Grease (Original 1978 Motion Picture Soundtrack)
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Brand: VARIOUSComposer: Warren Casey
Composer: Jim Jacobs
Composer: Louis St. Louis
Composer: Barry Gibb
Composer: John Farrar
Performer: Sha-Na-Na
Edition: Music CD
Format: Soundtrack
Published: 1991
CD Release Date: 1991-04-16
Music Label: Polydor / Umgd
Product features:
- TESTED
- Grease
- Summer Nights
- Hopelessly Devoted to You
- You're The One That I Want - John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John
- Sandy
- Beauty School Dropout
- Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee
- Greased Lightnin'
- It's Raining on Prom Night
- Alone at a Drive-In Movie [Instrumental]
- Blue Moon
- Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay
- Those Magic Changes
- Hound Dog
- Born to Hand Jive
- Tears on My Pillow
- Mooning
- Freddy, My Love
- Rock & Roll Party Queen
- There Are Worse Things I Could Do
- Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee
- We Go Together
- Love Is a Many Splendored Thing [Instrumental]
- Grease
Music reviews of Grease (Original 1978 Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Music Review: Joyous pop classics with lots of 1950s style pop-rock songs
Rating: 5 Stars
As a child this was one of my favourite movies, having a lot of repeat value to it. Taking out the soundtrack for another spin the other week, I have to say that the music still stands the test of time. In fact, it's probably improved with time, as my focus isn't just on the well known hit songs from the movie. Not sure what I'd make of the movie if I saw it again all these years later...perhaps I'd find the sight of actors in their 30s playing high-school teenagers a bit of a stretch? Anyway, this album is a lot of fun...more songs stand out all these years later to me and I don't mind the more obviously 1950s era songs. This is, after all, a movie about growing up when rock'n'roll was becoming mainstream, and teenagers had their own music to listen to, not the crooners favoured by their parents.
The classics ("//"):
Grease - has a great fanfare introduction with Franki Valli providing his hook laden vocals. Nice guitar melody and I like the female backing vocals too. The lyrics display the sort of wind change in popular culture which arose post World War 2. If Martin Heidegger ever was tempted to write a 3 minute pop ditty, this was it. Barry Gibb wrote this...a new song not on the original stage production.
Summer nights - has a familiar opening melody...mirroring the kind of bass line you find in a lot of songs...e.g. Long John Baldry's version of "You've lost that lovin' feeling". Has delicious alternating and contrasting male/female group singing and harmonies. "He said" "She said" kind of lyrics.
Born to handjive - funky rock'n'roll track sung by Sha-Na-Na. Cool drumming solo parts here. Brassy track. Really builds up a head of steam this track.
We go together - joyous male/female singing and harmonies with some boy scout type lyrical non-sense thrown in for good measure. Features piano, nice'n'bassy...good playing here, brassy at times with a solo. "/~".
Terrific songs:
There are worse things I could do - great lyrics and emoting by Stockard Channing, who has a good quality to her voice...a little punk at times and then a little Broadway. A song with heart and intelligence. Features piano, soulful sax and an organ at the end. Maybe the kind of song I like more as an adult now.
You're the one that I want - I liked this song more as a child, but it's still up there. Funky bass guitar, honky tonk piano and high energy all round. John Travolta does well here, despite not being a singer as such. John and Olivia Newton-John provide the vocal hooks in this song.
Greased lightning - a 'guy' song with some suitably fruity language at times! Half the time you can't understand what Travolta is singing, but that's ok. Cool male backing vocals and a great percussion breakdown.
Beauty school dropout - amusing song with a positive message. Not sure if as a kid I knew that Frankie Valli and Frankie Avalon were two different guys! Avalon sings this song. This is a song with heart and cute female backing vocals. Violins and piano feature...maybe it's a piano type instrument.
Good songs ("~"):
Hopelessly devoted to you - a nice, country style love ballad from Olivia Newton-John. Olivia has a silky smooth voice here and is accompanied by a lead guitar with a country twang to it. A narrative song with emotional inflection to it. Has male backing vocals.
Sandy - a slow tempo narrative song. Pleasant track, with Travolta doing some emoting. Maybe as a child this song wasn't one of my favourites...perhaps I found Travolta too histrionic back then, but now he sounds like he is almost adding punk vowels to his vocals at times. Has symphonic elements at times. Castanets might be used in this track for the percussion, I think.
Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee - the song title references a Hollywood actress who played innocent and wholesome female characters. An amusing song with a swing to it. Stockard Channing again provides a good, distinctive vocal quality to this song and she is really funny with some of her characterisations...e.g. the line where she mentions "Elvis". Has cutesy female backing vocals.
Then ("."):
Tears on my pillow - a Sha-Na-Na track and a good cover of the 1950s do-wop track. Features a churchy sounding organ.
Mooning - liked this song more on second listen. A 1950s style pop ballad with piano and bass. Female vocals at times.
The Sha-Na-Na songs:
These guys were a 1970s male vocal group who revived 1950s style music...do-wop and the like. They have six songs on the album...two of them are covered above. The rest are:
Blue moon - another cover and a good version of the standard. A slow do-wop song with bass, piano, and pronounced baritone vocals (amongst other vocal ranges).
Rock'n'roll is here to stay - the guitar intro reminds me of "The time warp" and later on I'm reminded of "Let's go to the Hop" (um, actually the song title seems to be "At the Hop", according to Wikipedia, who also list Sha-Na-Na as having covered it during Woodstock in 1969). A 1950s style rock'n'roll/do-wop song with an insistent bass rhythm. Features piano too.
Those magic changes - just one guy singing this song in an enunciated way. I like the note picking on the guitar as well as its tone. Some falsetto. Bassy track with a Hammond organ, I think.
Hound dog - a good, faithful cover of the song Elvis Presley made famous. Brassy, with honky tonk piano. Has backing vocals at times and some tough drumming (as did Elvis' version).
The rest:
It's raining on prom night - a nice 1950s style girl group song. Has girly lyrics. Singing is sort of country style at times. I like the guitar note picking on this song and the bass is good too. Has some sax, I think.
Alone at the drive-in movie - instrumental with a country twang to the guitar and some soulful sax. Cymbals for percussion and piano features.
Freddy my love - another innocent 1950s girl group type of song. Backing singers are uncredited. Hmm...the woman in the song seems knowledgeable about the amount of money her love makes.
Rock'n'roll party queen - seems ironic now...this party queen doesn't seem very wild! I'm reminded of Pat Boone doing his version of Little Richard's "Tutti frutti". Same vibe! Features the sax and piano.
Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee (reprise) - a companion piece to the earlier song of the same title, but this time with Olivia Newton-John singing. The track order is different from the movie...in the movie this song is followed by "You're the one that I want" which marks the transformation of Olivia's character Sandy. A genteel track which is just the flipside from the earlier song. Features piano and violin.
Love is a many splendored thing/Grease (reprise) - one of the great memories from the movie is hearing this instrumental (practically) get hit for six by the bold and brassy title track by Franki Valli. On the soundtrack the movie opener closes the album. For the first time you hear the entire instrumental of "Love is a many splendored thing", which is a symphonic track and features the sax, piano and violin. Strictly speaking it's not an instrumental...the song title is sung but it sounds more musical than vocal. This musical square peg in a round hole does, however, serve as a brilliant prologue to the title track...which seems identical to the first instance of this song, although it is labelled as a reprise.
Total running time: 63:49
Release: 1991
Rating: one of the all time great albums.
Description of Grease (Original 1978 Motion Picture Soundtrack)
20th Anniversary Edition of the hit soundtrack featuring all 24 of the original audio tracks, including the hits 'Grease', 'Summer Nights', 'Greased Lightnin'', 'Hopelessly Devoted To You' & 'You're The One That I Want'. 1998 Polydor reissue of the original 1978 album.The movie is a 1970s take on 1950s musicals, providing all the kitsch anyone could hope for. It's John Travolta as Danny Zuko as Olivia Newton-John's pompadoured main squeeze, and the kids go crazy. Fresh from his astronomical success with Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gee Barry Gibb penned the title track (sung by Frankie Valli). Sha Na Na is over-represented, and actress Stockard Channing struts her, um, versatility, singing a couple of tracks. This has become a touchstone in American culture, and so isn't likely to improve our standing in the world's eyes. Maybe the point is that it's supposed to sound amateurish, but it does manage to eke out some fun, most notably on the hit "You're the One That I Want." --Scott Wilson
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