Olivia Newton-John -- Hopelessly Devoted to You

Oh, man, the nostalgia this movie evoked even back in its release of 1978. Just imagine now then ...seeing a very young John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John cutting a rug on the gymnasium floor and hearing that weirdly disco opening theme by Frankie Valli. Indeed, in a couple of months it will be 44 years since the cinematic adaptation of this 1971 musical hit the screens.

I have some very vivid memories of "Grease" the movie. The main reason is that it was the birthday movie that my brother's friend had invited all of us to go see with his father as the chaperone, followed by a Pizza Hut dinner and a sleepover at his apartment. Those last two events didn't gibe too well, though, but I won't get into that. Anyways, I'd never expected that I would ever catch "Grease" but we were thoroughly entertained right from "Summer Nights" which had us giggling at the pelvic thrusts. Of course, there were "Greased Lightnin'", "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" and "Beauty School Dropout" with the epic sets. Who would have thought that Travolta could sing after first knowing him on "Welcome Back, Mr. Kotter" and "Saturday Night Fever" (by the way, this article will be the third ROY item to involve Travolta)?

Well, we all knew that Olivia could sing for years in the country music genre. She had already been a regular presence on radio since the early 1970s, but apparently, she wanted to make that crossover into pop music and acting. So, getting into "Grease", she came up with "Hopelessly Devoted to You", a movie-original song with that familiar country twang and 50s love balladry created by songwriter-producer John Farrar. 

To quote Farrar's feelings on making the song from the Wikipedia article for "Hopelessly Devoted to You": "I spent the longest period writing the lyrics of any song I've ever written. Every thesaurus and every rhyming dictionary I had, just trying to really make it work properly". As a translator, editor and someone who used to go through a pile of kids' English essays in Japan, I can feel Farrar's pain.

Olivia's single came out in August 1978 although the "Grease" soundtrack which also contained the song had been released several months earlier, and even a couple of months before the movie came out. Although I hadn't been aware of it at the time, I now gather that "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was the showstopper entry since it was later nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar. It also hit the top of the charts here in Canada and went as far as No. 3 on US Billboard. This song was yet another OJN hit that was a regular on the radio, and I think that I have even heard Muzak versions of it as well.

Although OJN had come out with plenty of love songs in the past before "Grease" was the word, I wonder if "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was one of the inspirations at least for the debut tune of Anri（杏里）who's had a long and distinguished career. Interestingly enough, "Olivia wo Kikinagara"（オリビアを聴きながら）was put out on the record shop shelves later in 1978 in November. As well, I could imagine a young Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）covering this one, too. I don't know if she ever has, though. But for these reasons, I am happy to have Olivia here on the blog at last, and I know that it won't be the only time.

So, what were three singles that came out in August 1978 according to Showa Pops? Well, the three that I have here supposedly got released in July actually according to my original articles on them, but in any case, here goes.

Circus -- Ai de Koroshitai（愛で殺したい）

Haruo Chikada -- Kirikiri Mai (きりきり舞い)

Yoshitaka Minami -- Hizuke Henkosen（日付変更線）