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The second 'taster' single from the (then) forthcoming film though from the opposite end; 'You're The One That I Want' was more or less the last song of the movie while 'Summer Nights' is one of the first. And that's key here, because as 'bad Sandy' on the previous single, ONJ was allowed to shred Travolta to bits with her vocal, but as 'good Sandy' she can't - she's contractually obliged to keep the lid on and sound sweet and virginal, and in so doing she offers up nothing for Travolta's white bread vocal to bounce off.* She only manages to let rip (with a very Australian twang) on the "He was sweet, just turned eighteen" line, but that's probably down to the incredulity of suddenly realising a thirty year old woman (her) and a twenty four year old man (him) were playing high school teens. It's fair to say that 'You're The One That I Want' was a duet whereas 'Summer Nights' is a song for two voices and it's a tough one to divorce from its original setting - if you're not familiar with the story then all the humour of Liv's innocent remembrance of the summer past compared to Travolta's attempt to look big in the eyes of his mates by sexing it up is going to be lost. It works well enough in the context of the film with the visual prompts and the rest of the cast larking around in the background, but it's not a lot of fun when taken by itself. Because by itself, 'Summer Nights' is flat lemonade with precious little in the way of fizz or energy about it with the music always threatening a crescendo that it consistently fails to reach. Fitting then to say that 'You're The One That I Want' has aged as well as Liv herself while 'Summer Nights' has aged about as well as Travolta.
* 'You're The One That I Want' (and 'Hopelessly Devoted To You') didn't actually appear in the original stage version of Grease, they were written by John Farrar to bring the musical up to feature length. And as a long time ONJ collaborator it's no wonder they both sound tailor made for her voice - they were.
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