Entertainment

Travolta's Most Memorable Musical Moments

by Alanna Bennett

John Travolta's been in show business a looooong while. Like, over forty years. Travolta's also turning 60 today — Happy birthday, John Travolta! — so now seems like as good a time as any to go through his life's work and pick out our favorite moments. Well, more specifically, our favorite musical moments because let's face it, the best John Travolta moments happen to coincidentally coincide with the ones where he's a) rocking out, b) wiggling his hips, d) in drag, d) pulling his best '50s hoodrat, or e) all of the above. As follows, the best way for me to honor John Travolta is to honor his dance moves.

Remember when John Travolta made a sort of comeback in 2007's big screen adaptation of John Waters' Hairspray? And how he did it in full drag, no less? Yeah, that rocked. Don't lie, you loved that. He loved it, too. As he said in an interview promoting the film way back when:

It was my homage to Tina Turner. In the play, the character doesn't really dance and doesn't really sing too much either. But because they hired me, they wanted me to do both those things. I said, ‘Yeah, but that last number, it's got to be different than just grandma coming out doing it.’ They said, ‘Well, like what?’ I said, ‘Tina Turner. She really kicks ass at the end in I Am Woman in that shimmering dress and really attack that. And they said okay.

So let's dive in. Here are some of our favorite musically-infused Travolta moments.

The Uma Thurman Dance, Pulp Fiction

Iconic.

The Angel Bar Dance, Michael

Travolta played an angel. He danced in a bar. To Aretha Franklin's "Chain Of Fools." Does the rest of the movie even matter?

Disco, Saturday Night Fever

"Greased Lightning," Grease

Sure, I could have gone with "Summer Loving" for this one, or even "Sandy," but those are just so mopey. This one's just got so much vintage Travolta charm.

"You Can't Stop The Beat," Hairspray

Image: Paramount