What is the highest grossing movie musical of all time? If you guessed The Sound of Music or Oklahoma or Singin’ in the Rain (my favorite), you are wrong. It's Grease. Earning more than 340 million dollars around the world since 1978, this nostalgic look at teen-age life in the mid-fifties became the movie musical box office champion by 1998.

To celebrate the 20^th Anniversary of their popular musical, Paramount Pictures re-released Grease in March of 1998 for big screen viewing. Believe it or not, I missed it the first time around and haven’t seen either the stage play or the video. So you can imagine how much I enjoyed watching John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and the rest of this fine cast sing and dance to those infectious tunes of the fifties. No wonder the soundtrack album made the top five on the Billboard pop charts for 244 consecutive weeks as of February1, l998. Who can resist Newton-John’s soulful rendition of "Hopelessly Devoted to You," or Frankie Avalon’s teen-angel take on "Beauty School Dropout."

But it’s Travolta who provides the movie’s special treat. His electrifying moves in the "Greased Lightning" number showcase his amazing talent and made me wish he had made more musicals. Okay, he did do Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive, but three are not enough. If we’re lucky, film musicals will be resurrected and we’ll see Travolta in all his glory again. Granted, he may have to lose a few pounds and rehearse more than usual, but it would be worth it. After all, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly danced on into their sixties.

Other Grease highlights include the tough-talking Rizzo (Channing) singing "Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee" and the "We Belong Together" duet by Travolta and Newton-John as Danny and Sandy. In addition, the late great Eve Arden and the legendary Sid Caesar deliver very amusing performances as a high school principal and coach, respectively. Everyone in the film seems to be having such fun. And everyone watching the film, too! At the screening I attended, a man sitting in front of me knew all the lyrics and sang them right along with the film’s stars.

Producer Allan Carr points out that after 20 years, Grease still ranked as one of the top 10 video titles sold in the U.S. in 1997. He said, "I always thought it would be successful when I optioned the rights with a vision of making it into a movie, but I never dreamed of this phenomenal success. What we ended up with was a motion picture that has continued to touch the hearts of people of all ages and backgrounds."

If you ask me, Mr. Carr is rama-lama-ding-dong right.

(Released by Paramount Pictures and rated "PG.")