![]() And we also had a manager at the time who was one of the producers of the movie,” says Valli, who was already “pretty familiar” with the original Broadway score of Grease. “I was a big Big Gees fan, and they were big Four Seasons fans. 1 single on the Hot 100-he recruited doo-wop legend Frankie Valli to perform it. While Gibb wrote and produced the song-another No. But the reins for the title track-the fourth tune composed specifically for the movie-went to Barry Gibb, who was riding high on the success of another soundtrack, 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, with the Bee Gees. I was thrilled with the way it turned out.”įarrar also produced Travolta on “Sandy,” another new song for the film, which was written by Louis St. He didn’t know me from a bar of soap, so it was good to have Olivia there. “When he first came to the studio, he was a little apprehensive about it all. “I hadn’t really heard that much of John’s singing, but I knew he had a sort of cool voice, ” says the producer, who recorded Travolta’s “You’re the One That I Want” vocal in one session. It was a great stretch for him.”Īlthough Travolta had a top 10 hit on the Hot 100 with his 1976 debut single, “Let Her In,” he was more of an unknown quantity for Farrar than Newton-John. “‘It was challenging for Travolta to do because it was really, really high. It was just one of those,” says the four-time Grammy winner, who lent support to Travolta during the recording of the song. “ stayed up all night writing it and finishing it, came to my trailer early in the morning, played it for me, and I knew it was a smash. 1 on the Hot 100, was another immediate hit with Newton-John. ![]() “You’re the One That I Want,” which went all the way to No. He explained to me how the characters would have this transition, that Olivia would become very aggressive.” “ Bill Oakes was a really big help coming up with the lyrics to that song. So I did ‘You’re the One That I Want,'” says Farrar. “They asked me if I would try and write the song at the end where they both dance together. “People just seem to look right into what she’s saying somehow.”Īfter “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” Farrar went to work on a duet for Newton-John and Travolta. “She’s got that lovely, emotional quality in her voice that people understand,” says Farrar. But I thought it was a knockout song.” Newton-John’s bittersweet vocal perfectly captured the yearning of the lyrics. “It’s a hard song to sing it’s rangy, and so it was challenging. Indeed, when Newton-John heard the “Hopelessly Devoted to You” demo sung by Farrar, she was instantly smitten. “I loved it,” she says. ![]() My song ended up being nothing like that, but that’s what started me off on it. One of the songs that I always loved was Skeeter Davis’ ‘The End of the World,’ so I wanted to get the same sort of feeling as that song. “Obviously it needed to be a brokenhearted song, and it had to have a ’50s sort of feel. Luckily I came up with ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You,'” says Farrar of the Oscar-nominated tune that displayed country-pop strains of Newton-John’s early solo work. “Apparently they needed a ballad for her that wasn’t in the show. He’s a brilliant musician.”įarrar’s first task was to write a showcase ballad for Newton-John. “It’s always great fun recording with John because he’s been my friend since I was 15,” says Newton-John of her fellow Melbourne, Australia native, who she had worked with on hits like 1973’s “Let Me Be There,” 1974’s “I Honestly Love You” and 1975’s “Have You Never Been Mellow.” “I think John Farrar is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Newton-John-who was a “reluctant Sandy,” insisting on doing a screen test after the failure of her 1970 musical film Toomorrow-asked that her frequent collaborator John Farrar be brought in to produce and write two of the four new songs added to the original Broadway score by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. 5), and earned an album of the year Grammy nod. Whether you’ve ever seen the screen romance of ’50s high-school sweethearts Sandy and Danny, chances are you’ve heard some of the music from one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. The double-LP companion to the smash movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John-which didn’t hit theaters until two months later, on June 16-was certified 8-times platinum (and has sold more than 6 million copies since the start of the Nielsen Music era in 1991), notched four top five hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (“Grease,” No. But even those success stories can’t compare to the blockbuster Grease soundtrack, which everyone was hopelessly devoted to after it was released 40 years ago on April 14, 1978. ![]() In the past two years, soundtracks to musical films like The Greatest Showman, La La Land and Beauty and the Beast have scored big on the Billboard 200 chart.
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