In 1978, Frankie Valli traded a movie role for a No. 1 hit.
The song was “Grease,” and it was the theme song for the blockbuster movie of the same name.
Written by Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb, “Grease” featured a funky beat and a catchy chorus, with Valli’s high-flying vocals giving it instant appeal. The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1978 and gave Valli a new record deal with Warner Bros. Records.
It all started when Valli rejected a role in the movie that starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in favor of recording the title song.
“Barry Gibb called and said, ‘I wrote a song. I think it’s for you. It’s going to be the title song for this motion picture,'” Valli recalled in an interview with Billboard.
He noted that his manager at the time, Allan Carr, who was partnered in the movie Grease with Robert Stigwood, offered him the choice of taking a role in the movie or recording the theme song.
“Well, I had already heard the title song, and I loved it,” Valli shared “I called [arranger] Don Costa up and told him to come over right away and hear this song. He said, ‘If you don’t record this song, you’re crazy.’ So I said, ‘What’s the song if I want to be in the movie?’ And they said, ‘Beauty School Dropout.’ It was done by Frankie Avalon. It never became a hit, but he made a lot of money from it being on the soundtrack. But ‘Grease’ was one of the biggest records I ever had in my career.”
Interestingly, Avalon also initially turned down the role, which was the character Teen Angel in the iconic 1978 film.
“I turned it down,” Avalon told the Riggle’s Picks podcast of the first time he was offered the part of Teen Angel. “I had seen the play on Broadway, and I said ‘pass.’”
Producers wouldn’t take no for an answer, but Avalon insisted, “I’ve seen the play. Teen Angel is an extension of Elvis. I’m not Elvis. I don’t have the long sideburns, I don’t do the gyration, I don’t sing like that. I got my own style.”
Producers told the singer they would change the character and have him wear all white instead of black. “So they designed the role the way I wanted to do it,” Avalon revealed.
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Avalon performed the song “Beauty School Dropout” in a dreamy scene with Frenchy (Didi Conn) as he advised her to go back to high school.
He later described the filming experience for Grease as a good one. “I was on the set for about six days, rehearsing, and then two days of filming, and that was it,” Avalon told Remind magazine in 2025.
Elvis, who died in 1977 during the summer that Grease was filmed, had actually been considered for the Teen Angel role, accoing to Entertainment Weekly. Donny Osmond was also considered to play the crooning angel in the fantasy sequence.
Decades later, it’s hard to imagine Grease any other way. Valli delivered the perfect theme song, while Avalon pulled off a swoon-worthy performance in the film that fans still adore.
Related: 1978 Pop-Rock Duet, Written Overnight for Hit Film, Climbed the Charts to No. 1 48 Years Ago Today