Various – Grease (The Original Soundtrack From The Motion Picture)

Brings me back to my childhood and doing choreographed routines to "Greased Lightning"! Sounds as good as I remember. Nice pressing. RIP ONJ, loved your voice.

Sing-along fun for fifties music lovers! That's what the Grease soundtrack is about.

Bought one recently and quite impressed by the quality of the pressing. Gave the record a good amount of cleaning before playing. Expectation was low but pleasantly surprised by how good the Sha Na Na tracks are. Brings back good memories.

Until 1978, the Broadway production of "Grease" was deemed definitive and impossible to improve upon. In its off-Broadway 1971 Chicago run, the lyrical content was more explicit and the secondary cast featured more heavily, with even minor characters performing their own numbers. Of these embryonic versions, none had the potential to top the Billboard chart, but as the show gradually became more popular, so too did the idea that "Grease" would translate well on the big screen, albeit with significant changes. Somehow, "Grease" was the exception to the rule that stage productions are by definition overblown and therefore do not require further exaggeration. In order to fully manifest the pastiche elements, magical realism and kitschy stylings of the context, "Grease" required heightened, bombastic performances by its cast, as well as more romanticized, fantastical plot elements. To endorse my claim that the musical, though acceptable and far less sanitized, was given new strength in its big screen adaptation, one need only heed the soundtrack, which almost surmounted its movie equivalent in terms of commercial success. As passionately, enthrallingly and seminally performed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, blockbusters such as "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "You're the One That I Want," and "Sandy," were all specifically written for the film version to not only capitalize on the nostalgia cycle and Newton-John's star power, but also to reach a much broader audience than the stage production ever could. Save for two songs from the musical, most of the original score was used, with the instantly appealing Sandy and Danny duets ensuring that "Grease" would be regarded as much of a '70s pop culture phenomenon as disco.

Commencing the soundtrack itself (accordant with the film) is the illogical yet entirely compatible disco-flavoured Frankie Valli-Barry Gibb opening theme, which, along with the other vocal takes, was recorded prior or subsequent to audio-to-video synchronization, thus elucidating the sonic disparities of the compositions to their film counterparts. Now larger in scale and bolstered by smooth pop production, the big musical numbers were delivered as terrific group performances by the T-Birds and Pink Ladies, namely "Summer Nights," "We Go Together," and "Greased Lightnin'", all of which hold up just as well without visual accompaniment. Even Frankie Avalon's slick rendition of the Teen Angel piece "Beauty School Dropout", which plays up to Avalon's own teen idol heyday as well as the fantasy aspect of the film, is as integral to the soundtrack as Stockard Channing's stirring interpretations of Rizzo's solo numbers "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee" and "There Are Worse Things I Could Do". On the non-cast member front, the satisfactory contributions from '50s parody acts Louis St. Louis and Sha-Na-Na are also included, alongside instrumentals and background music insertions courtesy of Cindy Bullens, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Perhaps casual fans of the movie and devotees of the musical will balk at the stylized enactments of '50s standards, but they are all part of the fun. Along with most of the incidental cuts, they are comprised for the purposes of completeness and to mirror the film somewhat. Those who can overlook ostentation and outdated themes and values will revel in the enthusiastic performances and gentle satire of the evergreens contained herein. After all, musicals are designed to uplift the viewer into a state of exaltation, not to be assayed. And in the case of the "Grease" soundtrack, naff cover tunes and all, letting the sound of sheer escapism wash over you is an experience like no other.

Rating: 5/5

I might be in the minority but I like the theatrical versions of the songs more than the soundtrack mixes.
The 40th Anniversary / 70mm mix is great. Hopefully someday they''ll release an album with the theatrical mixes of the main songs (I can do without all the Sha Na Na and ancillary tracks).