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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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10 things that made us smile this week

@iammarilynmm/TikTok, @theworldofdog/Twitter

If you're looking for some snippets of delight, we've got you covered.

It's December! How did that happen? As the days get shorter and we head full-speed into the busiest holiday season of the year—yet again in the middle of a still-raging pandemic (weeeee!)—we could all use some glimmers of hope and snippets of joy to perk us up.

From laughing babies to dancing grandpas to creative Christmas carol commas (you'll see), here are 10 things that made us smile this week. We hope they'll do the same for you.

Watch a bunch of good doggos plunging in to play in the pool.

Living their best life at doggy day care. Look at all that joy.

Little girl dances like a pro to a street marching band. 

Seriously, that little one can move, and in her little puffer jacket no less! That is called feelin' it.

Guy creates the most hilariously creative rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" ever.

Absolutely incredible. It makes nerdy wordsmith hearts everywhere so happy. (I'd put the comma after "ye," but I'm not in charge.)

Watch a cat trying to catch snowflakes with its bare paws.

Cats are gonna cat, and you can't put a bunch of little things flying through the air in front of a cat and not expect them to pounce. Cuteness.

Speaking of cuteness in the snow, this older couple frolicking like children in the snow is just so wholesome.

They're not that old, but seeing them skipping and jumping like little kids is just adorable. Simple love, simple joy—it's really all we want.

Broadway actors sing a gorgeously moving tribute to Stephen Sondheim.

Broadway musical composer extraordinaire Stephen Sondheim passed away at age 91 this week, leaving a wealth of creative beauty behind. A group of Broadway actors and singers gathered in New York to sing a tribute to him with the opening song of his musical "Sunday in the Park with George." So beautiful. Read the full story here.

Baby gets the giggles because apparently coughing is downright hilarious.

The only thing better than the sound of baby laughter is the sound of that laughter when they find something random side-splittingly funny.

Old man dances along with a street musician and he's got serious moves.

He may use a cane to get around, but he certainly doesn't need it to get down. How joyful.

We get to watch the birth of iconic Beatles songs right before our eyes

The Peter Jackson documentary series "Get Back," consisting of candid footage of the Beatles that had been locked in a vault for five decades, came out last weekend on Disney+. Holy moly, does it contain some gems. If you ever wanted to see Paul McCartney literally pull a song out of thin air, here you go. Read the full story here.

A son heading back to college had the sweetest exchange with his baby brother.

@iammarilynmm

My oldest is headed back to college and his younger brother had to let him know how much he loves him. Volume up ⬆️ #brothers #myboys #momof4 #momsoft

If this doesn't warm your heart, are you sure you even have one? "I LUB YOU!!!!" And that "Mmmmm" at the end. Too dang cute. (Go ahead and watch this one a dozen more times for good measure. Indulge in that delight.)

Hope that brought some joy to your heart and a smile to your face! Come back again next week for another round-up of happiness.

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A group of Broadway greats sang a triumphant tribute to Stephen Sondheim in Times Square

YouTube

All of Broadway performing Sondheim.

Success is measured not by a list of our accomplishments, but by a legacy of people inspired by our passion.

This past Sunday (November 28), Broadway royalty gathered together in Times Square to pay tribute to Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricist who created legendary works for six decades, and whose name is practically synonymous with musical theatre. The tribute came after his passing on Friday.


The entertainers sung “Sunday” from “Sunday in the Park With George.” Some think that Sondheim wrote a fictionalized story about George Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, but it would be more accurate to say that he captured the essence of an artist’s inner battle between pure passion and toxic obsession, and simply set it to music. Such was Sondheim’s talent for encapsulating the human condition into breathtaking lyrics and dynamic composition.

Broadway Honors Sondheim—'Sunday' from 'Sunday in the Park With George' in Times Square 11/28/21

The massive crowd is a sea of recognizable faces, including Sara Bareilles (“Waitress”) and Josh Groban. Perhaps most easily spotted is teary-eyed Lin Manuel Miranda, a modern-day Sondheim in his own right.

Miranda would later be seen reading a passage about “Sunday in the Park with George” from Sondheim’s memoir, which read:

"Once during the writing of each show, I cry at a notion, a word, a chord, a melodic idea, an accompaniment figure... In this show, it was the word ‘forever’ in ‘Sunday.' I was suddenly moved by the contemplation of what these people would have thought if they’d know they were being immortalized, and in a major way, in a great painting.”

In an age where we’re more likely to stay at home and watch Netflix than go to a live concert, let alone go see a musical, there are many who have not experienced that inexplicable, magic quality that live theatre possesses. At its best, it inspires people to use their voice, practice empathy and come together in community with one another. Sondheim was the very best of the best at embodying this quality in his works. And if this video is any indication, he will be sorely missed.

Sondheim too will be immortalized, perhaps in a way he’d never imagined during his lifetime.

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Hamilton's missing 'Cabinet Battle #3' addresses the slavery issue the show glossed over

Devon Pasternak/YouTube

"The issue on the table..."

Two of Hamilton's most beloved numbers are the Cabinet Battles between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In Cabinet Battle #1, the issue on the table was Hamilton's national financial plan. In Cabinet Battle #2, the issue was whether to provide France assistance in their revolutionary war.

But there was a third rap battle written for the show, which was cut due to time and because it didn't actually move the plot along. The issue on the table for Cabinet Battle #3? Slavery.

One of the few criticisms of the Hamilton musical is that it goes light on the issue of slavery—criticism that creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and others in the original cast say they welcome and hope people talk about more.

Squeezing a founding father's life and a huge chapter in American history into a 2.5 hour stage production with adequate character development, plot movement, musical flow, etc. is a herculean task, and Miranda has said he wrestled mightily with what to keep and what to cut. Slavery is obviously a huge issue, but since none of the founding fathers in the show actually did anything to end it, the light treatment makes sense from a plotline perspective.

From a historical perspective, however, the omission is glaring. Much can be said about how the men who founded the United States thought about and engaged with the institution of slavery—and how their beliefs and actions were often at odds with one another.

Jefferson called the slave trade an "assemblage of horrors," and slavery itself a "moral depravity" and a "hideous blot," yet he kept more than 600 men, women, and children enslaved in his lifetime and fathered six children with one of them.

Washington became increasingly anti-slavery in his later years and was the only slaveholding founding father to free his slaves—but he only did so in his will. (He also had false teeth that may have been made up of the teeth of enslaved people.)

Madison argued that slavery was incompatible with the values of the Revolution, but he himself enslaved people his entire life, even selling people for a profit.

Hamilton himself, though publicly against slavery, did nothing of consequence to change it.

All of these hypocrisies and contradictions are highlighted as these men debate the issue in Cabinet Battle #3. It's too bad it didn't make it into the final cut of the show, but it can be found on the Hamilton Mix Tape album. And someone made a nice animatic video for it, making it a bit clearer who is speaking (since the recording has Miranda rapping all the parts):

Cabinet Battle #3 (Animatic)www.youtube.com

And there you have it. "Let's hope the next generation thinks of something better."

As much as many of us would love to see the slavery problem tackled more directly in Hamilton, the truth is that at that time and in that place and with those men, slavery wasn't going anywhere. It was wrong and they knew it, but they benefited from it. It was a sin and they knew it, but like Hamilton with Mariah Reynolds, they didn't say no to it. Instead, they chose to pass the ticking time bomb to their descendents.

Miranda explained Hamilton's slavery complicity in an NPR interview last week. "Hamilton—although he voiced anti-slavery beliefs—remained complicit in the system. And other than calling out Jefferson on his hypocrisy with regards to slavery in Act 2, doesn't really say much else over the course of Act 2. And I think that's actually pretty honest. ... He didn't really do much about it after that."

"None of them did. None of them did enough," Miranda added. "And we say that, too, in the final moments of the song. So that hits differently now because we're having a conversation, we're having a real reckoning of how do you uproot an original sin."

Here's another video of the song with the lyrics and names to make it easier to follow:

The Hamilton Mixtape - Cabinet Battle 3 (Demo) Music Lyricswww.youtube.com

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