"Grease" is a song written by Barry Gibb and performed by Frankie Valli. "Grease" is the title song for the 1978 musical motion picture Grease, which was based on the stage play of the same name. The song sold over seven million copies worldwide and was featured twice on the film's soundtrack: as the first track and reprised as the final track. Grease was written specifically for the 1978 musical motion picture; it had not originated from the stage production of Grease.
Background
and Warren Casey had written a different title track for Grease for its original Chicago production, but this song was discarded when the show was picked up on Broadway. Barry Gibb was commissioned to compose a new title song for the Robert Stigwoodfilm of the stage musical Grease.
Production
The song was recorded separately from, and significantly later than, the rest of the film's songs. Shortly after the filming of the 1978 musical filmSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Gibb invited castmate Peter Frampton to play guitar on the Grease session. Gibb himself provided backing vocals. The other musicians were some of those from the Andy Gibb album that was being made around the same time. Frankie Valli could sing in a vocal range similar to Gibb's and, as a result, was asked to record it. When Valli recorded Grease, he did not have a recording contract, but after the single was released on the RSO label, which issued the soundtrack, Valli quickly landed a deal with Warner Brothers. Grease was one of four original songs in the film that were not part of the original musical, and it was the only one not performed by the cast. The film's director, Randal Kleiser, did not like the added songs because they did not fit the late-1950s/early 1960s style either musically or lyrically. This was especially true of Grease, which used disco instrumentation and a contemporary 1970s beat; it was nonetheless left in. The film's opening title sequence animation was created by animator John David Wilson's Fine Arts Films studio.
Reception
Grease became a number one single in the United States in 1978 and also reached number forty on the R&B charts in the same year. In 1978, Valli released a follow-up album, the title of which—Frankie Valli... Is the Word—echoes the "grease is the word" lyric contained in the chorus of Grease. Grease remains Valli's most recent hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The Bee Gees never recorded a studio version of this song. However, they later performed the song in their One Night Only tour from 1997 until 1999, and they included a performance with Valli on their live album One Night Only.
It was sampled by De La Soul on their 1991 song "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays".
A single "The Word" by the group Dope Smugglaz was released in 1998. It was later remixed by PMT for the 2001 soundtrack to the motion picture Swordfish.
The opening horn line was sampled in the 2001 single "Rock the Party" by British pop group Five, as well as in the track "I Want You" by Paris Hilton on her debut album in 2006.
In 2011, the song was parodied by The Fringemunks to recap Fringe episode 3.07, "The Abducted."
Jessie J performed a special arrangement of the song for the 2016 Fox special . Her performance is shot in one take.
Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White covered the song in their duo album "Gentlewoman, Ruby Man" in 2017
