The Intro

John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John spent 16 weeks at the top of the charts in 1978 thanks to their starring roles in the film adaptation of Grease. First You’re the One That I Want for nine weeks and then this for seven more. If you weren’t a fan of Travolta, this period must have been hard work.

Before

Grease hadn’t even been released in the UK when their first chart-topper reigned supreme that summer. But the soundtrack album was already familiar. Frankie Valli’s brilliant performance of the Barry Gibb-penned theme tune had been a number three hit, then You’re the One That I Want. Next up to have a release was the only single so far to feature in the hit Broadway stage show.

Cleverly released in late-August to tie in with the end of summer, Summer Nights was written by the show’s creators Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey as a comical duet in which Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski (as she was known before Newton-John’s casting resulted in a name change) separately relay their blossoming relationship to classmates. Danny shows off to the Burger Palace Boys, as the T-Birds were originally known, acting like a proper lad. Unbeknownst to him, at the same time Sandy us telling the Pink Ladies a very different story about Danny’s sweet side.

Summer Nights was written when Grease transferred to Broadway. Before then, this scene in the original show was soundtracked by the song Foster Beach. In addition to Travolta and Newton-John, the soundtrack version featured other cast members on backing vocals, including Jeff Conaway as Kenickie and Stockard Channing as Rizzo on backing vocals.

Unlike the previous two singles from the film, Summer Nights actually sounds musically like the 50s, which is the era it’s set. Sort of, anyway. The film is set in 1958 but the backing vocals to this song are lifted from Da Doo Ron Ron (1963) and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do and Surfin’ Bird – both from 1962.

Review

Summer Nights doesn’t really work as a standalone song the way You’re the One That I Want does. It is, however, a great standout scene in the film and musical. Catchy and witty, there’s a lot of fun to be had in the lyrics showing the differences between how teenage boys and girls remember summer loving – it’s just that it works even better when you can see the cast giving it their all. According to these, the number one concern for the boys is how far Danny got and for the girls, whether he owns a car? The ‘tell me more, tell me more’ is a real earworm and the aforementioned 50s/60s backing vocals too. Newton-John’s vocal is suitably sweet/twee and Travolta… well, OK, always a better actor than singer, but he plays the part well and he has a great grasp of comedy.

Speaking of Travolta and comedy… obviously, there’s two parts of this song that have to be mentioned. Even as a very young boy, I couldn’t help but find his final ‘oh’ hilarious. Whose idea was it to go with that take?! I get that the point was that Danny’s tough-guy facade goes out of the window when he really thinks back to that summer, but it’s so camp it’s unreal. And then his wailing of ‘Niiiiiiiiights!’, hand aloft, triumphantly… Fair play to Travolta for capturing the sound of Frankie Valli, but it comes totally out of the blue and is just too much! Of course, you can’t imagine the song without those parts, it’s all part of the fun.

After

With the film released in UK cinemas a few weeks after this single, the momentum soon propelled Summer Nights to number 1, only seven weeks after You’re the One That I Want topped the charts. The soundtrack album, still one of the biggest sellers of all time, was mined for further singles, all hits too. Newton-John went to two with Hopelessly Devoted to You, closely followed by Travolta doing the same with Sandy. Then Greased Lightnin’ peaked at 11. Fast-forward to 1991 and the latter, combined with You’re the One That I Want and Summer Nights, were remixed sloppily but to great success as The Grease Megamix, which became a top three hit.

Following the mammoth success of the movie Grease, the musical was revived in London in 1979. Among the cast of this Grease were Tracey Ullman as Frenchy and Su Pollard as Cha-Cha. The film’s producers Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood made a sequel, Grease 2, released in 1982. Starring Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer, it didn’t achieve a smidgeon of the original’s success, but I have a lot of time for it. 11 years later the musical was revived in the UK again, this time featuring, among its cast, Craig McLachlan, Debbie Gibson, Darren Day, Shane Ritchie and Luke Goss from Bros.

A year later the US was treated to a Broadway revival followed by a tour, featuring tons of celebrities along the way including Rosie O’Donnell, Linda Blair, Chubby Checker, Micky Dolenz and Sheena Easton. Frankie Avalon reprised his movie role as Teen Angel in further US tours in 1996 and 2003. The leads for Broadway and West End revivals in 2007 were decided by viewers of reality series in the US and UK. Grease returned to the US once more in 2008 and then the UK in 2017, this time featuring Tom Parker from The Wanted as Danny. Within weeks of writing this blog, the latest UK version, delayed due to COVID-19, will begin touring, with Peter Andre as Teen Angel. It’s choreographed by Arlene Phillips.

The Outro

Whatever happened to John Travolta, though, eh? As we know, he’s led a career of ups and downs. His next film Moment by Moment, also made in 1978, was panned. It looked like a blip as the 1980 film Urban Cowboy was another hit (though not to the extent of his big 70s films) but it was followed by a string of failures. Notably, in 1983, Two of a Kind – a romantic comedy which reunited him as Newton-John – and Staying Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. Matters weren’t helped by him turning down roles in several blockbusters, including American Gigolo (1980), An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Splash (1984).

Things picked up eventually, thanks to his role in 1989 hit comedy Look Who’s Talking, easily his biggest success since Grease. Two sequels also did well, but he was truly revived critically and commercially in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in 1994. He received an Academy Award nomination for his role as Vincent Vega and scored his third iconic role to date. Back in the A-list, he starred in popular movies including Get Shorty (1995), Face/Off (1997) and Primary Colors (1998).

Travolta’s career suffered another setback in 2000 when he made Battlefield Earth. This sci-fi drama was a big deal for the actor. Travolta is a practicing scientologist (yeah, sorry) and it was based on a novel by the controversial religion’s founder, L Ron Hubbard, who had asked Travolta to make it. The film bombed. He remained busy afterwards, but the general quality of his roles fell somewhat. In 2007 he starred in the remake of Hairspray, his first musical since Grease. Travolta has been on hiatus since the untimely death of his wife Kelly Preson in 2020.

Newton-John was to have another number 1 in 1980 with the Electric Light Orchestra, so we’ll return to her when we get to Xanadu.

The Info

Written by

Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey

Producer

Louis St. Louis

Weeks at number 1

7 (30 September-17 November)

Births

7 October: Classical trumpeter Alison Balsom
25 October: Footballer Russell Anderson
26 October: Footballer Jimmy Aggrey

Deaths

17 October: Mountain climber Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz
28 October: Cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth

Meanwhile…

17 October: A cull of Grey seals in the Orkney and Western Islands was reduced after a public outcry. 

23 October: The government announced plans for a new single exam that would replace O Levels and CSEs.

25 October: A ceremony marked the completion of Liverpool Cathedral, whose foundation stone was laid in 1904.

27 October: Four people were killed and four others were wounded in a shooting spree which began in a street in West Bromwich and ended at a petrol station in Nuneaton. The following day, 36-year-old Barry Williams was arrested in Derbyshire for the shootings.

3 November: Dominica gained its independence from the UK.

4 November: A baker’s strike which had led to panic buying resulted in many bakeries imposing bread rationing.

10 November: The panic buying stops as most bakers go back to work. Fancy having all those days off, loafing around…