A little disclosure is needed on this review. I saw the original musical, Grease starring Barry Bostwick in the early seventies. The play was a total delight and is still one of the best stage musicals I have ever seen. In 1978 I went to see the movie and was bitterly disappointed. The music was watered down with no feel for the 50s music it is based on. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John had none of the electricity of the original cast. Obviously lots of people disagreed with me but that was my opinion.

Now here comes an alt. rock/punk tribute from the Filthy Little Angels record label based on the movie. (The music from the movie is substantially different from the play). Down To Grease On Holiday has 26 cover versions of the movie music with a few 50s covers like “Blue Moon” and “Hound Dog” thrown in for the heck of it. It’s fascinating how well these songs work in their alt. rock versions. “Beauty School Dropout” and “Tears on my Pillow” appear to be mostly tongue-in-cheek while others, like The Spells’ “Hopelessly Devoted To You” and Hyperbubble’s “You’re The One That I Want”, are admirable send-offs of the originals. Popkiller’s grunge soaked version of the Grease Theme is about as far from Frankie Valli as you can possibly get but Gracie Duvin’s “Sandy” sounds straight out of the stage musical. Other highlights include a drastically re-worded “We Go Together” by the Debretts (”bang, bang you’re dead / I couldn'’t have you so I shot you in the head”?), another macabre version of “Grease” by The International Karate Plus, and Sunset Gun’s version of “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” that owes its pathos equally to Peggy Lee and Marlene Dietrich. Unfortunately there are more clunkers than ringers on this compilation but the ringers make a listen well worthwhile.

The album is available in 160kbps MP3.

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