9. Januar 2009
Grease: You’re The One That I Want – John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John

Da habe ich ja fast meinen Ohren nicht trauen wollen, als die VIVA Moderatorin Collien Fernandes den neuen Song zum Film “Bolt – Ein Hund für alle Fälle” ankündigt und sich fragt wie das wohl klingen mag den ein singender John Travolta, ob das überhaupt geht?

Ja Hallo?

Was ist denn das für ein Musiksender der so inkompetente Moderatoren da an die Öffentlichkeit läßt?

John Travolta hat zusammen mit Olivia Newton-John einen der wohl kultigsten Musikfilme aller Zeiten gemacht und besungen: Grease

Und wer den Film nicht kentt, ebenso wenig wie den Kultong “You’re The One That I Want” dem spreche ich jegliche Fachkompetenz in Sachen Musik ab, denn immerhin war dieser Song fast überall auf der Welt die Nummer Eins in den Charts.

Grease – You’re The One That I Want
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGnZyJXGSMs

“You’re the One That I Want” is a song written by John Farrar for the 1978 film version of the musical Grease. It was performed by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

The single was a huge international hit, reaching no.1 in several countries. It was no.1 in the UK for nine weeks in the summer of 1978 and, as of 2008, is still the sixth best-selling single ever in the UK where it has sold over 1,975,000 copies. It also reached no.1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for one week, where it sold over 2 million copies. It was the first of two songs from the Grease soundtrack to top the U.S. and UK pop charts.

It also serves as the source of the title of the reality TV show Grease: You’re the One that I Want!.

Notable cover versions

“You’re the One That I Want”
Single by Craig McLaghlan and Deborah Gibson
from the album Grease – Original London Cast Recording
Length 3:27
Label Epic
Deborah Gibson single chronology
Free Me
(1993) You’re the One That I Want
(1993) For Better or Worse
(1995)

British comedians Arthur Mullard and Hylda Baker (both in their seventies at the time) also released a version of the song in 1978. This version is perhaps best remembered for an infamously bad live performance on the TV show Top of the Pops; both Mullard and Baker sang out of tune, fluffed the lyrics and seemed utterly bemused. Their version reached no.22 in the UK, but in stark contrast to the usual positive effect of a TOTP appearance, the record’s sales plummeted after the broadcast.

Also, in 1978, the German comedians Dieter Hallervorden and Helga Feddersen released a parody under the title Du, die Wanne ist voll. The song reached position number four in the German charts. Du, die Wanne ist voll literally means You, the bathtube is full and the joke consists of using German words that sound similar to the English ones.

In the early 1980s singer Lesley Gore covered the song on her album The Canvas Can Do Miracles. In her rendition she altered the line “cause I need a man” to “cause I need a friend”.

The Beautiful South also released an unusually arranged cover of the song, which featured on their Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs album.

In 1993, Epic Records released a soundtrack album in the UK, Grease – Original London Cast Recording; the Craig McLachlan duet with Deborah Gibson (Epic UK 659 522, released July 1993), part of a routine promotional push, scored big on the UK singles charts, peaking at number thirteen.

More recently, Tenacious D performed the song live as an acoustic duet with actor Andy Serkis (in character as his Lord of the Rings role Gollum).

American pop singers Chris Trousdale and Nikki Cleary covered the song with slightly altered lyrics.

In 2007, McFly covered the song in the album Over the Rainbow, which contains other covers by other artists.

The song has also been remixed with The Next Episode, a 2000 single by rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and is entitled “You’re The One That I Want In The Next Episode”.

The song was danced to by Kaba Modern on America’s Best Dance Crew as part of their Broadway challenge.

A cover of the song was used for the game Karaoke Revolution and Karaoke Revolution Volume 3.

A memorable interpretation of the song was featured on Late Show With David Letterman, sung by Late Show’s announcer Alan Kalter as part of his segment “Alan Kalter: Tackling the Tough Issues”.

Also, Johnny Vegas and his ’stage-mother’ performed this song in the British Sitcom, Benidorm, on a karaoke night.

A version of this was sung by Heather Graham in the Bollywood film The Guru