Grease - Which Album?

[tomswift2002]

So with Olivia Newton-John’s recent passing, when you want to hear the songs from Grease, do you prefer the original 1978 film soundtrack version or another recording like the 2016 Grease Live soundtrack or even another completely different album by a very different artist or artists?

Personally, for me I prefer the 1998 album by The Toronto Musical Review Grease: 16 Hits From The Musical on the ON STAGE label. Even though the front claims “16 Hits From The Musical” you’ve got a variety of songs from both the original stage musical and the 1978 movie. There’s both Sandy & Alone At The Drive-In which both take place at the same spot but the stage version used Drive-In, while the movie used Sandy. Now then some of the instruments do sound digital, like they were using a digital keyboard or digital drums, but it’s still a great sounding album (there’s only 4 people credited with singing, instruments and recording/mixing).

The original 1978 soundtrack, which I’ve got on both LP & CD, is alright, but I found that it kind of lost some of the energy that you felt in the movie, whereas the 1998 TMR CD retained that energy, even with the digital instruments.

 

[rockdoctor]

I have bought very few vocal soundtracks over the years as I prefer the instrumental soundtracks.
I have seen Grease a few times on TV and having that visual when hearing the song is more appealing than just hearing the song on the radio. Nevertheless, once you see the movie or stage production, then you have that visual sense when you do hear the song on the radio.
Now the one vocal soundtrack that I bought not seeing the movie or later stage production was Xanadu as the song Magic was such a great selection and I heard several of the songs from the movie as singles getting a lot of airplay and I really liked what I heard.

 

[Bobberman]

I prefer the 1978 movie soundtrack of Grease it was jam packed with hits plus the music from the movie that wasn't playing on the radio now I hear a lot of people say the sequel Grease 2 was better than the first I for one think it's OK but not superior but that's a topic for another time and thread

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I never knew there WAS anything besides the original movie soundtrack album.

 

[AM Matt]

The Four Tops "Back To School Again" (from 1982 "Grease 2") was the best song on the movie soundtrack!!

 

[Mr Bill]

OMST for me, thank you.

--Mr Bill
(if you knew the history behind "Grease"or "Sex in the City" you would definitely have a different POV on all this, especially given all the TG stuff going on these days)

 

[Mark-T]

OMST for me, thank you.

--Mr Bill
(if you knew the history behind "Grease"or "Sex in the City" you would definitely have a different POV on all this, especially given all the TG stuff going on these days)

TG?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

The two best songs on the album (in my humble opinion) are "Magic" and "All Over the World." The title tune is good, the rest are pretty forgettable to me. "Summer NIghts" is a good song but for me it loses a lot of appeal without the pictures to go with it.

"You're the One That I Want" hasn't aged well, to me, but I never did like it much anyway. My favorite memory of it is, I used to play it a lot when I was a dance DJ. The crowd would always sing along to the "ooh, ooh, ooh" parts, so I would always play it quite late when the crowd was pretty wound up. I would wait until they were really singing along and then I would yell "YOUR TURN!" and cut the sound for one of the "ooh, ooh, ooh's." The crowd would love it. I always caught a few off guard.

 

[Harry]

The two best songs on the album (in my humble opinion) are "Magic" and "All Over the World." The title tune is good, the rest are pretty forgettable to me. "Summer NIghts" is a good song but for me it loses a lot of appeal without the pictures to go with it.

"You're the One That I Want" hasn't aged well, to me, but I never did like it much anyway. My favorite memory of it is, I used to play it a lot when I was a dance DJ. The crowd would always sing along to the "ooh, ooh, ooh" parts, so I would always play it quite late when the crowd was pretty wound up. I would wait until they were really singing along and then I would yell "YOUR TURN!" and cut the sound for one of the "ooh, ooh, ooh's." The crowd would love it. I always caught a few off guard.

Are you confusing Xanadu with Grease? The songs you mentioned first were from Xanadu.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Well you’re right, of course. That’s embarrassing! Good grief, a senior moment.