"Hopelessly Devoted to You" is a song recorded by British-Australian singer, songwriter and actressOlivia Newton-John forGrease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture (1978). It was written and produced byJohn Farrar and originally performed by Newton-John in the film version of the musicalGrease (1978). The song reached number three on the USBillboard Hot 100 and number seven on theAdult Contemporary chart.[2] On the country chart, "Hopelessly Devoted to You" peaked at number 20 and was her first top 20 country hit in two years.[3] The song was released in Australia in August 1978 and peaked at number two. Newton-John performed the song at the21st Grammy Awards in 1979.[4]
The song received anOscar nomination asBest Original Song, losing to "Last Dance" fromThank God It's Friday at the51st Academy Awards. Lyrically, the song is about Olivia's character in the film, Australian newcomer Sandy Olsson, singing about how she keeps loving John Travolta's character Danny Zuko, leader of a gang of greaser boys, despite him brushing her off in favor of his friends.
Record World called it "a '50s-inspired love ballad with the production sound of the '70s."[5]
The song was not part of the original musical production (and was replaced with the 1950s standard "Since I Don't Have You" for the 1994 revival), but it was added to the score for the 2007 revival and was included in the 2016Grease: Live performance, sung byJulianne Hough.[6]
Halfway through shootingGrease, Newton-John's contractually-entitled vocal solo had yet to be written. John Farrar, Newton-John's personal producer, wrote the song and submitted it to the film's production team. They were reluctant, but eventually approved it; shooting and recording took place after the rest of the film had been completed.[7]
In June 2004, Farrar recalled writing the song: "I spent the longest period writing the lyrics of any song I've ever written. Every thesaurus and every rhyming dictionary I had, just trying to really make it work properly".[8]
In 1994, English singerSonia took over the role of Sandy in aWest End production ofGrease, replacingDebbie Gibson. In conjunction, she released a cover version of the song. The single was released in July 1994 as a non-album single. It has a double A-side released as a B-side "The Anthem Medley". On the12-inch single, "The Anthem Medley" was released as the A-side and "Hopelessly Devoted to You" as the B-side. The music video for Sonia's version of "Hopelessly Devoted to You" features Sonia walking through an old city and singing. The music video for "The Anthem Medley" features Sonia dancing and singing in anightclub.[36] The single become her first not to reach top forty in theUnited Kingdom, where it peaked at number sixty-one.
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