If the 1950s are worthy of a nostalgic resurrection, then St. Louis is a nice waltz with Bullens accompanying St. Newton-John slows down (“Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee”) and it has a nice soulful effect.
Newton-John slows the song down and it has a nice soulful effect. Newton-John’s version though is better than Stockard Channing’s, likely due to the fact that Newton-John is primarily a singer and Channing, an actor. There is the reprise of “Grease” by Frankie Valli and Newton-John’s take on “Look At Me I’m Sandra Dee”. Sides 3 and 4 don’t contain the big hits that Side 1 and 2 have, and again, much of this album appears to be filler. Some of the soundtrack though is good such as with Cindy Bullens singing “Freddy My Love”, not her song but she does a great job with it and it as with most of the songs on Grease, are written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Side 3 and 4 features a mish-mash of songs including the regrettable “Rock N’ Roll Party Queen” by Louis St. Grease: The Original Soundtrack is a double album and I think the company that put together this record had to stretch to fill 4 records by including every song that was playing in the background during the film.
The 50’s pop sound is a familiar one to many, indicative of perhaps the earliest attempts at making pop music formulaic I mean, why does every 1950s song sound like “Blue Moon” or “Hound Dog”? Both songs are covered on the Grease soundtrack by Sha-Na-Na. The 50’s pop sound is a familiar one to many, indicative of perhaps the earliest attempts at making pop music formulaic. With Grease: The Original Soundtrack, I’m not such a big fan of Sha-Na-Na and their retro 1950s-schtick but if you want that 1950s-sound, they do a pretty good job to be honest. I’ve only seen the film version of Grease starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, and it’s one of the better film musicals. I am personally not a big fan of musicals but it helps when the songs are good. Songs for musicals need to compel the audience to suspend disbelief that people are actually singing songs instead of acting normally and talking or, better yet, staying quiet. You have to respect the energy that goes into live performances and it can be heard, perhaps ironically, in the not live recordings for the 1978 film Grease: The Original Soundtrack.