Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, this is Dale Selby in Dallas, Texas, and
you are listening to my dogs, Jason and d and
the best podcast anywhere. Sureley, you can't be serious, Booma.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the podcast that is automatic,
it's systematic, it's harddromatic. Why it's the Shirley you can't
be serious podcast covering the soundtrack of Gas. You know,
we go together like ram lama a little. This podcast
is supreme. It'll make the girls scream. Ah Yes, radio edit,
thank you very much. Shell Dragon. Ladies and gentlemen, we
are here to talk to you about the songs of
the movie Grease. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Today we're gonna be talking about the soundtrack, which is
vitally important to the success of the movie.
Speaker 1: Guys, if this is the first time you have tuned in,
this is the second in our set of episodes. The
first we covered the movie itself, and now we're covering
the soundtrack. So if you haven't heard that first episode,
be sure and go back and check that one out.
But today we're talking only songs. We avoided it last
week and now we get to dive into the song.
So here's the thing.
Speaker 2: There's twenty three songs on this album.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of songs.
Speaker 2: That's a lot of songs. And for us, we try
to keep this around an hour or so, we.
Speaker 1: Don't have that much. I mean, that's like two minutes
of song.
Speaker 2: That's not we're gonna have to burn through these. So
if you're like, man, they're barely grays in the surface
on these, well, you know there's a lot of songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, okay.
Speaker 2: D So for the soundtrack for Grease, we have to
give a shout out to the executive producer of this
particular episode, mister Chris Webber.
Speaker 1: Chris Webber, thank you, Chris Webber. Guys, if you want
to be an executive producer for one of our episodes,
it's so easy. You just go over to Patreon dot
com backslash Shirley Podcast and for as little as five bucks,
like I can't even get Starbucks for my twelve year old,
for less than five bucks, you can have access to
all of our secret hidden Patreon episodes where we cover
the one hit wonders of the eighties and beyond. We've
got tons of them out there.
Speaker 2: Now you really have a library of great stuff for
you to listen to so checks out over there.
Speaker 1: So we truly appreciate you, Chris, We appreciate you all
of our other Patreon family. Thank you guys so much.
Those episodes are some of our most fun episodes to do,
so I love those. Tune in. Hey.
Speaker 2: By the way, I want to give a quick shout
out to our good friend Melissa Mingle who came on
and did the Duran Duran episode with us that we
did two years ago.
Speaker 1: I think yeah, spoke a little French for us. I
loved it.
Speaker 2: I know she's getting ready to move to Colorado Springs
what so we're going to be missing her, but I
think she's going to try and squeeze in a Patreon
episode with us on Kaisha gougu too shy oh perfect
Duran Duran ti In I know, right, fantastic so and
I know she loves Greece. So shout out Melissa and
Mark as they're leaving us. But hopefully we can do
something before you go. Yeah, Okay, before we dive into
the songs, I just want to give you an overview
of how big an album this was in nineteen seventy eight. Okay,
here's the top four albums from nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: You ready for this, yes, okay.
Speaker 2: Number four somebody we have talked about on the Shirle
You Can't Be Serious podcasts before.
Speaker 1: We didn't cover this album, but Billy Joels the Stranger
is number four for nineteen seventy eight. Fantastic album. Okay.
Speaker 2: Number three is Rumors by Fleetwood mac iconic I mean,
huge selling album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's yeah, one of the mammoth ones. Yes,
one of the best selling albums of all time comes
in third place. Number two is Grease, which we're covering today,
and number one from nineteen seventy eight, of course, is
Saturday Night Fever Baby. Oh wow, it's still still in there.
It's still going. Yeah it is. That makes sense. So
Saturday Night Fevers number one in Greece's number two. Yeah,
so two. John Travolta movie soundtracks beat out Rumors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, that's nuts Full RSO Records.
Speaker 1: I think Robert Stigwood made some money in nineteen seventy eight,
probably so probably a little bit gracious.
Speaker 2: One more quick note for you on the soundtrack. Two
of the bass players as in played bass on this album.
Speaker 1: Okay, not first base and second base, not second base,
not their base. David hung Gate is that name? Ring
a bell? Te Yes? And Steve Lucather played the bass,
Yeah he did. Yep. Studio musicians of the seventies, Yep,
that's right. Wow the best, Yeah, total fantastic.
Speaker 2: All right, you're ready to dive in track by.
Speaker 1: Track, tell me about it, stud all right.
Speaker 2: The first song right out of the gate is the
title track called Grease.
Speaker 1: All right. So for a movie about the fifties, this
is not a fifties sounding song.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's because Robert Stigwood called his good buddy,
mister Barry Gibb and said, Barry, I need a title
song for this this musical I'm doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So they're on fire still with the number one soundtrack,
like you've said, so what did he say? Okay, so
this is a great story.
Speaker 2: So Robert Stigwood decides I need a title song for
this musical. And of course, I mean we've already talked
about how Grease was all a musical. They had songs
already lined up, and Robert stick was like, no, I
need something more.
Speaker 1: I need to punch it up.
Speaker 2: So he calls this good buddy, Barry GiB who's scorching
hot at this moment. And he says, Barry, I need
a title track for this musical I'm doing.
Speaker 1: It's called Grease. And Barry Gibbs like, let me write.
Speaker 2: A song called grease. He's like, I can't write a
song called I mean, what is that? And rober Stick
was like, oh, you know, just write grease. Da da
da da da da whatever, you know. And Barry Gibbs like, man, grease,
that's quite a word.
Speaker 1: Grease.
Speaker 2: So he hangs up the phone and an hour later
he calls back and he says, what do you think
about Greece? Is the word?
Speaker 1: Robert Stick was like, sound good to me. Man, you're
the music. Let's go with it. It's funny because in
the musical and in the movie they never actually say
the word grease. I know, they don't say it the
whole time. And so you've got how do I make
a song about a word that is the title but
is not referenced at all in this Now, obviously you've
got the Greasers, you know, and so you've got that
kind of grease, and you've got the car engines, so
you've got that kind of grease. Sure, but you know
what This movie was called in Mexico, right, Maasilena Vasilena.
So that's really the sexual innuendo that they're going for
in the movie, and that's the kind of grease that
the song should have been about. But I think that
what he did with it is brilliant. So here's the
interesting thing.
Speaker 2: They got Frankie Valley, you know, former fifties heart throb
to sing this song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Frankie Valley had been the lead singer for the
four seasons. So you got sy Bay Baby and then
Big Girls Don't Cry, Walk like a man. Oh what
a night? I mean, just a ton Oh what a night?
There you go. Just before this, like nineteen seventy four,
he had a solo hit with a song called My
Eyes Adored You. Interesting. How would he? I wonder if
he had any idea that this random song that he's
doing for this random movie based on a musical is
going to be his final number one hit. Well, so
here's the deal they offered him.
Speaker 2: They said, do you want to do Beauty School Dropout
where you'll appear in the movie, or do you want
to sing the title track.
Speaker 1: He's like, that's a no brainer.
Speaker 2: The music is what Lives Forever, not the movie. Nice
and so he's like, I'll sing the title track.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so they didn't know where to put the
song in the movie. And then they had done this
cartoon because this initially they had talked about this being
a completely animated movie, and so there was a big
production done for the animation, which you get in the beginning,
but they had a different song for it. They put
the grease music over that, and they're like, wow, fit's perfectly.
Speaker 2: It's like it was written to it. Yeah, pretty incredible.
By the way, Frankie Valley was not on a record
label at the time, huh. So Robert Sig was like,
no problem, we'll put your single on Rso.
Speaker 1: My gosh, this guy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Here's the interesting tidbit about this song. The director of
the movie, Randall Kleisner, he hated the song. He hated
this song because it was two seventies.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He wanted everything to sound fifties, and so he fought
for a song written by Paul Williams and Charles Fox.
Speaker 1: Are we talking about Rainbow Connection? Paul's Williams, Yeah, Lilinis Wow,
Lilinus And Charles Fox, who wrote the Happy Day's theme
song perfect. I mean, yeah, I mean that I would
probably back him. Had I not had hindsight to look
back on, I would have been, like, guys, he's right.
Let Paul Williams musical genius. Let the guy who wrote
the Happy Days themes, let them give us the themes
of the song.
Speaker 2: And yet he would be wrong, because this went on
to be a number one hit August of nineteen seventy eight.
Book Run through the Top four Sure, number four, Boogie
Ugi Ugie by Taste of Honey, okay, number three, Miss
You by Rolling Stones Okay, yeah, three times a Lady
by the Commodore's number two Yeah, and then of course Grease.
Speaker 1: I cannot but think of Buckwheet when you say three
times maybe.
Speaker 2: By the way, Peter Frampton is playing guitar on this song,
oh wow, Barry Gibb is singing background vocals. And of
course we mentioned before this is not in the play
at all, written specifically for the movie.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Next song on the album is a song called Summer.
Speaker 1: Nights Some Love a.
Speaker 3: Girl.
Speaker 1: So this is I mean, number one magical song. Yeah.
But just to throw this back, so this this is
really our kind of introduction of the two characters. They're
kind of introducing themselves, and you've got this great back
and forth of guys perspective versus girls perspective. But you
have to think for just a second. This original musical,
Sandy wasn't from Australia, right, and so you have to go, well,
how did these two not know each other and not
know that they would end up in the same high
school together. Well, in the original musical, Andy Dombowski was
of Polish Catholic descent, and she went to a private school.
She went to a Catholic school, and so when he
met her, Danny lied and said he went to Lake
Forest in Chicago. And so when they end up together,
it's still a big surprise, but it's because she's just
moved into the public school from the private school and
he's been there the whole time.
Speaker 2: Once again, I don't really understand the fact that Sandy
doesn't bother to call him when her change, her plans changed, right.
Speaker 1: Dude, This was the fifties, man. People didn't pass out numbers.
You just have to telephone numbers. No, not a different time, man.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, So obviously this was written for the
play when it moved to Broadway. In the original stage play,
the song here was called Foster Beach about that little tidbit?
Speaker 1: All right, blow your socks after that, go Foster Beach. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now, then, here's one thing I found on this When
Riz says in the song, because he sounds like a drag,
almost certainly the stage play had a are inserted right there. Really, yeah, okay,
I love this song. You get the guys and the
bleachers and they're bebopping and they're combing their hair and telling, uh,
you know, the sexual locker room type of stories. And
she's telling the girls how sweet he was and how
how loving. And the girls are like, oh, does he
have a car? Did he spend a lot of money
on you? And the guys were like, god, did she
get busy?
Speaker 1: You know, what's the deal. So have you heard of
no Ches d Orano by Angelica Maria and ral Vale?
Have not?
Speaker 3: Let's have a listen now, interesting, this would be great
I think for your wife Spanish class.
Speaker 1: That's right, everyone translate the songs right here. So this
song reached number one in the Mexican charts in nineteen
seventy nine.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's higher than the American version. I know the
American version reached number five.
Speaker 1: As a single. Not one another Perfect, How about that
great song? Love the song?
Speaker 2: At the end, you have this big high falsetto from
John ta Volta.
Speaker 1: Oh, it clingches it because you're expecting him to stay
in that same chest voice that he's had the whole song,
and he drills it up all the way to meet
her like he's singing maybe higher than she is. They
are after it. Man. Oh, and he does the point
to the sky in that blend of the two scenes. Oh,
it's a movie.
Speaker 2: It's great and it's so seventies. I love it, Okay.
Next song on the album is a song called Hopelessly
Devoted to You.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not the fust now. I told you
when I listen to this song, it's all kinds of
country to me. You got that steel guitar, I mean it,
And you said, didn't really seem like that to you.
Speaker 2: Well, I just have it stuck in time for the
summer of seventy eight on every radio station that was
hot one hundred.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I told you that Olivia Newton John
had done country music before this, right right? This was
actually on the country chart, her first top twenty hit
in like two years. Interesting. Yep.
Speaker 2: So this song was written specifically for the movie. This
is the one we talked about last week. Was written
halfway through the filming of this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they had to come back and refilm the scene.
That's why she's all by herself out on the back porch,
you know, mooning at the moon or whatever. It's just
mooning at the moon, pining at the moon. I don't
know that's a game. She's out just out there on
the forge by yourself. Yeah, you know, longing for coming.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. So this song was written by John Furr.
This is the same guy who wrote have You Ever
Ever Been?
Speaker 1: Mellow?
Speaker 2: And Magic? Some of her biggest hits. Right, She had
it in her contract that she had to have a
solo and they got done film and they're like, whoops,
where's Olivia's solo?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean she did kind of do a little
bit of a solo for her reprise of sander d
but not really not really a full song.
Speaker 2: And so they said, okay, well write something get after it,
and so they came up with this, nominated for an
Oscar Best Original Song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you got an album full of hits,
and they come up with this on the fly, and
it is turns out to be the best performing as
far as awards go, of all of the songs. I
love the song.
Speaker 2: This reached number three in the Hot one hundred and
nineteen seventy eight This to Me Screammes summer of nineteen
seventy eight. I was old enough to remember nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 1: I know you were not. That's okay. By the way.
Speaker 2: The song that beat it out for Best Original Song
for the Oscar Yeah, last Dance.
Speaker 1: By Donna Summer, which we've talked about before in the play.
Speaker 2: This is where the song It's Raining on Promni goes.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Well we'll talk about that song
here in just a minute.
Speaker 4: Yes we will.
Speaker 1: So, I said they just churned this out, but are
actually said. I spent the longest period writing the lyrics
of any song I've ever written. This song, said every
thesaurus and every rhyming dictionary I had, just trying to
really make it work properly. Really Yeah, well he nailed it.
This is a beautiful song. I love it, which and
she delivers it so well. The whisper softness of her
voice is I mean it's just going to melt any heart.
Speaker 2: By the way, When John Travolta spoke at the Oscars
in twenty twenty three, after a living John had passed away,
he said, quote, they've touched our hearts, They've made a shine,
and they become deer finds that you will always remain
hopelessly devoted to.
Speaker 1: Moving on to maybe the most important, biggest song in
the album.
Speaker 2: This song is called You're the One that I Want.
I defy you not to tap your toes and bob
your head when the song comes on.
Speaker 1: When this song comes on and you're at a wedding,
there are any theater people there, they are running to
the dance floor. That's it. And then there's going to
be a back and forth between the guys and the
girls as they do all of the choreographed moves together.
That's it. And so we talked about the best Award
Performing song with the last song. This one is also
brand new for the album. It's also by John Farr
and this is one of the greatest selling singles of
all time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like still like the number one karaoke song
in Mexico or something like that. Yeah, I mean, let's
talk about the movie for a second. When Sluttie Sandy
comes out, it is jaw dropping shocker. I don't care
who you are if you're not impacted emotionally by that scene.
I mean, it is such a punch in the face
when I first saw it, and it's so much fun. Right,
And she's like, listen, dude, I need a man. Get
your crap together.
Speaker 1: And he's like, I better get my crap together. So
Randall Kleisner is filming the drive in scenes, right, and
it's at this point that they've finally put her in
the costume. They're not about to shoot the scene, obviously,
but they want to see how it's gonna look. And
he's in the middle of filming all of these drive
in parts, and all of a sudden, there's this big
commotion and he sees this woman this big hair coming
out and he does it. He's like, who is that?
What's going on? Why is this lady here causing all
this trouble? Oh? Yeah, it was her. She looked so different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she said, you know what, as soon as I
got out of the trailer and people started to pay
special attention to me, People that I saw every day,
people that I hung out with my friends. She's like, clearly,
I've been doing something wrong my entire life, and it's awesome.
She looks amazing, all right.
Speaker 1: This song reached.
Speaker 2: Number one on the Hot one hundred that summer. It
was the second single.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 2: It was written specifically for the movie. The stage play
has the song called kiss It in This Spot. The
Broadway play has a song called all Choked Up. But
when they added You're the one that I Want into
the movie. Basically every musical ever since then plays this song.
Speaker 1: Obviously, I mean obviously, Yeah, it's no brand. And again
Randall Kleisner didn't like the way that this fit in
with the other songs. He was not happy with this song.
Speaker 2: Okay, anything else to say about this Gangbuster song?
Speaker 1: Best part of the movie. Yeah, it's revelatory. I did.
I mentioned to Brock. Brock and I had lunch today,
my eighteen year old, and he he loves the music
from this, but he's like, it does kind of bother
me that she has to go and put on slutty
clothes in order to get the man. At the end
of this. I'm like, really, He's like, well, no, not really,
but I'm supposed to say that, but it does seem
like wrong. You know, if you're a parent, you wouldn't want,
you know, the kid to think, Oh, I gotta go
dress slutty in order to get the man. And I'm like,
I really feel like they're number one. This is just goofing,
Like this movie is just supposed to be fun. It
is is so fun. It's not so to be some
big social commentary. This is about, you know, hanging out
and ricing cars, getting late exactly. That's what everything boy
wants to hear about. You know, we don't. This is
not She's not pressured into sex or anything like that.
She just dressed in some tight pants, put on some lipstick,
faunted her hair. That's right.
Speaker 2: And you and I both agree that he didn't run
out to the car the back seat and she lose
her virginity.
Speaker 1: Right off the bat. She just wanted to dazzle him
and she did it. Yeah, Sandy, Sandy, tell me about it. Okay,
great song. I hate to be done with it so fast.
We got to move on. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2: Next song on the album is a song called Sandy.
Speaker 1: At the drive in branded food. What will they say Monday?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's trended at the drive in.
Speaker 1: So this is the point where the audience members start
chucking tomatoes at me. I don't really like this song.
This is I mean, of all of the mega hits,
on this one and the fact that it was released
as a single is surprising to me. This is a
skipper for me. I mean, wow, I just don't.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, we've taken a step down from the big hitters.
Speaker 1: But I still like it. It's still fun.
Speaker 2: It's it's not a cranker, you know. But listen to
the creation of this song. I love the story of
this Okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So after John Travolta learned that they were having to
come up with a solo for Olivia Newton John to
fulfill her contract. He's like, well, I want a solo too, Guys,
make me one, right, So he went to Alan Carr
and said, I want a song on my own. Write
me a song. So Alan Carr goes to this guy
named Louis Saint Louis. I love this name, right, He's
gonna come up here in just a minute, it's right,
And they say, hey, we need a song, write us
a song. So he's like, crap, I got to write
a song like instantly because they're getting ready to do this.
Speaker 1: So he got together with.
Speaker 2: Screaming Scott Simon of Shannana talked about there here in
a second. So he's sitting at a car and he's like,
oh man, okay, I got to write a song. Okay,
what are we doing here?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: And he comes up with stranded at the drive in Brandon,
a fool. What will they say Monday at school? He's like, oh, yeah,
that's good. That's good.
Speaker 1: I got it.
Speaker 2: So he races back to the hotel, writes the song
in twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The next day, first thing in the morning, seven thirty
in the morning, shows up at Alan Carr's office, says,
here it is.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: Alan Carr looks at it, listens, likes it, approves it.
Ten thirty am. He takes it to the like the
music producer. He okays it. Then Robert Stigwood at one
pm he okays it. Then John Travolta at four pm
he approves it. Four days later he had a ten
thousand dollars check. Like two days later he had a
new navy blue Honda prelude. One week later they filmed
the scene. It was fast I mean he's super quick,
getting it written, recorded, filmed, all within about.
Speaker 1: A week plus. He had a new car. By the way,
this is the.
Speaker 2: Spot in the film where alone at the drive in
movie goes. Yeah, that's an instrumental that we'll talk about here.
Speaker 1: In just a second. Ye. So Louis Saint Louis, Yeah,
has had quite a bit of stuff done. He was considerable.
He just passed away a couple of years ago. But
he was the composer of the song hold Me Close
to You, which was featured in All the Right Movies
nineteen eighty three. Really, Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson, there you go,
Craig T. Nelson, Lea Thompson.
Speaker 2: All right, d take the needle the record, take the
record off, carefully, flip it over because you don't want
to scratch it. Side too of the record, and the
first song is called Beauty's Go drop.
Speaker 1: Out your Story satoo te a teenage ne'er do well.
So this song meatres Frankie Avalon, Big Heart Throb of
the nineteen fifties and sixties, Beach Blanket Bingo, a lot
of stuff with a netfood at cello. Huh. It was
originally they offered it to Elvis to come sing this part. Yes,
that's right, and he turned it down. Now that becomes
pinny it here in a little bit when we talk
about Sandra d right, because Elvis did make an appearance
in the song. But there's word of the story.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll get to that here in just a second.
But like you said, this was offered to Elvis. It
was also offered to Frankie Valley. Yep, we said no,
I'd rather do the title song. When they filmed this,
Frankie Avil was forty years old, but he still heart
throbbed to these girls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, young women, for girls who were born in who
were born in like the late forties, which these girls were.
He was their teen heart throw teen crush, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I thought this was funny as he's sort of
acting out this part. He's on the white stairs and
they're all doing their little dance routine.
Speaker 1: They had pillows on the ground because he's scared of
heights and just in case he's slipped and fell right
by the way in Greece live. I thought this was cool.
Speaker 2: Boys to Men sings this song to Carly ray Jepson.
Speaker 1: Wow, pretty cool, right, Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2: This is I think where Frenchy is on display. All
she does is act with her face and her eyes and.
Speaker 1: Her she was so in love with Frankie Avalon, she
did not have to act. She's so cute in this
pink care with their pink care. Yeah, and you get
the boys at the end dressed as angels, said that
they were they didn't mind having fun, but that the
chords they used to hold them up and ratchet them in.
We're a little tight on a cry as you know,
if you've ever been in those harnesses, it's a nut squeezer.
Speaker 2: By the way, did you know that Deede Kahan refused
to change her hair color for the final scene in Greece.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was supposed to be blue, like a cotton
candy blue. It had gone from cotton candy pink to
cotton candy blue. But she's like, guys, this is supposed
to be fun. This is going to be a distraction
if I'm out there with blue hair. Let's make me
a blonde and that because blondes have fun.
Speaker 2: Right, And actually dynamnof stands in for where she was
supposed to buy the cotton candy because she didn't want
to do that, okay, all right. Next song on the
album is called look at Me. I'm Sandra d.
Speaker 1: W I can Okay, So this is Rizzo's big song, well,
one of the two, yeah for sure. Right mentioned in
our first episode on Greece that there there was a
death of not one, but two icons of the fifties
and sixties in relationship to this song, right right, tell me,
so tell me about it. There's there's there was an
actor in the original stage production, original musical. There's an
actor named Salmonio Calminio Junior. Okay, yeah, if you've seen
Rebel without a Cause, of the three people, he's not
James Dean and Natalie Wood like, he's the he's the
troubled youth that's hanging out with them, right, and not
Thurston Hell the third right, and I showed you his picture.
He is absolutely the spitting image of Daniel Russo, right,
I mean he is Ralph Macchio one hundred cent. That's
exactly like bringer illegitimate father. For sure. He had done
quite a few shows and he was in the midst
of rehearsing for a play called PS Your Cat Is Dead. Okay, okay,
this is out in West Hollywood, yeah, he comes home
from rehearsals. He's parks in the parking garage, walking to
his house, and out of nowhere, this guy appears, stabs
him straight in the heart and leaves him for dead.
What yep. His neighbors come to help him. They're like, okay,
let's get you up, and as soon as they lift
him up, he drops stone cold dead. The guy who
killed him was this a guy named Lionel Ray Williams,
who was a pizza delivery guy would just go around
and rob people. He got sentenced to fifty seven years
for this murder and several robberies, but ended up getting
paroled after just twelve years. Got parole in nineteen ninety.
Don't know what happened to him since then. Just be
careful when you ordered dominos. Okay. So this happens in
seventy six. They're making preparations and filming in seventy seven,
and they've got this whole lyric that's devoted to this actor.
So they're like, we got to change that. This is awkward.
So what they do instead is they've got that picture
of Elvis. She's singing to Elvis, concerned about his pelvis.
They're filming in the scene. As it turns out, the
film the scene on the exact day that Elvis dies.
What that is unbelievable. It's crazy, Elvis, Elvis, let me
be keep your pelvis far from me. So this song
also name checks Doris day Rock Hudson Annette, which we
can assume is a net Finicella.
Speaker 2: Obviously, Troy Donahue, which we talked about that in our
Godfather episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's the He's the awkward Godfather too, the awkward
new boyfriend of Talia Shagrin. I've got something for you. Yeah,
tell me all right. For forty five.
Speaker 2: Years now, I've always wondered what Hey fong ghoul, I'm
Sandra D.
Speaker 1: Hey bongol? Oh, yeah, I know what it means.
Speaker 2: This is the americanized version of an Italian profanity.
Speaker 1: Yes, few to the moon. See they told me it's
go fornicate yourself in the posterior. Yeah, okay, which is
the equivalent of a few or f off. Yeah, hey
f off, I'm Sandra D. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Next song, big song. This song is automatic systematic hydromatic.
Speaker 1: This is grease lightning.
Speaker 3: Why's breeze lightning to.
Speaker 1: You? In check and cut up and Chrome. So before
we get going on how awesome this song is, I
just need to say, for one of our true fans,
Deaf Dave song supposed to be sung by the Beach Boys. What. Yeah,
the I don't know how the Beach Boys were going
to come into the mechanic shop that they had at
the school or whatever, but the original plan was that
the Beach Boys were going to come in and sing
this song. I think you've got Dave's full attention at
this well. Can you just imagine this song being sang
by that It's the harmonies would be different, but they
would be better, but just not the same. Not rights.
Speaker 2: See, here's the weird thing that I learned when I
studying this.
Speaker 1: This is Kanicki's big number.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like Kanicki is supposed to be singing its grease
line and which makes total sense.
Speaker 1: His car, it's his car, right.
Speaker 2: And John Trifold is like, no, I'm taking this one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, He's like that song sounds like a hit, and uh,
this is my movie. You guys all have jobs because
I'm here. Yeah, so I'm gonna sing this one. Yeah.
And he made some people mad, but what are you
gonna do? Suck it to it, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Robert Stigwood was like, John is the boss. Yeah, and
of course John got the director hired, So who do
you think is gonna side with him?
Speaker 1: Exactly?
Speaker 2: This song was inspired by the nineteen fifty nine Big
Bopper song White Lightning.
Speaker 1: Around moderns and definitely do sound similar. Sure, it's got it.
It's definitely got a Jerry Lee Lewis vive to it
as well. I have a little trouble with some of
the lyrics on this one. Not the ones that were profane, yeah,
but the beginning of the song it talks about it
being automatic, and then it talks about having four on
the floor. Which is it? Brother? You can't have both?
Clearly don't know anything about cars.
Speaker 2: Right during the filming of this, they grab some saran
rap and dance around the car and kind of rub
it on their crotch.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that what's that supposed to mean?
What is that about? Well, I guess they used to
do that in the fifty some I don't know. It
was a misconception that you could use saran rap as contraceptive.
There you go, and how many people were born because
of that misconception. I wondered. It's possible a lot. Yeah.
By the way, you mentioned the profanities in this song,
there are several uh huh which When this song was
released as a single, it only made it to number
forty seven, probably because there were a lot of radio
stations that would not play this song. You mean they
didn't have a cleaner version for the single, yess not.
Oh wow? Have you seen the sleeve to this single?
You remember the beginning of the not the beginning of
the movie where it's where it's Danny and Sandy on
the beach, but like when we're coming to the high
school for the first time and you see Danny for
the first time talking to the girls and he turns around,
he's got the cigarette in his mouth and that eating grin. Yep,
that is the look that they have on the cover
of the single. That's it. It's a great first shot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, great song, great fun, great point in
the movie. One of the things Jeff Conway talks about
is during the filming of Grease Lightning in the movie,
they were supposed to be like carrying him and they
accidentally dropped him. He heard his back, Yeah, and supposedly that's
when he got his first taste of painkillers that became
a lifelong affliction and an addition to drugs that he
really suffered a lot of years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, eventually kill him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, moving on. The chicks will scream for the next.
Speaker 1: Song, will they? I don't think so. This song is
called It's Raining on prom Night and the words of
butt heead. Oh what the hell is this crap? Oh
you're quoting butthead on the Grease Sounddragon. This is terrible.
Speaker 2: Hey, Amanda Janet loves this song.
Speaker 1: Okay, sorry, man, I would like this song better if
Robert Smith sang it. Wow, this is terrible. I like,
I heard this song, and I'm like, is this a joke?
Be is she gonna like bust out in a great
singing here in a second? No, she really just sings
like this the whole time. It's awful. Yeah, it's genuinely bad.
Speaker 2: I mean, the song is sappy, But you're saying you
don't like her voice.
Speaker 1: I don't like her voice. The song actually probably could
have been good, Like if you'd had Olivia Newton John
singing this song, I probably would have loved it. Well,
there you go. Yeah, but this this Cindy bullens I'm
out yep.
Speaker 2: So this goes in the spot where Hopelessly Devoted was
supposed to.
Speaker 1: Be brilliant move there, yep.
Speaker 2: And it's actually played when Sandy and Danny are kind
of trying to patch things up at the jew Box.
Speaker 1: He's like, Hey, Sandy, want to talk to you, and
she's like, what about She's playing this song from the
jew Box and the dinar don't make me laugh? Yeah? Yeah.
This was written for the stage play. So I had
to look her up. I'm like, is this legit? Is
she actually a singer? Yes? She was actually a singer
for quite some time. Sang backup for Elton John and
for Rod Stewart yep. And then around twenty twelve she
came out as transgender and has changed her name from
Cindy Bulloons to Sidney Bulloins. There you go, all right?
Moving on? Okay.
Speaker 2: The next song is an instrumental called Alone at the
Drive in.
Speaker 4: Movie Snoozefest Hit.
Speaker 1: The next song, what the heck?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's do a quick drive by on this one.
This was written for the stage play. This is where
Sandy the song fit in the movie. Sandy's much better
song than this one, and you don't even like Sandy
So right, So this was composed by James Gadstaff for
the nineteen seventy two Broadway version.
Speaker 1: Right, moving on, moving on.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're about to get knee deep in Shannana. Okay,
do you remember when Shaannana had its own TV show?
Speaker 1: I used to watch the show a little bit. I
didn't remember it until we came back to it and
and you mentioned to me which I had always misheard,
this lyric. But Bowser from Shannaa is referenced by fresh Prints,
and parents just don't understand that's it. I'm please put
back to Bell Bottle Brady. It's Bowser from Shaunana. And
if you see Bowser, you totally recognize him. He's this tall,
gangly guy who has a great goofy look to him,
and they've all got the greasier look. But Shannaa was
this band that was devoted to bringing back fifties songs
or covering fifties that's It songs, which they did in
their variety show as well. But we've got several in
a row on the album that is that are by them.
They are also the band that is singing the songs
at the dance.
Speaker 2: In the movie, and we also talked about how one
of the guys from Shaannana helped Jim Ferr write the
song Sandy.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, so they're around, they're doing stuff. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So this song is called blue Moon you saw them? Okay.
So this song is an old song. It was written
by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Heart for the movie Hollywood
Party nineteen thirty four. Well, say what you will about that.
There is no way I remember it from anything except
American Werewolf from London and the Marcels.
Speaker 2: Were singing three different versions of the same song in
American World in London. Yeah, you have Bobby Vinton, Sam
Cook and the Marcels.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: By the way, this song has been covered by Billie Holliday,
Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, the Supremes, New Editions, daf Dave
and Cindy Lauper. This is the last dance at the
dance in the movie when they all moon the camera.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The next Shannana song is called rock and Roll is
Here to Stay.
Speaker 1: So this song actually also came out in nineteen fifty eight,
when the movie's supposed to be taking place. It was
by Danny and the Juniors, written by David White. It
is exactly like their first hit, which was at the Hot.
It sounds like the same song. Like every time this
song starts, I'm like at the I the Hot. Oh wait,
wrong song. Yeah, it is literally the same exact music
that they have just changed the lyrics to and tragically,
we've learned in the twenty first century, they're wrong. Rock
and roll is not here to stay. Yeah, it has died. Well,
the heart of rock and roll is rarely beat. That's good. Hey.
Speaker 2: By the way, we talked about this when we did
our Kujo Christine Dead Zone episode. We talked about Danny
and Juniors. This was featured in the movie Christine. Tragically,
the lead singer of Danny and the Juniors killed himself.
We talked about how death surrounded the movie Christine, and
that's one of the stories. We told them go back
and check that episode out.
Speaker 1: So the next song on the album is called Those
Magic Changes. So this song Don't Talk, Don't Talk to You.
I'm trying to count.
Speaker 2: This is the point of the movie where Duty and
Frenchy are dancing and he's stomping around trying to try
to dance keep step.
Speaker 1: So this song is not an old song. This is
a this is a Shannana song.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember last episode I talked
about how Jim Jacobs, when he first got a guitar,
tucked his parents into give him a guitar. He learned
like three chords and the first song he ever wrote
was those Magic Changes.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic. There you go, fantastic all right.
Speaker 2: Next song is called hound Dog by Shannanah.
Speaker 1: You and No Mod. So now you might expect me
to say this is an Elvis song, right, but it
turns out this was actually originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton,
you back in nineteen fifty two. It wasn't until later
on that Elvis made it the hound Dog. Elvis took
it and made his own, and little Forrest Gump showed
him how to dance like what you're doing your hips there.
Speaker 2: Yes, so this song was written a long time ago
performed by Big Mama Thornton, but we know it is Elvis.
Speaker 1: By the way, you know who did the voice of
Elvis for Worst Count? No, Kurt Russell? Are you serious? Yeah? Perfect? Yeah? Perfect?
I love it. Okay.
Speaker 2: So hound Dog has been a song that has been
fought over and battled with the royalties and the controversies
and the rights to this song.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those where I think it's going
to be in constant litigation, which is pretty bad for
one of the best selling singles of all time. Wow. Yeah,
that's a lot of money at stake. Yep. All right, now,
we could dive deep on hound Dog, but we got
to keep rolling. There's a lot of songs here. The
next one is so important to the movie though, we
can't overlook it. This is born to hand Jive.
Speaker 2: Once again, I dare you not to move your hips
and your feet to this song.
Speaker 1: So this is a little bit different than the original
hand jive that I know. Okay, cat name we Willie,
that's the way that one starts. And this one's called
born to hand Jive, which is still I mean, it's
the same music. So there have been a bunch of
variations of the hand jive song, but all of them
have the Bo Diddley beat. This one is a Shawn
Ona original, but it's key to the movie, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is the fifth song at the dance. This is
when things really start to take off. This is when
Cha Cha and Danny.
Speaker 1: Are tuning in Tokyo. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: Patti Simcox gets their dress listed over ahead in this song.
So a lot of stuff happening right here. Crater Face
gets tapped out and he flips off Vince Fontaine.
Speaker 1: I wonder if that was before or after he put
the aspirin in Marty's drink. Yeah, in a coke. I
just picked up on that this time through. Yeah all right.
Next on song is called Tears on My Pillow. Once
again we got another piece of gold from nineteen fifty eight.
The original song was written, was written by Sylvester Bradford
and Al Lewis and recorded by Little Anthony and the
Imperials and got a great, great iconic song.
Speaker 2: The one thing I remember about the movie in regards
to this song, this is where Blanche actually dances the
assistant to the Secretary and world class xylophone player.
Speaker 1: By the way, covers of this song, not only do
you have Sean or Not covering this song, but in
nineteen ninety he had a cover by little Miss Kylie
No Majors got to number one on the UK Singles chart.
Speaker 2: Really Michael Hutches's ex girlfriend Kylie Minogue and world class
babe herself.
Speaker 1: There you go. Okay, next song is called mooning. Just
what do you got for me on this? Not much?
Speaker 2: So this is from the musical, it's not in the movie.
This is when Roger, who actually as I understand it
is the Petsy character, and Jan actually sing this is
their big number. And this song was written by Louis
Saint Louis and Cindy Bollen's not much on this one.
Speaker 1: I don't really like this one. This is a skipper
for me. Yeah, another one that they are well informed
to have left it out of the movie, no doubt,
and just replace it with the three guys actually mooning
the camera. That's it, Okay, take the needle off the record.
It's time to flip the record over to the last side.
Side four. We start off with Freddie my Love. This
one is at least better. She sounds more like the
I can't remember the group that did a Leader of
the Pack. She sounds more like her okay in this one,
but it's still not a song I'm going to come
back to. Okay.
Speaker 2: So this was written for the nineteen seventy one musical.
This is Marty's big number in the musical.
Speaker 1: If you remember.
Speaker 2: Marty is like dating all these marines and she's like
a pin pal and sports perfume on her notes and
stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so this is written to her.
Speaker 2: Pinpal Marine Preddy ah Ready my love Rereddy my Love
Marty or she know like Cherry.
Speaker 1: So this song was largely came from the nineteen fifty
six hit called Eddie My Love, which was by The
Teen Queens and Scott Miller. The guy who wrote it
said it was closely based to Eddie My Love but
also slightly period dying I Met Him on a Sunday
by the Charells and be My Baby by Ronnie Spector.
Speaker 2: Go back to our Dirty Dancing episode to hear the
full story.
Speaker 1: On be My Baby and what a story all right.
Speaker 2: Next song on the album is a song called rock
and Roll Party Queen.
Speaker 1: They cut this one from the movie and that was
the right call. That's all I have to say about that.
This is from the musical.
Speaker 2: This was the song that Roger, who's the Putsy character,
and Doody sing.
Speaker 1: I mean in the movie.
Speaker 2: Putsy and Doody are funny side characters.
Speaker 1: We don't need a number from them. No, moving on,
moving on, Okay, This one's a biggie. Yeah, it is
a biggie. This song is called there are Worse Things
I could do. There are worse things I could do
then go with a boy all.
Speaker 4: Too, even though the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: Thinks I'm trashy and Okay.
Speaker 2: So this is a song by Stockard Channing. Yep, she
willed this into the movie. Yeah, this, They were gonna
cut this right, and she's like, no, this has to
be in the movie.
Speaker 1: And this is honestly a good addition. This is I
think she made the right call. She's not a singer,
doesn't have a singer's voice, but she delivers this song
in an epic way, and it lets you know the
heart of Rizzo and that she's suffering, like she puts
on a she puts on a front that she's suffering.
So perfect call on her part. The song had to
be in the movie. It's super important for her character, absolutely,
and with a good singer, it's an incredibly good song.
I mentioned to you that, like, my kids are familiar
with a lot of these from Glee, and the Santana
character sings this song in Glee and she knocks it
out of the park. It's a good song. It's a
good song, it's an important song, and it's very relevant
to the story.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So the next song on the album is
called look at Me. I'm Sandra D the reprize.
Speaker 3: Good me.
Speaker 2: To be.
Speaker 1: Something and they see oh.
Speaker 4: So scared.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure this is actually sung by Olivia Newton John.
Speaker 1: I like a better one in Olivia Newton John's so
sweet and sad and she's self reflective and goodbye to
Sandra D. Good piano in the back and leading you
like a dog into what's coming next.
Speaker 2: This is where we get the hint of what's coming,
but we're not sure exactly what's gonna come. By the way,
I've got a little nugget for you on Sandy the character. Okay,
so we mentioned in the stage play her name is
Sandy Dubowskibowski. In the movie, her name's Sandy Olsen.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: They needed to change your character from you know, a
Polish Catholic Chicago girl to an Australia girl, so they
switched it to Olsen. Why they selected the name Olsen
because when they were originally looking at the character for Sandy,
they considered actress and margaret.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's her given last name. Wow, okay, that's all right,
good tippit'st Olsen. There you go nice, Okay, all right.
Next song, Biggie, been waiting the whole album to get here.
This song is called We Go Together.
Speaker 2: Wap bam boom.
Speaker 1: So this is what was playing when I picked up
Brock for lunch today, and he's like, what are they?
What are they? Stringer and rang and danga banga banger?
What is that? He loves the song, but he's like,
I don't know what the heck they're saying. Right there,
chang chang chaney changed abop. I love this song. Oh
it's great, This is fun, This is a great This
the whole movie is just this fun experience. And this
is the perfect fun song to put as the caper
on the movie.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, so we go right from You're the One that
I Want, which is blowing our socks off two we
Go Together. This song is like a signature in the
yearbook saying have a great summer, let's be friends forever,
too good to be forgotten, true love always. You know,
all that stupid yearbook crap, But it's it captures the
tone of the last day of school and the fun
like when you're checking your books.
Speaker 1: Out the door, I signed your crack exactly. That's a crap.
Speaker 2: It's like the closing track for the album. And this
is where they get in the car and they fly
to heaven and she dies.
Speaker 1: I also told that to Rocky's like that's stupid. He's like,
why would she drives? Like, well, remember in the song.
He's like, he saved her from drowning and that's the hint.
And he's like, still stupid, and I was like, yeah,
it is. It's still stupid. They get in the car,
they fly to the clouds. Yes, it's a fairy tale. Okay,
it is a fairy tale, all right. This is such
a fun moment too. In the movie, every character kind
of they've got their arms around each other.
Speaker 2: They're dancing, they're hugging. It's everybody's friends, and you know
we'll be friends always, and even know they won't. Right,
we know that Rizzo's gonna be pregnant in six weeks,
and that's how it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: All my high school friends. You will be happy to
know that I did stay cool. It's right this, I mean,
this should be the end of the album. It really
should It really should be the end of the album,
but they had to They needed length for the album
and so they had to tack another couple of songs on.
So let's let's hit those and then move on to
final judgment.
Speaker 2: Robert Stigwood is not gonna do one album when he
could sell for two, you know.
Speaker 1: So next song on the album is an old song
from the fifties. Again. This is called Love Is a
Many Splendored Thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we get this at the beginning when they're
at the beach and everything's loves and hugs and kisses.
It reminds me of that scene an airplane where.
Speaker 1: It totally does you know, ted ted when will you
be back? I can't tell you that it is classified. Yeah.
Speaker 2: This won an Academy Award for the Best Original Song
in nineteen fifty six for the movie Love Is a
Mini Splendored Thing.
Speaker 1: YEP, written by Sammy Faine and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.
Best performing version was a version by The four Aces
goutted up the number two on the UK singles chart. Wow.
Speaker 2: It's been covered by Ben Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassi,
the Old Finger, Nat King, Cole and Barry Manilow.
Speaker 1: It's a good song.
Speaker 2: It's cheesy, it's corny. It adds that sort of corny tone.
Speaker 1: In the beginning we feel to the movie Yep, for sure, and.
Speaker 2: Then you get punched in the face with the title
track Grease, which also happens to be the very last
song on the album.
Speaker 1: It's a Grease reprize, and I gotta say, if you're
not going to end on we go Together, this is
not a bad substitute. It's a great song. Clear the
album out as you begin. I love it. Yeah, great song. Well, okay,
so we started this discussion. It's interesting when we originally
talked about doing Grease, we talked about comparing it to
the Rocky Horror Picture Show, right, and it was going
to be movie to movie, album to album, and we
basically said, it's so lopsided that it's not really even
a fair compared, right. Neither one of us really like
Rocky Horror Picture Show. So what we didn't mention in
our first episode, Barry Bostwick was the Danny character in
the stage version of Greece after having done so well
as the key guy in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
So there's perfect tie in there, but again, it's just
too lopsided. I mean, Rocky Horror Picture Show is a
unique animal, and we're going to find something in compared
it to. But this was not the right movie, right, absolutely.
But what we did decide to do was go, Okay,
let's compare the movie to the soundtrack because they're both huge. Yeah. Absolutely,
So here we are final judgment. You got to pick
one or the other. What do you say, mister Calvin?
Speaker 2: Okay, So, I have a really strong relationship with this movie.
I saw it in nineteen seventy eight with my mom
when I was kindergartener. I saw it again when it
came out in nineteen ninety eight to theaters.
Speaker 1: We danced in the aisles. I mean, I'm not kidding
the people I was with, we're going bonkers for this movie.
And I own the soundtrack. I love it.
Speaker 2: I love the songs on this It's kind of an
unfair fight because in the movie you do get the
songs as well.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's an easy call.
Speaker 2: I would take the movie every day of the week
because you get John Travolta's incredible performance, you.
Speaker 1: Get Olivia Newton, John be An, America's Sweetheart.
Speaker 2: Plus you get all of the songs and all the
fun and the humor and just the fun of the movie.
And the soundtrack's got a lot of skippers. It's much
like the Saturday Night Fever album we talked about. There's
a lot of great songs, there's a lot of skippers,
but in the movie you get both. So I'm taking
the movie every day of the week.
Speaker 1: So this one truly is I mean, without the movie,
the soundtrack isn't as good. Sure, and without the soundtrack,
the movie isn't as good. So it is a very
difficult comparison. But I think you kind of hit the
nail in the head with the soundtrack. You've got a
lot of extra thrown in. That's a problematic number one.
Number two is, as I mentioned, this is all about fun.
This music and this movie are all about fun. If
you're having fun with the album, it's because you're thinking
about the movie. If you're having fun out at a
party or at a wedding because of the songs on
this album, it's because you recreating the dance moves in
the moments from this movie. Without the movie, the soundtrack
just isn't really a thing. And so I have to
agree with you. It has to be a movie. I
want to see the action. I want to watch what happens.
And I want you to take out all of that
Cindy Mullins and Louis Saint Louis garbage that's in there
and just give me the good, full stake of the
movie and soundtrack. Yeah, I'm totally with you.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go, folks. If you got to pick
who you gonna pick, You're gonna pick the movie. What
my mother? Yeah, So we want to hear from you.
Do you love the movie? Do you love the soundtrack?
Speaker 2: Which song is your favorite?
Speaker 1: Which character is your favorite?
Speaker 2: Email us, hit us up on Facebook, hitus up on Twitter.
We want to hear from you. D Next week, we've
got something really special coming up. We've talked about it,
we've teased it up. We're finally gonna do it. Top
five eighties movie vehicles.
Speaker 1: It is really really hard and I still don't know
what my top five arm. But we have decided that
there are so many awesome vehicles out there. We're going
to first do movies, then we're going to cover TV
TV because you get a whole other slew of cars
that are socially there. And then we have given James
Bond its own unique category because there are a million
James Bond movies and every single one of them has
an amazing car. Absolutely, so it's it's perfect. We're gonna
have We're gonna have a slew of great episodes from
this idea of top five vehicles. Come back next week.
It's gonna be a lot of fun dad coming. I
forgot to mention that Margaret Travolta is in the movie
Margaret Travolta, John Travolta's sister who was acting before he
was acting, she was like she was She was the
Fawns's interesting connection. She was the Fawns's and Chatchi's like
aunt or whatever. And then she ended up playing like
Scott Bayo's mom and Charles in Charge and some other
TV show that was really yep. But she's one of
the waitresses that's that's watching him on TV. She looks
like John Travolta in address. She kind of does yeah, yeah,
why ah