“Grease: The Original Movie Soundtrack from the Motion Picture” hit #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart on this date; July 29, 1978. It was released 0n April 14th of that year, two months before the film hit movie theaters around the nation.
The album featured original songs by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-john, who starred as the two main characters Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson. Frankie Valli, lead singer of the Hall of Fame vocal group The Four Seasons, performed the title song “Grease.” That song was written by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees. The album also included cover versions of old songs by rock and roll revival group Sha Na Na. The soundtrack produced two number one singles and a total of five songs which entered the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
The “Grease” soundtrack is one of the best-selling movie soundtracks of all time, with over 28 million copies sold according to Wikipedia. In 1978, it became the second best-selling movie soundtrack behind the massive “Saturday Night Fever” original movie soundtrack. Since then, soundtracks from movies like “The Bodyguard” and “Dirty Dancing” have outsold it.
Forty-four years ago today the “Grease” soundtrack first reached number one. It would remain in the top spot for seven consecutive weeks. Boston’s “Don’t Look Back” knocked it out of the top spot for a week, with “Grease” returning to number one for two more weeks. Boston came back for one more week at the top, and then “Grease” reclaimed the number one position for another three weeks, making it 12 total weeks at the pinnacle of the Hot 100.
The kids from Rydell High are still on summer vacation, so let’s relive the good times with the top five charting songs from that great movie musical!
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Larry Martino is the long-time Afternoon Drive personality on 96.3 KKLZ. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of Larry Martino and not necessarily those of Beasley Media Group, LLC.
