Songoftheday 7/28/20 - Why, this car is automatic systematic hydromatic....

"The Grease Mega-Mix" - Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta

from the album Pure Disco (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #25 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 10

Today's song of the day is kind of special, in that it's a mix of three songs from the 1978 film adaptation of the musical Grease, starring Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. Two of the tracks, "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Lovin'", were big hits back then, with the former spending a week at #1 and the latter peaking at #5. In 1990, when Grease was released on video (VCR tape back then), the team of Phil Harding and Ian Curnow, who worked as remixers for the Stock Aitken Waterman production company that was massive at the time after successes from Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, and Bananarama, took parts of both those songs as well as the movie's "Greased Lightning" (which missed the top-40 at #47) to kick things off. It was a big international hit at the start of that decade, but it took until 1996, with the song appearing on the compilation Pure Disco, and the mashup became a radio hit again almost thirty years after their first release...

The "Grease Megamix" got enough mainstream radio love to reach the top-40 of the airplay component of Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 chart, even though it wasn't able to place on the official list since it wasn't released as a commercial single. It was the biggest hit for Olivia since her "Soul Kiss" back in the fall of 1985, and for John his best since the movie itself in 1978. The song also rose to #23 on their Adult Top-40 list as well. Internationally, in 1990, the Megamix topped the charts in Australia and Spain, and made the top ten in Denmark (#2), the UK (#3), the Netherlands (#3), Ireland (#4), Norway (#5), Belguim (#8), and Portugal (#10). Because of its inclusion, the Pure Disco collection did pretty well for a various artists oldies compilation, peaking at #83 in the U.S.

Two years later, during the 30th anniversary of the movie's release, another version of "You're The One That I Want", dubbed "the Martian Remix", went all the way to #4 in the UK and #27 in Australia. Also in 1998, Olivia released a new studio album, Back With A Heart, which included a redone version of her 1974 hit song "I Honestly Love You" with Babyface producing, which rose to #18 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, and #67 on the pop Hot 100 (her most recent appearance there).

Up tomorrow: Another 1970's classic gets a revamp, this time for Bugs Bunny and friends.