![]() ![]() It’s a disco number, of all things, written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and sung by Frankie Valli. Michael Portantiereįilm Soundtrack, 1978 (Polydor) (1 / 5) The first cut on this album, a new title song (there was none in the stage show), cues you into the silly, anachronistic style of the film version of Grease. Among the other standouts in the cast are Katie Hanley, Walter Bobbie, and Kathi Moss. Barry Bostwick is terrific as lead greaser Danny, and Carole Demas sounds just right as Danny’s sweet girlfriend, Sandy. Adrienne Barbeau gives the song a moving, well sung performance. The score does contain one serious number, and it’s a good one: “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” sung by Rizzo, whose outward toughness masks her vulnerability. (Example, from “Freddy, My Love”: “I treasure every giftie / The ring was really nifty / You said it cost you fifty / So you’re thrifty / I don’t mind.”) Other highlights include “Summer Nights,” which amusingly presents a boy’s and a girl’s different descriptions of their summer romance the infectious “Magic Changes,” sung by a kid who’s thrown himself wholeheartedly into guitar lessons “It’s Raining on Prom Night,” an oddly touching, funny lament over a lost high-school love (sample lyric: “I don’t even have my corsage, oh gee / It fell down a sewer with my sister’s I.D.”) and “We Go Together,” a bouncy anthem of teenage unity. ![]() The melodies, rhythms, harmonies, and arrangements of the songs are clever knockoffs of popular ’50s hits, very catchy and buoyed by some clever lyrics. ![]() With book, music, and lyrics by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, Grease skillfully walks the line between parody and hommage. ![]() The original Broadway production was the long-run champ for a time, racking up 3,338 performances before it closed in 1980. As first seen Off-Broadway and then on Broadway after a run in Chicago, the show was an affectionate little musical about the teenage lifestyle of the late 1950s - when rock and roll was aborning, the cool boys sported heavily gelled hair and motorcycle jackets, and their girls favored beehive hairdos and pedal pushers. Original Broadway Cast, 1972 (MGM/Polydor) (4 / 5) Those who know Grease only from its inexplicably popular, sophomoric film version or the pumped-up, wrongheaded 1994 Broadway revisal will be surprised the first time they hear this album. ![]()
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