Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1978
Grease (song)
Buy Grease (song) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'Grease'" is a song written by Barry Gibb and performed by Frankie Valli as the title song for the 1978 musical motion picture 'Grease', which was based on the 1971 stage play of the same name. Valli released the song, which celebrates the greaser lifestyle, as a single in May 1978; it sold over seven million copies worldwide and appeared twice on the film's soundtrack, first as the opening track and again as the closing track. "Grease" was one of four songs written specifically for the film that had not been in the stage production.
Background
Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey had written a different title track for 'Grease' for its original Chicago production, but the song was discarded when the show was picked up on Broadway. Barry Gibb was commissioned to compose a new title song for Robert Stigwood's film of the stage musical.
Production
The song was recorded separately from, and later than, the rest of those in the film. Shortly after the filming of the 1978 musical 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band', Gibb invited cast-mate Peter Frampton to play guitar on the 'Grease' session, while also providing backing vocals himself. The other musicians were some of those from the Andy Gibb album that was being made around the same time. Frankie Valli was approached to provide the vocals, due to his vocal range being similar to that of Barry Gibb, and his status as a popular singer from the pre-British Invasion era that 'Grease' represented. Gibb had a long-standing respect for Valli as "one of the hallmark voices of our generation". Valli accepted, despite suffering from severe otosclerosis and loss of hearing at the time. When Valli recorded "Grease", he did not have a recording contract, having been contracted to Private Stock Records which had folded earlier in 1978. After the single was released on the RSO label, which also issued the soundtrack, Valli quickly landed a deal with Warner Bros., which had Valli's group The Four Seasons under contract at the time.
"Grease" was one of four songs in the film that had not been part of the original musical, and it was the only one not performed by the cast. The film's director, Randal Kleiser, did not like the added songs because they did not fit the late-1950s/early 1960s style either musically or lyrically, and Kleiser had planned on a different composition by Charles Fox and Paul Williams (Fox having written the theme from 'Happy Days') before being overruled by the producers. The anachronism was especially true of "Grease", which used disco instrumentation and a contemporary 1970s beat but was, nonetheless, left in.
The film's opening title sequence animation was created by animator John David Wilson's Fine Arts Films studio.
Reception
"Grease" became a number-one single in the United States in 1978 and also reached number forty on the R&B charts in the same year. Later in 1978, Valli released a follow-up album, the title of which'Frankie Valli... Is the Word'echoes the "grease is the word" lyric contained in the chorus of "Grease". "Grease" was Valli's final Top 40 hit.
The Bee Gees never recorded a studio version of this song; however, they later performed the song in their 'One Night Only' tour from 1997 until 1999 and included a performance with Valli on their live album, 'One Night Only' (September 1998).
Personnel
*Frankie Valli lead vocals
*Barry Gibb backing vocals
*Peter Frampton guitar
*George Terry guitar
*Harold Cowart bass
*Ron Ziegler drums
*Karl Richardson engineer
*[https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/garybrown Gary Brown] saxophone
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Cover versions
* Craig McLachlan covered the song in 1993 and it reached #44 in the UK.
*Girls Aloud covered the song in 2003 as part of Greasemania.
References
Category:Songs about teenagers
Category:Songs about youth subcultures
Category:1978 singles
Category:1978 songs
Category:1993 singles
Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Category:Cashbox number-one singles
Category:Craig McLachlan songs
Category:Disco songs
Category:Frankie Valli songs
Category:Funk rock songs
Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Category:RSO Records singles
Category:Song recordings produced by Albhy Galuten
Category:Song recordings produced by Barry Gibb
Category:Songs from Grease (film)
Category:Songs from Grease (musical)
Category:Songs written by Barry Gibb
Category:Songs written for films
Category:Film theme songs
Buy Grease (song) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1978