Performed by Olivia Newton-John, the song featured in the film version of ‘Grease’, where Olivia’s character Sandy Olsen sings about her love for local bad boy Danny Zucco. It became so well-known in its own right that it received an Oscar nomination as Best Original Song, being pipped to the post by “Last Dance” from ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ at the 51st Academy Awards in April 1979.
The Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film.
The performers of the song are not credited with the Academy Award unless they contributed to either the music or lyrics, or both, in their own right. Olivia Newton-John performed the song at the 21st Grammy Awards and it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, number two on the UK Singles chart and number one on both the Irish and Canadian Singles chart. In 1994, the artist Sonia, managed by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman, took over the role of Sandy at a West End production of Grease, replacing Debbie Gibson.
In conjunction, she also released a cover version of the song “Hopelessly Devoted To You” in June 1994 as a non-album single. The single was actually Sonia’s first not to reach the top forty in the United Kingdom, where it only peaked at position number sixty one.
