47 years ago today, Grease opened in theaters starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $8,941,717 in 862 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking at number 2 (behind Jaws 2).

The soundtrack album for Grease featured some original songs (Grease, Summer Nights, You’re the One That I Want) and covers mostly sung by Sha-Na-Na (Blue Moon, Hound Dog, Tears on My Pillow). It wound up being the second best selling album of the year. The soundtrack that was number one was from Saturday Night Fever, which also starred Travolta.

Fun fact: Two of the bass players who recorded on the Grease soundtrack were members of the band Toto.

Olivia Newton-John’s contract for Grease stipulated that she should have a solo spot. However, nobody had any ideas for a song for her character, Sandy, until Olivia’s producer John Farrar came up with “Hopelessly Devoted To You” halfway through the shoot. Director Randal Kleiser wasn’t wholly convinced by the song at first and had to come up with an entirely new scene to fit it in. It was eventually filmed and recorded after the movie had wrapped and it earned the film’s only Oscar nomination, for Best Music – Original Song.

John Travolta evoked this song when he introduced the In Memoriam segment at the Oscars in 2023, seven months after Olivia Newton-John died of cancer at 73. “In this industry we have the rare luxury of getting to do what we love for a living, and sometimes getting to do it with people we come to love,” a tearful Travolta said. “They’ve touched our hearts, they’ve made us smile, and became dear friends that we will always remain hopelessly devoted to.”