the original recording, when you hear the Bee Gees sing it, it sounds exactly like something you would have heard them perform in the late \u201870s.<\/p>\n During the performance, Barry Gibb points to Grease star Olivia Newton-John, who\u2019s seen dancing with her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi in the audience (Newton-John passed away in August 2022).<\/p>\n In the third verse, Valli\u2019s vocal from the original is played so you can hear the difference.<\/p>\n The magic started when producer Robert Stigwood, fresh from the Travolta-starring \u201877 hit Saturday Night Fever<\/a>, went into production on a film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease. The film promised a killer soundtrack filled with new versions of the classic show tunes, but it needed a song for the film\u2019s opening credits.<\/p>\n So, Stigwood tapped Barry Gibb, lead singer of the Bee Gees, the band that had just launched into the stratosphere after being featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Stigwood also happened to be the band\u2019s manager and planned to feature them in a Beatles-based musical, Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band.<\/p>\n Legend has it that Barry wrote the song \u201cGrease\u201d in one day. Instead of sounding like a \u201950s doo-wop or rockabilly track, it was a slick-sounding disco-adjacent number about a feeling of generational confusion. The song was given to Valli, who\u2019d had a recent comeback with the songs \u201cMy Eyes Adored You\u201d (1975) and the 1976 nostalgia-dazed Four Seasons doo-wop disco number \u201cDecember 1963 (Oh, What A Night)<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Valli had the option of recording the song or appearing as the Teen Angel who sings \u201cBeauty School Drop-Out.\u201d The \u201cWalk Like a Man\u201d singer opted to do the theme song and Frankie Avalon was given the Teen Angel role.<\/p>\n \u201cI just remember that it all happened in one afternoon,\u201d Barry Gibb recalled.<\/a> \u201cI was babysitting and my wife was out. And Robert Stigwood called up and said, \u2018I have two wonderful new songs by John Farrar called \u2018Hopelessly Devoted to You\u2019 and \u2018You\u2019re the One that I Want.\u2019 But we don\u2019t have a song for the film\u2019s title. Could you come up with a song called \u2018Grease\u2019?\u201d I said, \u201cHow do you write a song called \u2018Grease\u2019? I don\u2019t understand what direction I would take to do that.\u2019 And Robert said, \u2018Just Grease duh-duh-duh-duh-duh, Grease duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.\u2019 So he wasn\u2019t very helpful. But I understood that they really wanted something that was positive and sunny. It really all happened in that afternoon. I walked on the dock for a bit\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the feature film version of the musical is known for its upbeat and optimistic music when compared to the slightly darker tones of the stage musical.<\/p>\n Grease was a box-office smash<\/a> and became the highest-grossing film of 1978. Unfortunately for Stigwood, his follow-up film, Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring the Bee Gees, would be one of the biggest flops<\/a> of the decade.<\/p>\n To celebrate the 40th anniversary of \u201cGrease\u201d in 2018, Barry Gibb released the demo he originally recorded of the song accompanied by piano. Take a listen and chill out for a few minutes.<\/p>\n This story originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.<\/p>\n The post 19 years after writing it, the Bee Gees finally performed \u2018Grease\u2019 for the first time ever<\/a> appeared first on Upworthy<\/a>.<\/p>\n