IIRC, “Grease” was a play, first - correct? If so, was it a musical? If so, what songs were in the original play? - Jinx
Yes, Grease was a play before it was a movie, and it was, indeed, a musical. The Internet Broadway Database on Grease. I don’t know all the songs from the play (all of the T-Birds each had their own song in the original stage version), but I can tell you that “Hopelessly Devoted to You”, “Sandy” and “You’re the One That I Want” were written specifically for the movie.
So was the theme by Andy Gibb, written for Frankie Valli.
I think that I remember a song that was in the play but not in the movie: “It’s Raining on Prom Night.”
BMI credits Barry Gibb for that one.
Sorry, Zoe, but “It’s Raining on Prom Night” is on the motion picture soundtrack, performed by Cindy Bullens.
Thanks, y’all…I was wondering how the play compared. Now, on a more practical side, does anyone know when the fad of “greasing” one’s hair ended? Did people bother to wash their hair before bed, or did they sleep in that goop? - Jinx
For information on the musical’s numbers, click onto www.eur.com/musicals and do a search. I saw the original musical on Broadway. It had a cast of 18 and was very low budget, but done extremely well. I also liked the movie, which was entirely different.
People used “greasy kid’s stuff” up until the mid-60s. The Beatles were a big factor in the change – their hairdo was actually the standard greaser’s cut, only one day they decided not to bother with the grease.
Even before then, though, there was a reaction against the grease. Brylcreme (“A little dab’ll do ya”) made a big thing about how it held your hair in place without looking greasy, and products like Score promoted the fact they were water-soluable. I used Score myself until I was about 16.
You didn’t wash your hair every day, but the stuff tended to lose its hold and greasiness after a few hours.
And those lace things grandmas put on the headrests of tall chairs are called “antimacassars” because their role was to protect the upholstery from the macassar oil hair treatment people used to use. Such glop is still available and used–remember the Jheri Curl? In “Coming to America” a family whose company sold hair care products stood up and you could see the grease spots on the sofa where they had rested their heads.