In June of 1978, the Rydell High Senior Class of '59 hand-jived, sang, and drag-raced their way onto the big screen as Grease hit theaters. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John brought superb vibrancy to their characters, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson as the socially mismatched pair feuded and flirted with each other throughout the entire movie.
I can say that now. But when I first saw Grease, I was 8 years old and with my buddy Noel and his brother when their mom took the three of us to the show. The film was R-Rated, and I'm not sure how awkward Noel's mom felt as some of the song lyrics came booming at us from high-fidelity theater speakers. She shouldn't have been worried. To 8-year-old me, the movie was a lot of adult jibber jabber interspersed with really rad car scenes.
In the intervening years, multiple deep dives have been done on the movie and some factoids include the following:
- It was almost a very different movie because the iconic couple was nearly played by different actors.
- Henry Winkler turned down the role of Danny Zuko for fear of being typecast as the perennial "Fonz".
- The role of Sandy was teed up for Marie Osmond, but she turned down the role because she disagreed with the character's transformation at the end of the film.
- The song, "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee", sung by Stockard Channing, references Elvis Presley. The day the scene was filmed, 16 August 1977, was the day Elvis died.
- Speaking of Stockard Channing, her character Rizzo's hickeys were real, compliments of her onscreen beau.
- Despite being panned by critics, on a slim budget of $6 million, the film nearly cleared $400, making it one of the highest-grossing musicals of all time.
- The skin-tight pants worn by Sandy in the finale personally belonged to Olivia Newton-John. She had to be sewn into them when the zipper broke.
I'm not gonna lie, Sandy's final form at the end of the movie was enough to pique even a clueless kid's interest. And the song during the school carnival finale is just incredibly fun. Don't tell Andrea, but it's the one I'd belt out if someone put a gun to my head and said, "Gimme a show tune or I'll blast ya."
By the time she'd done Grease, she was already established as a pop-country artist with a Grammy under her belt. I remember one visit to an aunt and uncle just a few years after seeing the move. They had a collection of vinyl I was sifting through, and amongst all the Engelbert Humperdinck and Montovani was a stash of Olivia's records. I played her entire discography in one sitting, all the while gazing at this "girl next door" beauty from Down-Under. With no disrespect to Nicole Kidman, I still think Olivia Newton-John is the prettiest thing to come out of Australia.
Her loss a few weeks ago was jarring. The day of, Andrea and I played through video highlights of her career. Rather, Andrea was with me as I cycled through my favorite songs of hers. While "I Honestly Love You" is a personal favorite, this is the absolute obvious choice for Rock-tober:
"You're the One That I Want" - Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta
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