![]() (It’s a 6.) The other was “You’re The One That I Want.” Farrar, a former member of the Shadows, had produced Newton-John’s records for years, and he’s also written a bunch of songs for her, including the 1975 #1 “ Have You Never Been Mellow.” One of the songs that Farrar wrote for Grease, the vaguely countrified Newton-John solo showcase “ Hopelessly Devoted To You,” peaked at #3. Newton-John didn’t like all of the songs from the Grease musical, so John Farrar wrote a couple of new ones for her. A screen-test with Travolta went well, so she went for it. (It screened in one theater for a week before being shelved.) Travolta pushed for Newton-John to get the Grease part, but she was understandably nervous about returning to acting. In 1970, she’d also been the lead of Toomorrow, a Don Kirshner-produced psychedelic sci-fi musical that turned out to be a total disaster. As a teenager, she’d starred in a 1965 Australian musical called Funny Things Happen Down Under. ![]() Olivia Newton-John, Travolta’s Grease co-star and “You’re The One That I Want” singing partner, had plenty of success on the pop charts before Grease, but she hadn’t done much acting. A year later, Travolta released his debut single, a ballad called “ Let Her In.” It’s a moony and generic song, and Travolta clearly wasn’t much of a singer, but the song got to #10 anyway. In 1975, Travolta was cast as Vinny Barbarino on Welcome Back, Kotter, a sitcom that had a #1 hit for a theme song. Shortly after he dropped out of high school in 1971, Travolta moved to New York and won a role in a touring production of Grease. Travolta, who grew up in an Irish and Italian community in New Jersey, spent his entire life around music his mother had been a singer. “You’re The One That I Want” is Travolta’s only #1 hit, but it’s not his first time in the top 10. And because one of his big roles was in a musical, Travolta even managed to sing on one of those #1 hits. In 1978, Travolta arguably had a bigger pop-chart impact than any other actor in history. You could argue, for instance, that “My Heart Will Go On” owes as much of its success to Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as it does to Céline Dion, or that Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” became a massive smash because it gave the world a chance to feel bad about Paul Walker dying so young. Movies and pop music have always been inextricably intertwined, and placing a song on a big soundtrack has long been one of the easiest ways to get to #1. Plenty of actors have made impacts on the pop charts. (The year-old Rumours was #3.) Neither of those albums would’ve sold anywhere near what they did if they hadn’t had a young Travolta’s ridiculously statuesque face staring from their covers. (There was a three-week break between the last Fever #1 and the first Grease one.) The two biggest-selling albums of 1978 were the Saturday Night Fever and Grease soundtrack albums. The #1 singles from Saturday Night Fever were only starting to fade when the first #1 single from Grease showed up. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack had been a phenomenon, selling tens of millions of copies and pushing four different singles to #1. On the pop charts, Travolta’s impact was even more insane. Suddenly, John Travolta, one of the Sweathogs from Welcome Back, Kotter, was arguably the biggest movie star in the world. Grease was the biggest movie of 1978, besting Animal House and Superman. Six months later, Travolta starred in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease. The film ended up as the #3 box-office hit released in 1977, a year that also gave us Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kid. Saturday Night Fever, which made Travolta a star, opened in theaters during the last month of 1977. ![]() If you didn’t like John Travolta’s face, then 1978 must’ve been a tough year for you. ![]() In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present. ![]()
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