Good Girl Act is a song performed by Olivia Valdovinos and her home economics class in the Paramount+ original series, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies.
Overview
Susan made a snide comment about Jane Facciano during home ec class, which inspired Olivia Valdovinos to help clear the girl's name, as Jane had done something similar for her brother earlier. The entire class got involved as Olivia spear-headed the movement to clear Jane’s reputation back to a goody-two-shoes instead of a "fast girl".[1]
Lyrics
[Olivia]:
My cousin in New York knows Janey
Said all the girls there hate Miss Brainy
See N.Y.C. girls are so risqué
They love fun, they love guns
They love whiskey
They're sex-crazed and gang adjacent
So goody two-shoes Jane and her boring killjoy ways
Drove the New York girls insane
And she'd kill their fun in every way
They'd say
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
[Olivia]:
That good girl act
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
[Olivia]:
That good girl act
Out all night with the fakest of IDs
Borough to borough, dropping boys to their knees
So much eyeliner they can't even see
Jane clutched her pearls as she held back her scream
Then they'd say, good girls finish last
And nice guys, they finish too fast, yeah
So give in, embrace the bad
And shake, shake, shake, shake off
That good girl act
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
[Olivia]:
That good girl act
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
[Olivia]:
That good girl act
[Nancy]:
These New York girls, tell me, what do they wear?
(Uh-huh, uh-huh)
[Olivia]:
Heel so high they make the baddest boys stare
(Uh-huh, uh-huh)
Sweaters so tight that the seam would all tear
And in the back of the car
Nothing but a smile, my dear
Then they'd say
Good girls finish last
And nice guys they finish too fast, yeah
So give in, embrace the bad
And shake, shake, shake, shake off
That good girl act
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
[Olivia]:
That good girl act
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
[Olivia]:
They tried seducing her into a life
Of sex, drugs, and crime
She had the strength to resist
Every single time
They'd smoke
(She'd choke)
They'd stray
(She's pray)
They'd steal
(She'd pay)
And tip!
The girls would come after her
Verbally massacre
Then it got physical
Beat down by manicured fists
Jane went to confession
Exposed the girls messin'
Around with strange boys
With drugs and possession
The priest called the police
The police came knocking
The girls got the word
That Jane did the talking
So they circled her building
Screaming and shouting
Get out of town
Or we'll do some pounding, yeah
[All]:
Shake, shake, shake off
(Shake off that good girl act)
Shake, shake, shake off
(Shake off that good girl act)
Shake, shake, shake off
[Susan (speaking)]:
Stop it, what are you doing?
[Olivia (speaking)]:
Having fun, try it, Susan
Performers
- Olivia Valdovinos (Cheyenne Isabel Wells)
- Nancy Nakagawa (Tricia Fukuhara)
- Jane Facciano (Marisa Davila)
- Cynthia Zdunowski (Ari Notartomaso)
- Susan
- Dot
- Rosemary
- Peg
- Pearl
- Numerous other home economic classroom students
Appearances
Notes and Trivia
- This is technically the first time the Pink Ladies performed together on-screen, as Olivia, Cynthia, Jane, and Nancy were all involved in the same scene during their musical number.
- While each girl participated in "Grease is the Word", they did so in different groups. Cynthia was with the T-Birds, Olivia alone, Nancy as she left her friends, and Jane with the social kids.
Behind the Scenes
When asked about the original version of the song, lead songwriter Justin Tranton told Consequence:
“[‘Nice girls finish last’] was from me. I actually got some questions on the line, like ‘Is this line serving the story?’ I’m not sure if it is, but it’s really good. I think it serves the story, and [in the original Grease] there are some scandalous, very hypersexual lines. Sometimes it feels superfluous, but that’s what makes it great.
“It’s actually cut down, way cut down. The original version, I think, was like four and a half minutes, maybe five. It was so hard. I was like, ‘This song had four bridges to try to tell all this story.’ So the brief was extensive, but I had so much fun with it — like I love the odd pronunciation of police. That was the first song I had to write that was a full story situation, so really pushing myself from the pop world that I know so well, where you mainly live in one feeling for three minutes.”
Gallery
