Before they reached number 1, New York soul trio Odyssey were best known for Native New Yorker. But Use It Up and Wear It Out, which didn’t even chart in the US, was originally tucked away as a B-side, before it began igniting UK dancefloors.
Before
None of Odyssey were native New Yorkers. Before the group existed, there were The Lopez Sisters, from Stanford, Connecticut. Lead vocalist Lillian Lopez Collazo Jackson and elder sisters Louise Lopez and Carmen Lopez were raised there after being initially raised in the Virgin Islands.
The Lopez Sisters had been performing from a young age, and they headlined New Faces of 1968 at Carnegie Hall. They were spotted by an agent and booked to perform a European tour. When they returned five months later, Carmen left to get married. Lillian and Louise resolved to continue, but with a man on the team, so they hired Filipino bassist and singer Tony Reynolds.
As soul and disco act Odyssey, they signed with RCA Records in 1977 and worked with prolific producer and songwriter Sandy Linzer, who helped create many 60s pop tunes with Denny Randell and Bob Crewe. They recorded their eponymous debut LP and Native New Yorker became their debut single. The upbeat Native New Yorker had previously been an album track for Frankie Valli, but it was Odyssey’s version that became a hit. Though the single only peaked 21 in the US, it reached five in the UK. No further singles from the album charted, and Reynolds left the trio, to be replaced by Fayetteville, North Carolina native William ‘Bill’ McEachern.
Second LP Hollywood Party Tonight was released in 1978 but didn’t leave much of a mark, with no singles charting. Odyssey were beginning to look like one-hit wonders, who had arrived too late to ride the wave of disco. Third album Hang Together came out a year later, and the single Don’t Tell Me, Tell Her, was another failure. On the flip side was Use It Up and Wear It Out. Linzer co-wrote the track with L Russell Brown, who had co-written Knock Three Times and Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.
Review
Use It Up and Wear It Out is an infectious combination of disco and salsa, which had been all the rage a few years previous when Saturday Night Fever was everywhere. But then came the ‘Disco Sucks’ movement. From an acid-fuelled club movement in the mid-70s, disco was now attempted by most mainstream artists, with varying degrees of success. So a backlash was inevitable. But the ‘Disco Sucks’ concept was ugly, often used as an excuse for homophobic, racist remarks. And it led to the ridiculous Disco Demolition Night, where records were blown up and a riot ensued between Major League Baseball games at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois on 12 July 1979.
‘Disco Sucks’ had sped up disco’s demise in the US, but not so much in the UK. So Use It Up and Wear It Out was welcomed here with open arms. And deservedly so, because although it’s not up there with classics of the genre, it’s good fun. The jerky, Latin groove gets under the skin, while Odyssey issue a call to arms to get up and dance. If the music’s right and the stars align, it’s true that dancing becomes everything, so the line ‘Ain’t nothin’ left in this whole world I care about’ is particularly effective. As is often the case with disco, the 12″ version is better because it’s easier for the rhythm to work its magic, although there’s not that much difference between this and the single edit. The keyboard sounds… well, yes, they’re a bit quirky and an acquired taste, but I enjoy them. Use It Up and Wear It Out may be a minor chart-topper, but it’s a decent one.
After
Capitalising on momentum, Odyssey followed up Use It Up and Wear It Out with If You’re Lookin’ for a Way Out, which peaked at six. The parent album’s title track fared less well, only making it to 36 in 1981. That same year came another album, I Got the Melody, which contained their version of Lamont Dozier’s classic Going Back to My Roots – and it soared to four.
Odyssey’s last charting single was Inside Out (three), the first track from 1982’s Happy Together. This was their final work for RCA, and Reynolds left, so the name proved more than a little ironic.
The Outro
Odyssey continue but the line-up has changed. For some time, the trio consisted of Lillian, her future husband Al Jackson and her son Steven Collazo. When his mother and step-father retired in 2003, Collazo took charge and hired twins Annis and Anne Peters for the 2011 album Legacy. They were replaced in 2013 by Jerdene Wilson and Romina Johnson, who had sang on Artful Dodger’s 2000 garage hit Movin’ Too Fast.
The Info
Written by
Sandy Linzer & L Russell Brown
Producer
Sandy Linzer
Weeks at number 1
2 (26 July-8 August)
Trivia
Births
28 July: Rock climber Leo Houlding
Deaths
26 July: Theatre critic Kenneth Tynan 28 July: Businessman Sir Cullum Welch 29 July: Nurse Eileen Skellern 4 August: Actress Dorice Fordred 5 August: Composer Normal Fulton 6 August: Agriculturalist Leslie Hilton Brown 7 August: Socialist activist Lady Clare Annesley/Railway engineer Henry Everard/Children’s author Kathleen Fidler
Meanwhile…
26 July: Bow Wow Wow’s C30, C60, C90, Go – the first pop single to be released on cassette format –peaked at 34 in the charts.
29 July: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced the introduction of Enterprise Zones. The new employment relief was targeted at areas in Britain which had been hardest hit by deindustrialisation and unemployment.
The Bee Gees rounded off an astounding few years with a fourth number 1. It was to mark the start of another downward slide in their fortunes, however.
Before
Thanks to the disco boom and their part in the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever, the Gibb brothers were everywhere in the late-70s. After Night Fever became their third UK number 1, the LP was mined further. Yvonne Elliman’s version of If I Can’t Have You was a US number 1. The Tavares’ version of More Than a Woman was a number seven hit in the UK. In March 1978 songs by The Bee Gees held the number 1 and two spots in the US with Night Fever and Staying Alive – a feat unrivalled since The Beatles. Five songs written by the Gibbs were in the top 10 at once over there that month, too.
Barry Gibb and brother Robin wrote Emotion, a number 11 UK hit for their Australian friend Samantha Sang and The Bee Gees performed backing vocals and Barry wrote the classic theme to the smash-hit cinema adaptation of Grease, sung by Frankie Valli – a US number 1. It wasn’t a good time to be alive if you weren’t a fan of the Gibbs.
However, not everything they touched turned to gold. They starred in their manager Robert Stigwood’s famous flop Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, based on The Beatles’ concept album, in 1978. The critics hated it and the public ignored it. They featured heavily on the soundtrack too. But at least while working on the film, the Gibbs did co-write the excellent Shadow Dancing for their younger brother Andy, which also became a US number 1.
From there, they went to work on their follow-up to Saturday Night Fever. Spirits Having Flown, their 15th album, was co-produced by Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson. Galuten has claimed that it was he, Richardson and Barry who did most of the work, though keyboardist Blue Weaver disputes this. They both agree that Robin took on more of a behind-the-scenes role, active in songwriting and offering feedback during the recording process. He performed only one solo lead vocal, on Living Together, amounting to the least work he had featured on a Bee Gees album since the 60s. It wasn’t a happy time for Maurice, who was an alcoholic and struggling with back pain. Although he recorded bass parts, he didn’t know they were later overdubbed.
In a bid to prove they weren’t just about filling disco dance floors, the first single from Spirits Having Flown was the ballad Too Much Heaven. It was another US number 1, and peaked at three in the UK. That single and the next, Tragedy, had been written by Barry, Robin and Maurice earlier the same day as Shadow Dancing.
Review
I’ve mixed feelings about Tragedy. I’ve never been much of a fan until relistening for the blog just now. I previously found it overblown and too melodramatic, with the Gibbs harmonies, which I normally enjoy, just too much. Now, I can see it’s a decent enough tune, just not up there with the likes of Staying Alive and Night Fever. I mainly like the bubbling synth sound on the verses. But it outstays its welcome somewhat and is a sign the Gibbs were starting to slide creatively. Though nobody can deny they’d had a bloody good run.
After
It would be eight years before The Bee Gees next held the top spot in the UK. Just as with psychedelia at the close of the 60s, the genre the Gibbs had aligned themselves with, disco, became unfashionable. The Bee Gees were much more successful at the point though, and had farther to fall. The backlash became so strong, they were forced into writing hits for others.
The Outro
Tragedy would return to the top of the charts in 1998 when it became half of a double A-side with Heartbeat for the dance-pop group Steps. It became their signature song and led to a stupid trademark dance as well. Shorn of the synths, it’s not as good as the original.
1978 was the year of Grease. Romantic leads John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John remained at number 1 for most of the summer with a song that was never in the original stage musical.
Before
The stage show had been created by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey and premiered in a Chicago, Illinois nightclub in 1971. It was set specifically in Chicago and based on Jacobs’s time at high-school there. Noticeably grittier than the later productions and film it spawned, there were a number of other differences. Most of the characters were Polish-American, Doug Stevenson played Danny Zuko and Leslie Goto was Sandy Dumbrowski. The T-Birds were known as the Burger Palace Boys. The only person from the cast of the original Grease to become famous was Marilu Henner, who played Marty. It had a much shorter running time, was shocking and had an almost entirely different soundtrack.
The team behind the musical made a deal to take the show to Off-Broadway in 1972. It became very popular and received seven Tony nominations. By the summer it was on Broadway itself, where it ran until 1980. Barry Bostwick played Danny and Carole Demas was Sandy. During the course of its run, several actors and actresses came and went, becoming famous and/or starring in the movie. Among the Dannys were Jeff Conaway (before becoming Kenickie) and Patrick Swayze. Richard Gere was Sonny and John Travolta was Doody. In 1973 Grease also started a UK run until 1974, featuring Gere, promoted to be Danny, and Stacey Gregg as Sandy. Paul Nicholas and Elaine Paige took over.
It was only a matter of time before someone decided to turn this musical into a movie. Robert Stigwood, manager of The Bee Gees and producer of Saturday Night Fever (1977), produced with Allan Carr, who had worked on Tommy (1975) and Saturday Night Fever. Randall Kleiser made his movie directing debut after being recommended by Travolta, one of the hottest talents of the era.
John Joseph Travolta was born 18 February 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey. His father was a Sicilian-American tire salesman and his mother an actress and singer. The Travolta children all wanted to follow in their mother’s footsteps. He dropped out of high school in 1971, aged 17 and moved to New York, where he landed the role of Doody. His first major role came in the horror Carrie in 1976 and that same year he had a Billboard top 10 hit with Let Her In. Landing the roll of Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever turned him into a superstar and so he was a natural choice to star as Danny in Stigwood’s latest project (although apparently Happy Days star Henry Winkler had turned it down). As well as suggesting Kleiser as director, Travolta reckoned pop and country singer Olivia Newton-John would make a great Sandy.
Newton-John was born in Cambridge on 26 September 1948. Her Welsh father had been an MI5 officer and worked on the Enigma project in the Second World War. Her maternal grandmother was Jewish Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born and her third cousin is comedian Ben Elton. In 1954, when she was six, the family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia.
Newton-John’s singing career began at the age of 14 when she formed all-girl group Sol Four. She entered and won a talent contest on TV show Sing, Sing, Sing and won a trip to the UK. Although reluctant to go, her mother encouraged her and while here she recorded debut single Till You Say You’ll Be Mine in 1966. When friend and fellow singer Pat Carroll moved to the UK, they formed a duo but she turned solo once more when he returned to Australia.
Music mogul Don Kirshner briefly hired Newton-John to feature in short-lived girl group Toomorrow. From there she released her first solo album, If Not for You in 1971. The title track, written by Bob Dylan and recorded by George Harrison the year previous, was a big hit, peaking at seven in the UK. Follow-up Banks of the Ohio did one better and a cover of Harrison’s What Is Life climbed to 16 a year later. Newton-John’s version of Take Me Home, Country Roads went to 15 a year later.
In 1974 Newton-John entered the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK. She finished fourth with Long Live Love but it did respectably enough chart-wise, reaching 11. Later that year she scored her first US chart-topper with I Honestly Love You and her second with Have You Never Been Mellow in 1975. Despite this and scoring several Grammys too, there was a backlash in the States over a foreigner recording country music. Nonetheless, Newton-John left the UK to live over there. She returned to the UK singles chart in 1977 with the ballad Sam, peaking at six.
Following a dinner party at Helen Reddy’s home in which she met Carr, Newton-John was offered the role of female lead, renamed Sandy Ollson and was told they would make the character Australian to accommodate her accent. However she was initially reticent, fearing she was too old at 28 to be playing a high-school senior. It’s fair to say she probably doesn’t regret changing her mind in the end.
The scene in which Danny and Sandy are finally reconciled had until the film been soundtracked by a song called All Choked Up. It was in similar in theme to You’re the One That I Want but as the name suggests, much closer musically to an Elvis Presley pastiche. It was decided that one of Newton-John’s top songwriters and producers, John Farrar, who was a fellow Australian and had featured in The Shadows from 1973-76 would write two brand new songs for the movie. One was Hopelessly Devoted to You and the other, You’re the One That I Want.
Neither really fitted with the rest of the soundtrack which mostly evoked the spirit of 50s pop and rock’n’roll. The former was a country-tinged love song in more in keeping with Newton-John’s usual output. Kleiser was not fond of the latter. Fortunately, the rest of the world didn’t really agree with the film’s director.
Review
Me neither. I’m a self-professed hater of musicals. And yet, there are a few exceptions and this is probably the biggest one. It’s certainly the most famous. Like many of my age, I was first shown Grease as a child in the early 80s. I remember being enthralled from the opening bars of The Bee Gees-written theme tune sung by Frankie Valli when a friend down my street loaded his VHS copy (the Gibbs really were on fire back then). I also remember being really disappointed when the animation ended and an actual film began. The disappointment soon dissipated though.
I loved everything about Grease. I didn’t understand all the risqué jokes and sexual stuff going on but I was bowled over by the characters and music, like most people. And I also think I was chuffed that Danny and Sandy got together and even then, knew that there was something very exciting about Newton-John wearing the tightest clothes I’d probably seen at that point while purring ‘Feel your way’. Not thrilled with the perm, though.
The pure pop brilliance of You’re the One That I Want never dims despite decades of overexposure. It’s unlikely I’d ever put it on by choice but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it every time I hear it. Pure cheese of course, but the strutting verses are cool and the chorus ultra-catchy. It’s always hilarious to watch Travolta miming to those legendary opening lines sung by him like a cat in pain and ‘It’s electrifying’ will never not be funny. Unfortunately I can’t hear it without singing ‘Those new yoghurts you’re supplying, they’re electrifying!’ due to a 90s advert for St Ivel Shape. Weird how these things stick.
After
I’d assumed until now that You’re the One That I Want reigned supreme for almost the whole of the summer of 1978 because Grease was a box office smash and this marks the happy ending of the movie. Amazingly, Grease hadn’t even been released in the UK at this point. The US release came on 16 June, the day before it topped the chart in the UK. The British premiere came on 14 September. So for many, the clip from the film used to promote this single was their introduction to Grease. Which means you can take that mammoth nine-week run, the longest of the decade (equalled byBohemian Rhapsody and Mull of Kintyre/Girls School) mostly as a sign of sheer love of the song.
However by this point the term ‘new wave’ was being coined to describe the alternative music scene that had risen from the ashes of punk. To the young music fans of acts like Blondie and The Police, the sight and sound of You’re the One That I Want on Top of the Pops throughout that summer must have become a huge annoyance. The Boomtown Rats proved the point to great effect later that year.
Travolta and Newton-John went number 1 across the globe with this first release from what was to become the highest-grossing musical of all time up to that point. It soon became prone to spoofs, from the likes of The Goodies and sadly Hylda Baker & Arthur Mullard. This ageing duo, both comic actors (the latter a horrible bastard), dressed up as Sandy and Danny and performed a truly dire version on Top of the Pops, which took them to 22 in the chart later in 1978.
The Outro
As I write this, You’re the One That I Want is ranked the fifth biggest-selling single of all time. It’s unlikely this will change. In 1990 itsaw chart action once more thanks to The Grease Megamix. This amateurishly edited medley of You’re the One That I Want along with Greased Lightnin’ and Summer Nights peaked at three. It remained popular for years though – it was still getting played in my student union in the late-90s. To mark the 20th anniversary of the Grease film phenomenon, a dance version called You’re the One That I Want(Martian Remix) climbed to four in 1998. I have no recollection of this whatsoever. Nor do I remember the London cast recording by Craig McLachlan and Debbie Gibson which reached 13 in 1993.
The Info
Written & produced by
John Farrar
Weeks at number 1
9 (17 June-18 August)
Trivia
Births
20 June:Footballer Frank Lampard 22 June: Race car driver Dan Wheldon 30 June: Comedian Romesh Ranganathan 2 July: Actor Paul Danan 23 July:Footballer Stuart Elliott 31 July:Coldplay drummer Will Champion/Racing driver Justin Wilson
Deaths
23 July:Footballer Tommy McLaren 30 July:Scottish Labour MP John Mackintosh 31 July:Actor Carleton Hobbs 14 August:Writer Nicolas Bentley/Nuclear physicist Norman Feather
Meanwhile…
17 June: Media reports suggest a general election is on the cards in the autumn as the Labour minority government led by James Callaghan appears to be coming to an end. Only four months previous the Conservatives were 11 points ahead but it now looked like Labour would return with a majority.
19 June: Ian Botham becomes the first cricketer to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.
21 June: An outbreak of shooting at a Post Office depot in Belfast between Provisional IRA members and the British Army results in the deaths of one civilian and three IRA men. Also on this day, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita opens at the Prince Edward Theatre in London.
6 July: 11 people are killed when fire breaks out in a sleeping car train in Taunton, Somerset.
7 July: The Solomon Islands are annexed to the Crown and made independent from the UK.
25 July: Louise Brown becomes the world’s first human to be born from in vitro fertilisation in Oldham, Greater Manchester.
