I'm out of my head

When I was taking Anna to school this morning, Olivia Newton-John's "Hopelessly Devoted To You" from Grease came up semi-randomly on the iPod. I say semi-randomly because it is on the Band Fags! playlist and as a result, I have kind of rediscovered the song. It was always kind of a favorite for me because it is so melodramatic! I remember knowing the song prior to seeing the movie and my mom told me that Olivia "sang it when she was out in the yard." Having no context, I just imagined her walking through something that looked like our backyard in broad daylight. It makes infinitely more sense in context (as most things do.)



When I was a kid, I LOVED Grease. My mom took me to see the movie in rerelease in about 1979 or so and after that, I watched it whenever it was on TV. My dad loves to tell the story of how we purchased that soundtrack more times than any other album we owned when I was growing up. I will admit that a good 50% of the draw for Grease was Olivia Newton-John. I couldn't help it - I was in love.

I haven't watched Grease in an age. I know that it is supposed to play like 50s nostalgia, but for me, it has always played like 70s nostalgia. While the movie has not aged incredibly well for me, the music is still pretty timeless.

Here's Olivia performing "Hopelessly Devoted To You" on what my sister and I affectionately refer to as "The Mullet Tour." I desperately wanted to go to that tour as a kid (it stopped in Ames) but alas it was not to be. 25 years later, I would see Olivia in Cedar Rapids and it is still one of my favorite concert experiences.



As a kid, I watched that concert on HBO till my eyes fell out of my head. Sadly, it is not available on DVD, although some of the performances are on the Olivia Video Gold DVDs. Speaking of which, if you want cheesy videos, that is your one stop candy shop.