Here's the title song from the movie of Bye Bye Birdie. This song was not in the original Broadway play, though when groups stage it now, they often add it in the same way the title song of Grease was written for the movie and added into subsequent stage revivals.
In the case of Bye Bye Birdie, the song was written, filmed and added to the movie after principal photography had concluded. The studio and the film's director George Sidney had decided this film would make Ann-Margret a major star and the film needed to have more of her in it. It kinda worked but the film, to me, is a not very good adaptation of a not very good musical. Still, the movie's fun to watch because of its stars, its songs and its spirit.
Because of the movie — and the fact that it's an obvious option if you have a lot of teenagers and want to stage a musical people have heard of — it gets revived a lot at high schools and other such venues. And then people who know the movie come to see it and go, "Huh? Albert is an English teacher? And where's the hyperkinetic turtle and the Bolshoi Ballet?" Because they didn't follow the stage play very closely…which is not to say they should have.
This is the opening and the closing. Like I need to tell you that…