Hahaha, this is funny. I was in the ORIGINAL ORIGINAL production of Grease in Chicago, mounted in a converted trolley barn on the N.side of CHi. We opened early 71 (Feb.) and ran to early September. My character (Miller) was the one in the original production that had the hot-rod Greased Lightnin’-—my character was blended into the character of Kenickie by the time the show hit NY (very soon after we closed in Chi) and the ownership of Greased Lightning was given over to Danny Zuko-—both the NY/Broadway productions of Grease AND the movie were very tame stuff compared to our original, which was raunchy and profane : for example, one of my lines of dialogue was “Don’t laugh. A lotta chicks would give their right tit to ride around in that little number! “ (Meaning Greased Lightning) other lines in the song, which I sang every night were : Well, you know I ain’t braggin’, she’s a really pussy-wagon, Greased Lightnin’!’ and “You are SUPREME! The chicks’ll CREAM for Greased Lightnin”!!! So all this new woke appraisal of the entirely middle of the road Grease really comes off as ludicrous.
We performed Grease my senior year in HS (1984), and those raunchy lines were still in the version we had. I remember that clearly because we had to have a “rewrite” session to clean it up.
We actually used 1954 Studebaker Commander “Convertible” (the top was cut off) for Greased Lightning on stage. Getting that car through the doors (had to tip it on it’s side, and slide it through) and lifted onto the stage was the proudest achievement of my teenage life.
I remember the audience would gasp the first time it appeared each night.
There’s still some off color words in the studio version of Grease’s soundtrack. The Catholic school I went to wouldn’t let Greased Lightin’ from the record be used for a student talent content performance.
And I rewatched both films for the first time in about 35 year. The second one has much more raunch in it and more of a rapey scene where the guys try to get a girl to give it up by playing an air raid siren outside of a bomb shelter.