Has it really been 44 years since John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, as Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, respectively, sang You’re the One That I Want to each other in Grease?

The critically and commercially successful romantic comedy, set in the summer of 1958, stole our hearts and brought out our dancing shoes. Generations have been dancing and singing – some costumed as Danny and Sandy – to such songs as Greased Lightning, Summer Nights, and Hopelessly Devoted to You.

 

Released in 1978, Grease was the feature film debut of director Randal Kleiser and was written by Bronte Woodard with an adaptation by Allan Carr. Based on the 1971 musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, the film memorably featured Travolta, a leader of the greaser gang called T-Birds, and Newton-John, an Australian transfer student, who fall in love with each other one summer.

Hailed as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” when it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry, Grease became the highest-grossing musical film ever in that late 1970s era.

The film’s hummable soundtrack was the second bestselling album of the year behind the soundtrack of the 1977 blockbuster Saturday Night Fever (which also starred John Travolta). The 26-song compilation remains one of the world’s bestselling albums of recorded music.

The high school summer romance musical classic earned five nominations at the 1979 Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for John Travolta, Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for Olivia Newton-John, Best Original Song – Motion Picture for Barry Gibb’s Grease, and Best Original Song – Motion Picture for John Farrar’s You’re the One that I Want.

One of those films that many people love to watch again and again, the movie starred then 24-year-old New Jersey-born Travolta who was fresh from the success of his disco-themed hit Saturday Night Fever as Tony Manero.

In his HFPA interview in 1977, Travolta said that as a teenager, he “took some jazz lessons and some tap lessons. But I’ve always had a good instinct for dancing. I’ve always loved dancing. As a kid, I would go to Broadway shows and I’d get extremely excited by the dance numbers in the shows when I would commute from New Jersey to New York and see a Broadway musical or something. As a kid, I always danced just naturally. Then I decided I would pursue it and take some lessons. But I actually got more experience dancing through doing shows. I did musicals in summer theater and on Broadway. I got a lot of experience dancing during that time. I would say the crux of it was that.”

On Grease itself, he said at that time, “It is purely a general audience film. It’s a very entertaining musical and all. Everyone will be able to see it.”

After Grease, Travolta displayed his dramatic chops in Pulp Fiction (1994) and the TV drama series, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016) and his comedic talents in Get Shorty (1995) and Hairspray (2007), a musical where he played Edna Turnblad.

Now 68 years old, Travolta lost his wife, Kelly Preston, to breast cancer on July 12, 2020 when she was 57. They had three children: Jett (born 1992, died in 2009), Ella Bleu (born 2000), and Benjamin (born 2010).

 

Olivia Newton-John was 30 years old when she filmed Grease. The British-born Australian singer-songwriter-actress-entrepreneur-activist is one of the best-selling music artists from the second half of the 20^th century to the present, with a global sale of more than 100 million records.

 

In an HFPA interview in 1978, Newton-John recalled how she got involved in Grease. She shared, “Allan Carr, who is the producer, sent me the script and asked me if I was interested in playing the role of Sandy. I had seen the play in England maybe seven years ago. I loved it so I was interested in it.

“Then I met with John. He had not as yet become a big star from Saturday Night Fever but I had a feeling he was going to be. Luckily, I was right. We hit it off very well.

“We did a screen test together to make sure it was all going to work. I didn’t want to do it unless I had a look at myself first. I learned a great deal from it because being a singer, you’re pretty much in control of the whole situation as far as what songs you sing, and where you sing.

“In a movie, there are so many other factors. There are a lot of actors that you work with and you’re in the hands of the director, the editor, the lightning man, the script. It was very good discipline for me. I found out that I loved doing it.”

Grease was re-released on its 20th anniversary in 1998 and ranked as the second highest-grossing film behind Titanic on its opening weekend.

In a 2018 interview with Billboard on the 40^th anniversary of Grease, Newton-John pointed out, “The songs are timeless. They’re fun and have great energy. The ’50s-feel music has always been popular. It’s nostalgic for my generation. The young kids are rediscovering it every 10 years or so. People buying the album was a way for them to remember those feelings of watching the movie and feelings of that time period. I feel very grateful to be a part of this movie that’s still loved so much.”

Newton-John received the honor Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honors. She is married to John Easterling, founder and president of the Amazon Herb Company. She has a daughter, Chloe Rose Lattanzi (born 1986), with former husband actor Matt Lattanzi.

At 73, the singer-actress noted for her positivity continues to bravely fight stage IV breast cancer. In an interview on The Dr. Oz Show, she said, “I feel very, very grateful that I’m doing well and have been for a while. I’m very lucky enough to be married to a wonderful man who works with plant medicine, and that I think has been helping me so much.”

Also in Grease was the late Jeff Conaway who appeared as Kenickie, Danny Zuko’s buddy. Conaway died on May 27, 2011 of various causes, including aspiration pneumonia and encephalopathy. Conaway’s post-Grease credits included Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), Jawbreaker (1999), and Do You Wanna Know a Secret? (2001).

 

Award-winning theater and film actress Stockard Channing, who was unforgettable as Betty Rizzo in Grease, explained her approach to her supporting role in an HFPA interview in 2003. She explained, “You are just trying to create a human being. It just happens to be that the camera is there more frequently when you play a lead and it’s there less frequently when you play a supporting part.

“So basically, you’re trying to, along with the other actors, create a reality of some nature that is entertaining and informative to an audience. It’s pretty much the same stuff.”

She continued, “In all cases, you work with the people you’re working with. You may be alone in a scene, you just have the camera and the director is directing you and you’re in isolation, but most of the time you’re working with other people. It doesn’t really matter how much the camera sees because it’s the same process.”

Channing made other movies after Grease like Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Road to Avonlea (1995), Up Close and Personal (1997), Practical Magic (1999), and The Business of Strangers (2001).

 

In 1982, Grease 2 was released, starring Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer as a newer class of greasers. A few of the original cast members reprised their roles.

This year, it was announced that a 10-episode prequel series with a cast of newcomers is going to bring summer nights back to Paramount Plus in Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.

The series, set in 1954, or four years before Danny Zuko and his T-birds ruled Rydell High, will bring to the screen the origin story of the infamous girl gang, The Pink Ladies. The cast includes Marisa Davila, Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso, Tricia Fukuhara, Shanel Bailey, Madison Thompson, Johnathan Nieves, Jason Schmidt, and Maxwell Whittington-Cooper.

Also in post-production is Paramount Pictures’ Summer Lovin,’ which is a prequel to Grease and focuses on the fling that Danny and Sandy had before reconnecting at high school. It will be directed by Brett Haley and written by John August and Leah McKendrick.

With all these spin-offs, Grease is definitely still the word! Bring on the summer nights!