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19 years after writing it, the Bee Gees finally performed 'Grease' for the first time

Barry Gibb's version sounds completely different.

19 years after writing ‘Grease,’ the Bee Gees performed it for the first time. It was amazing.
19 years after writing ‘Grease,’ the Bee Gees performed it for the first time. It was amazing.

"Grease is the word, is the word that you heard/It's got a groove, it's got a meaningGrease is the time, is the place, is the motion/Grease is the way we are feeling"

The title track to the 1978 film Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, brought three generations together and hit number 1 on the Billboard Charts. The song is based on a movie about teenagers in the ‘50s, sung by a legend from the ‘60s and written by one of the biggest hitmakers of the ‘70s. In other words, there was almost no one alive at the time who didn't love Grease!

(And did you know that Grease was a Broadway musical years before the film? The story and songs, in many instances, are wildly different between the two, however.)

Grease was written by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees but sung by doo-wop legend Frankie Valli. Although the Bee Gees toured in the late ‘70s and made a comeback in the '90s, they never played the song live until 1997 when it was part of their “One Night Only” concert and album featuring many of their biggest hits.

What’s impressive about the song is that even though Valli does a great job singing it on the original recording, when you hear the Bee Gees sing it, it sounds exactly like something you would have heard them perform in the late ‘70s.


grease, musicals, broadway, grease lightning, the bee gees, barry gibb, frankie valli, john travolta, 1970s, 1978 John Travolta turned in a legendary performance in the film as Danny Zuko. Giphy

During the performance, Barry Gibb points to Grease star Olivia Newton-John, who’s seen dancing with her daughter, Chloe Lattanzi in the audience.

In the third verse, Valli's vocal from the original is played so you can hear the difference.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The magic started when producer Robert Stigwood, fresh from the Travolta-starring ‘77 hit Saturday Night Fever, went into production on a film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease. The film promised a killer soundtrack filled with new versions of the classic show tunes, but it needed a song for the film's opening credits.

So, Stigwood tapped Barry Gibb, lead singer of the Bee Gees, the band that had just launched into the stratosphere after being featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Stigwood also happened to be the band’s manager and planned to feature them in a Beatles-based musical, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Legend has it that Barry wrote the song “Grease" in one day. Instead of sounding like a '50s doo-wop or rockabilly track, it was a slick-sounding disco-adjacent number about a feeling of generational confusion. The song was given to Valli, who’d had a recent comeback with the songs “My Eyes Adored You” (1975) and the 1976 nostalgia-dazed Four Seasons doo-wop disco number “December 1963 (Oh, What A Night).”

Valli had the option of recording the song or appearing as the Teen Angel who sings “Beauty School Drop-Out.” The “Walk Like a Man” singer opted to do the theme song and Frankie Avalon was given the Teen Angel role.

grease, musicals, broadway, grease lightning, the bee gees, barry gibb, frankie valli, john travolta, 1970s, 1978 There's a good reason 'Grease' is one of the most famous musicals of all time. Giphy

“I just remember that it all happened in one afternoon,” Barry Gibb recalled. "I was babysitting and my wife was out. And Robert Stigwood called up and said, 'I have two wonderful new songs by John Farrar called ‘Hopelessly Devoted to You’ and ‘You’re the One that I Want.’ But we don’t have a song for the film's title. Could you come up with a song called ‘Grease’?” I said, “How do you write a song called ‘Grease’? I don’t understand what direction I would take to do that.' And Robert said, 'Just Grease duh-duh-duh-duh-duh, Grease duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.' So he wasn’t very helpful. But I understood that they really wanted something that was positive and sunny. It really all happened in that afternoon. I walked on the dock for a bit…."

Indeed, the feature film version of the musical is known for its upbeat and optimistic music when compared to the slightly darker tones of the stage musical.

Grease was a box-office smash and became the highest-grossing film of 1978. Unfortunately for Stigwood, his follow-up film, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring the Bee Gees, would be one of the biggest flops of the decade.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Grease” in 2018, Barry Gibb released the demo he originally recorded of the song accompanied by piano. Take a listen and chill out for a few minutes.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

This story originally appeared last year. It has been updated.


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100 years later, Buster Keaton's legendary film stunts are absolutely jaw-dropping

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Buster Keaton's feats still hold up after a century.

There's no question that filmmaking has come a long, long way in 100 years. Thanks to green screens, digital effects and CGI, today's filmmakers can make almost anything they can imagine come to life on screen. Moviegoers have grown used to seeing magical worlds, supernatural powers and impossible feats in movies, we get quite finicky if the quality of the effects doesn't hold up to our high standards.

Sometimes we watch movies from decades ago and giggle at how undeveloped the special effects were. And sometimes we watch old films and marvel at what they were able to do with the technology they had available to them at the time.

That's where Buster Keaton comes in.

Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin were both kings of physical comedy during the heyday of silent film, with Keaton being known for his expressionless physical feats and Chaplin being known for his goofy expressiveness. Both men excelled in their craft, and looking at Buster Keaton's stunts today is still incredibly impressive.

The man was fearless. And so physical. It's like watching "Mission Impossible" Tom Cruise mixed with peak Jackie Chan. But what's most impressive is that he did it all without the benefit of modern film technology. Naturally, there were some 1920s-era film tricks involved in some scenes, but he really did some incredibly difficult and dangerous things—things most people wouldn't even attempt.

Such impressive feats didn't come without a cost, however. Despite his stunt skills, he sustained some significant injuries throughout his film and television career, including broken bones, some severe neck damage and a near-drowning incident.

"He's like a human cartoon," someone commented, and it's true. It's like watching a real-life cartoon. Even today, nearly 100 years later, his physical comedy genius stands out among the best ever. Countless comedians and stunt performers have looked to him as an example and have used his performances as inspiration for their own.

It's not often that we can look back at something someone did a century ago and still hold it up as impressive by today's standards, but Keaton's feats fit that bill. What a treat that we got such a talent captured on film.

Before Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson, before Chuck Jones and Jackie Chan, there was Buster Keaton, one of the founding fathers of visual comedy.

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Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande's pop diva duel on Jimmy Fallon left people begging for more

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Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande duked it out on Jimmy Fallon's 'The Tonight Show.'

There are pop stars, and then there are singers. While recording studio technology can make people sound like amazing singers, the proof is in their live performances.

Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande took it a whole step further on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," delivering not only a jaw-dropping live performance but doing so in the form of revolving pop diva hits in an "impossible karaoke" showdown. In less than five minutes, they showed off their combined ability to nail pretty much anything, from imitating iconic singers' styles to belting out well-known songs with their own vocal stylings.

Watch this and try not to be impressed:

There's a reason Kelly Clarkson won the first season of "American Idol" and went on to become a multiplatinum recording artist. What's funny is seeing some people in the replies saying they didn't know she could sing like that. Yes. Yes she can. And she has since the beginning.

Check out this performance of Celine Dion's "I Surrender" during the first season of "American Idol." At this point, she was an amateur singer and her vocal chords were stressed after weeks of rehearsing and competing, and she still knocked it out of the park. Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson both said they'd put her in the same league as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, and she's shown she deserves that classification over and over again since.

And Ariana Grande has made a name for herself for her ability to impersonate different singers while also sounding freaking amazing. Jimmy Fallon has had her on his show multiple times doing musical impressions. Check this one out from when she was just 21 years old. I mean, singing "The Wheels on the Bus" as Christina Aguilera? The woman can sing. Period.

So of course, having Kelly Clarkson and Ariana Grande singing together is a real treat. And they've gifted us with a delicious duet for the holiday season with a live performance of "Santa, Can't You Hear Me." Their voices complement one another so beautifully, with Grande's silvery sweetness and Clarkson's rich resonance. The amount of talent pouring forth from these ladies is simply unreal.

As Jimmy Fallon said, "How?"

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Photographer takes portraits of people on the street, then shows them how beautiful they are

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Dino Serrao believes there is beauty in every person and is on a mission to prove it.

Serrao is an Italian photographer who lives in Norway and travels the world to photograph ordinary people on the street. His portraits are awesome, but the video documentation of him taking people's portraits is even better. He shares the videos and photos on his various social media channels and has created quite a following.

For a taste of why, watch Serrao convince this elderly grandmother to let him take her picture:

So many of his videos offer a similar feeling, but each in their own way. And that's really the point. Each person has their own individuality that creates their own unique beauty.

He just stops people right where they are in the street and asks to take their picture. And the results are stunning.

Sometimes it's a musician he captures:

Watch this one of a woman with her dog:

A guard at the royal palace:

And just generally interesting people:


In his "About Me" section of his website, Serrao says, "Creating a great impact in this world means socializing with all cultures and traveling all over to connect with each other, in hearts and minds." That's exactly what we see him doing.

Keep up the beautiful work, Dino Serrao. You can follow him on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

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