Grease
To songs written in a small Chicago theater to bring back 1950s rock and roll, 1970s Hollywood added disco and pop ballads. The sounds of two eras mingle on a single schoolyard.
At a glance 🔭💭
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The creators ⏳🌊
- ComposerJim Jacobs
He drew on memories of his days at Chicago's Taft High School to write the story and songs of “Grease,” splitting himself between two characters, Doody and Roger.
- ComposerWarren Casey
A doo-wop-loving fellow member of the theater troupe, he wrote the book and music of the musical with Jacobs and died in 1988.
- ComposerBarry Gibb
Late in production, he wrote the title song “Grease,” draping the breath of disco over both ends of the film.
- ComposerJohn Farrar
As Newton-John's producer, he wrote two new songs, “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “You're the One That I Want.”
- DirectorRandal Kleiser
He directed the film as his feature debut.
- LeadOlivia Newton-John
She played Sandy, and through her contract negotiations Sandy was rewritten as a girl from Australia.
I. A song from Chicago
(Departure) Grease is a musical written by two Chicagoans, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The pair met in 1963 as actors in a Chicago theater company. Jacobs, who was writing advertising copy while acting, is said to have grown disillusioned with the rock of the day and started talking about the 1950s rock and roll he had listened to in high school. He then proposed to Casey that they write a musical about that era together. Casey had never been a so-called greaser in his school days (a delinquent teen with slicked-back hair and a leather jacket), but he loved the music of the period, doo-wop above all. (Premiere) The first staging took place in 1971 at Kingston Mines, a Chicago nightclub. The story was modeled on Taft High School, which Jacobs had attended; it was full of coarse profanity, and real Chicago place names cropped up throughout. New York producers polished the work and brought it Off-Broadway in 1972, moving it to Broadway the same year, where it ran for 3,388 performances until 1980. At the time, it was the longest run in Broadway history. (Adaptation) The film version was produced by Robert Stigwood and Allan Carr and directed by Randal Kleiser, making his feature debut. Kleiser had almost no say over the music. The producers scrapped a title song that had already been prepared and, as shooting was nearing its end, handed the new title song to Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. Olivia Newton-John's music producer, John Farrar, also wrote two new songs. And so the film carries Jacobs and Casey's 1950s-style numbers, 1970s pop, and actual hits of the era side by side. The very song from “La Bamba,” covered earlier in this series, fills one of the film's scenes as well.
A song absent from the stage version, it was the title song the producers handed to Barry Gibb at the last minute. By opening a 1950s story with 1970s disco, it declares from the start through which era's eyes the film looks back on the past.
- The song was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and sung by Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons. Apart from this song, Valli had nothing to do with the film.
- Peter Frampton played guitar, and Barry Gibb sang backing vocals, adding harmonies behind the lead. It was recorded separately from the other songs, and later.
- Underneath runs a disco rhythm with the bass drum thumping on every single beat. It is a sound out of step with the film's 1950s school, and that very mismatch reveals the film as a looking-back.
- It plays over the animated title sequence and returns in the end credits, wrapping the film front and back like a frame.
- It spent two weeks at No. 1 on the US Billboard singles chart.
II. After the summer
(The beach) The film opens by the sea. Danny and Sandy, who met over the vacation, are reluctant to say goodbye, while the old film theme “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” plays on strings in the background. It is the sound of 1950s Hollywood melodrama. When this brief passage ends, the screen cuts to the animated titles and Barry Gibb's title song “Grease” begins. It takes only a few seconds for the sentiment of the sea to turn into the pulse of disco. (Back to school) When school opens, the kids move in packs: the T-Birds, the boys' gang Danny belongs to, and the Pink Ladies, the girls' clique led by Rizzo. Sandy, a new transfer student, falls in with the Pink Ladies, still unaware that Danny attends the same school. (Crossed lines) “Summer Nights,” in which the summer stories spill out, shows the grammar of the film's music. The boys in the bleachers and the girls in the cafeteria tell the same summer in different ways. Danny shows off in front of his friends; Sandy remembers it as pure first love. The two are inside a single song, yet neither hears the other's story. The audience knows these crossed lines are about to collide. (Reunion) That moment comes soon enough. Running into Sandy in front of his friends, Danny hides his delight and acts cold. His standing within the gang has won out over the sincerity of summer. Sandy is hurt, and the story's conflict surfaces for the first time.
Over the same summer, Danny brags to his friends while Sandy confesses her innocent devotion. It is a scene in which the two pass each other by, unable to hear each other's story.
- It is a back-and-forth (call and response) structure in which the boys and the girls take turns asking questions and the leads answer. The crowd seems to be egging the leads on.
- With each new verse you hear a modulation (key change), the pitch climbing a step at a time. The more the story is inflated, the more giddy the song becomes.
- The summer Danny describes and the summer Sandy describes are opposite stories set to the same melody. The same tune takes on a different meaning depending on who sings it.
- A Jacobs·Casey song carried over intact from the stage version. It spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the UK singles chart.
- Ben Lanzarone handled the string arrangement separately. The long, sustained high notes the two leads hold in the final passage leave a note of longing.
III. The pajama party and the car
(Mockery) At a pajama party at Frenchy's house, Rizzo sings “Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee.” Sandra Dee was an actress who played wholesome young girls in 1950s Hollywood. Imitating her, Rizzo pokes fun at Sandy's primness. The song sounds cute, but inside it lies the cruelty of teenagers sneering at anyone who doesn't fit in. (Soliloquy) That night Sandy goes out alone into the yard and sings “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” The song was not in the stage version. John Farrar wrote it during filming under a contract that guaranteed Newton-John a solo. Whereas most of Jacobs and Casey's songs are ensembles traded among many voices, this one, like a 1970s pop ballad, draws close to a single person's inner heart. Through it, the film establishes Sandy not as a teased innocent but as a heroine with feelings of her own. (The car) Meanwhile, the T-Birds are fixing up an old jalopy in the school auto shop. “Greased Lightnin'” is a song imagining the car reborn as a dream racing machine. In the stage version it belonged to Danny's friend Kenickie, but in the film Travolta took it over. It is a prime example of the film funneling songs to its two leads. If the girls' songs are sung in front of a mirror, the boys' songs sing of engines, speed, and swagger. (The layout) And so the two groups' songs are set side by side. Sandy belongs to no one, and Danny cannot step outside the pack. The rest of the story is about how the two cross that line.
On the night she is mocked, Sandy steps out alone into the yard and pours out her feelings for Danny. A song absent from the stage version, it at last establishes Sandy as a heroine with feelings of her own.
- John Farrar wrote it during filming because of a contract guaranteeing Newton-John a solo. The yard scene was shot separately after the rest of filming had wrapped.
- It lays the polished sound of 1970s pop over a rhythm that sways in threes (a shuffle-feel 6/8), like the slow ballads of 1950s female singers.
- Behind Sandy's fragile voice, strings and chorus gradually build, swelling a private murmur into a confession.
- It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became a top-three single in the UK.
Standing before an old car, the T-Birds dream of a racing machine. It is a number that captures the boys' bravado and their passion for machines just as they are.
- In the stage version it was Kenickie's song, but in the film Travolta, playing Danny, took it over. It is a prime example of the film funneling songs to its lead.
- Michael Melvoin handled the horn arrangement. Short, punchy repeated phrases (riffs) in the brass drive forward like the roar of an engine.
- Each lead line is followed by the gang shouting back a response like a chant. Inside it is the swagger of feeling big within the pack.
- Because of its lyrics, it couldn't get free play on American radio, and as a result it narrowly missed the US Top 40. In the UK it made the top 20.
IV. Hand jive at the dance
(Attempt) Danny tries joining the athletics team to win Sandy back, but he is clumsy at it. Meanwhile the school dance draws near — the day a televised dance contest is broadcast live from the school gym. The setup is modeled directly on the television dance shows that spread teen culture across 1950s America. (Stage) The dance band is a fictional group called Johnny Casino and the Gamblers, played in reality by Sha Na Na, the group that found fame reviving the music of the 1950s. In this scene Sha Na Na moves between real old hits such as “Blue Moon,” “Hound Dog” and “Tears on My Pillow” and songs by Jacobs·Casey. As the story's era and the actual songs overlap, the gym starts to look like a 1950s ballroom. (Contest) The peak of the dance is “Born to Hand Jive.” The song is built on the hand jive, a dance that rides the rhythm by slapping knees and palms, and the entire gym moves to a single beat. Yet amid all this energy Danny and Sandy drift apart again. Another girl cuts in during the contest, Sandy is left alone, and the livelier the music gets, the deeper her sense of isolation grows. (Dream) Before the dance, a guardian angel appears to Frenchy, who has flunked out of beauty school, and sings “Beauty School Dropout.” The role went to Frankie Avalon, a teen idol of the 1950s. A chorus in white angel robes and slow doo-wop harmonies make up the dream sequence. A song meant to soothe adolescent defeat unfolds as something both ridiculous and grand. Two years later this series' “Fame” would portray a far more direct reality on a school stage, but the school of “Grease” is still a place where dreams and jokes are allowed.
The televised dance contest in the school gym reaches its peak with this song. While the whole gym moves to a single rhythm, Danny and Sandy slip past each other once more.
- The hand jive, with its slapping of palms and knees, was a dance genuinely in vogue in the late 1950s. The song's beat becomes the dance steps themselves.
- The band was played by Sha Na Na, the group that revived the music of the 1950s. In the stage version, the song belonged to Johnny Casino.
- Michael Melvoin's horn arrangement and a piano that stubbornly repeats the same rhythm build the heat as the song stretches on.
- At more than 4 and a half minutes, it is among the longest tracks on the soundtrack — long enough to carry the entire dance-contest scene.
V. Night at the drive-in
(Ring) Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in theater and offers her a ring, hoping to show he is sincere. But once they are alone he moves too fast, and Sandy gets out of the car and leaves. The song Danny sings, left by himself, is “Sandy.” Written new for the film, it has Danny singing in earnest before a screen showing a cartoon hot-dog commercial — a scene both funny and tender. (Underscore) Before and after this scene, the stage number “Alone at a Drive-In Movie” plays as an instrumental. A song that had lyrics on stage becomes background music in the film — a clear example of how the film version pared down the stage numbers. (Rizzo) Around the same time, Rizzo lives with the fear that she may be pregnant. As the rumor spreads her friends turn their backs, and she sings “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” alone. It is a song of self-defense: even if the others brand her a tramp, that is better than hiding her feelings or hurting someone else. It is the most grown-up song in the film. Rizzo, who has been nothing but cynical until now, reveals what is inside her for the first time. (Race) The story moves on to a car race in the concrete channel of the Los Angeles River. Danny takes the wheel in place of the injured Kenickie, and the car they dreamed of in song at the garage actually runs. Engine noise and shouting fill this stretch instead of song. It is a rare scene in which the film stops its music for a moment and builds tension through speed and noise alone.
Rizzo, pointed at by her friends, defends herself alone. It is the song in which a character steeped in cynicism lets her inner self show for the first time.
- Stockard Channing insisted the song had to stay in the film, and in the end it went in as it was. Given how many stage numbers were cut from the film version, that was unusual.
- The accompaniment is restrained, and the singing begins low, almost spoken. Then at the end the feeling bursts out — and because it is the voice of the same character who mocked Sandy at the pajama party, it lands all the heavier.
- If most of the film's songs are about winning love, this one is about pride and self-respect. That is why it sounds the most grown-up.
- Channing was thirty-three at the time, the oldest of the actors playing high schoolers. The maturity in the song seems to touch that age.
VI. Last day of the carnival
(Resolve) Having watched the race from a distance, Sandy falls into thought and quietly sings again “Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee,” the song she was teased with at the pajama party. In Rizzo's mouth the same melody was mockery; when Sandy sings it, it becomes a monologue of self-reflection. At the end of this repetition, Sandy makes a decision. What that decision is, it's best to see on screen. (Graduation) On graduation day a carnival fills the school grounds with rides and stalls. Danny, too, shows signs of having tried to change in his own way. Just as the two are about to cross over to each other, the film's most famous song begins. (Duet) “You're the One That I Want” is the second song John Farrar wrote for the film. Released as a single ahead of the film, it went straight to the top of the charts and held No. 1 in Britain for 9 weeks. The two who told different stories in “Summer Nights” now trade the same words on the same beat. The crossed paths of the film's opening are resolved this way at the end. (Afterglow) The final number, “We Go Together,” is again by Jacobs and Casey. The whole student body sings it together, gleefully stringing out the nonsense syllables of 1950s doo-wop. The story of two lovers widens into the story of the entire crowd. The film's last scene crosses the line between reality and fantasy, and the music doesn't explain the moment but pushes on like a carnival. The theme song heard again over the end credits reminds us that all of it, from the start, was the 1950s seen through the eyes of the 1970s.
On the last day of the carnival, the two sing this duet, standing on the same beat for the first time. The crossed paths that began in “Summer Nights” are resolved here.
- John Farrar wrote it for the film. Released as a single before the film opened, it went straight to No. 1, and in Britain it held the top spot for 9 weeks.
- It opens with a bass that plucks a single note in clipped jabs and a thumping drum, so the body reacts before anything else. This is not an imitation of the 1950s but the sound of 1970s pop.
- The two trade lines one at a time, then merge into a single voice in the chorus. The distance between two people who sang separately early in the film narrows through the song's very structure.
- What Sandy shows in this scene is the point on which interpretations of the film's ending most sharply divide. The music passes no judgment on that change and carries it through to the end in a giddy mood.
Lesser-known stories
At its Chicago premiere in 1971, “Grease” was quite different from the work known today. The profanity was rougher, real Chicago place names cropped up everywhere, and the song list was shorter. There were songs like “Foster Beach,” named after a beach on Chicago's lakeshore. The characters were originally children of Polish American working-class families, but in later versions their surnames changed and that background was mostly erased. Jacobs recalled that when the show moved to New York, he was told to make the characters lovable rather than frightening. The “Grease” the public knows is this softened version. In the film, Rizzo's “Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee” originally contained a reference to the actor Sal Mineo. When Mineo died a year before filming, that spot was changed to Elvis Presley. But the day this scene was shot was August 16, 1977 — the very day Presley died. Presley had at one point even been floated as a candidate for the dream guardian angel. Director Kleiser had almost no say over the music. There was originally a theme song written by Charles Fox and Paul Williams, but producers Stigwood and Carr rejected it and, at the last minute, handed a new song to Barry Gibb. The disco at the film's opening was, in effect, the producers' call rather than the director's vision. The songs on the album were recorded in sessions separate from the shoot, so they don't match the mouths on screen exactly. Stage numbers dropped from the film, such as “Freddy, My Love,” were sung on the album by session singers like Cindy Bullens and Louis St. Louis. The soundtrack album is therefore less a record of the film than yet another version, poised between the stage and the screen.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Number
(In film and musical-theater music) In a musical, each individual song is called a number. The term comes from the practice of numbering each song in the show's program to set out the running order. A number is not just a song for catching a breath; it is a scene that reveals a character's heart or pushes the story a step forward. Just as a school-show program lists No. 1 chorus, No. 2 play, No. 3 dance, a musical assigns each song a number to fix its place in the order. (Elsewhere) In everyday use, number simply means a figure or a numeral.
Reprise
(Meaning) The English reprise comes from the French reprendre, “to take up again” — to pick up once more something that came before. (In film and musical-theater music) It means singing a song heard earlier again at a different point in the story. Even the same melody takes on a different meaning when the singer or the situation changes. In “Grease,” the moment when Sandy sings alone the song Rizzo had sung to mock her is a reprise. It is like humming, quietly and alone on the day your team loses, the fight song a friend once sang as a joke — the same song, yet it sounds entirely different.
Doo-wop
(Meaning) Doo-wop is not a word with a meaning but a name taken straight from the sounds made while singing. It came from backup singers repeating sounds like doo, wop and shoobidoo as they filled in the harmony. (In film and musical-theater music) A style of singing that grew up on the street corners of American cities in the 1950s: one lead singer carries the tune while the rest support the harmony from behind with meaningless syllables. Even without instruments, voices alone create the accompaniment. It was music especially dear to Warren Casey, the composer of “Grease,” and its traces run thick through the final number, “We Go Together.” Doo-wop resembles the game of a few friends gathering, one singing while the others keep the accompaniment with mouth sounds like boom-boom and clap-clap.
Call and response
(Meaning) In English, call means to summon and response means to answer. The idea that one side calls and the other answers is built right into the name. (In film and musical-theater music) A method in which one person or group sings a phrase first and another side picks it up and continues, as if replying. It began in African American work songs and church music and carried on into the blues and rock and roll. The structure of “Summer Nights,” in which the friends ask and Danny and Sandy answer, follows this method. When cheering, one side shouts “Our class!” and the other answers “The best!” — that is call and response.
Modulation
(Meaning) Jeonjo (轉調) means a melodic frame (調) that is turned and moved (轉). It refers to shifting the pitch position on which a song is grounded to a different place. (In film and musical-theater music) Changing, partway through a song, its grounding pitch — that is, the tonal center of the piece. When the same melody is sung a step higher, the listener suddenly feels the mood brighten or the tension rise. Pop music often uses this device in the final chorus. If you've ever felt the atmosphere change completely when someone at karaoke bumps the key up a notch just before the last chorus, that is modulation.
Riff
(In film and musical-theater music) A short melodic or rhythmic fragment repeated over and over to serve as a song's backbone is called a riff. It is usually taken by guitar, horns or bass, and once heard it sticks in the ear and becomes the sound that represents the song. The short, punchy phrase the brass repeat in “Greased Lightnin'” is an example. Just as the beat falls into place on its own when you keep repeating a rhythm your body knows — one beat, two beats — while jumping rope, a riff drives the whole song forward through repetition. (Elsewhere) In comedy, a riff can also mean an improvised run of jokes or wordplay.
Disco
(Meaning) Disco is short for discothèque — a club where people dance to records — a word derived from the French disque, meaning record. (In film and musical-theater music) A dance music hugely popular in the 1970s, marked by a bass drum that thumps on every single beat and lavish ornamentation from strings and horns. The film “Saturday Night Fever,” scored by the Bee Gees, led the disco boom, and that same year Barry Gibb wrote the theme song for “Grease” in this style too. Like the count everyone keeps in gym class, the beat sounds evenly and without pause, making it music anyone can easily move to.