Music
See also: Dirty Dancing (soundtrack)Rehearsals for the dancing, and some of the filming, used music from Bergstein's personal collection of gramophone records. When it came time to select actual music for the film, Vestron chose Jimmy Ienner as music supervisor. Ienner, who had previously produced albums and songs for John Lennon and Three Dog Night, opted to stick with much of the music that had already been used during filming, and obtained licenses for the songs from Bergstein's collection. He also enlisted Swayze to sing the new song "She's Like the Wind." Swayze had written the song a few years earlier with Stacy Widelitz, originally intending for it to be used in the 1984 film Grandview, U.S.A.
The movie's score was composed by John Morris. The Kellermans' song that closes the talent show scene had lyrics written specifically for the film, and was sung to the tune of Annie Lisle, a commonly-used theme for school alma maters. Kenny Ortega and his assistant Miranda Garrison chose the song for the finale by going through an entire box of tapes listening to each one. According to Ortega, literally the last tape that they listened to had "The Time of My Life", which they saw as the obvious choice. Ienner then insisted that Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes record it. The song won the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group, an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
The film's soundtrack started an oldies music revival, and demand for the album caught RCA Records by surprise. According to Franke Previte, before a single had even been released, there were a million albums on back-order. The Dirty Dancing album spent 18 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 album sales charts and went platinum eleven times, selling more than 42 million copies worldwide. It spawned a follow-up multi-platinum album in February 1988, entitled More Dirty Dancing.
Songs from the album which appeared on the charts included:
- "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, composed by Franke Previte, John deNicola, and Donald Markowitz – this song rose to #1 on the pop charts.
- "She's Like the Wind", performed by lead actor Patrick Swayze, composed by Swayze and Stacy Widelitz; this song peaked at #3 in 1988.
- "Hungry Eyes", performed by Eric Carmen, composed by Franke Previte and John deNicola; this song peaked at #4 in 1988.
- "Yes", performed by Merry Clayton, composed by Neal Cavanaugh, Terry Fryer and Tom Graf; this song peaked #45 in 1988.
Additionally, the resurgence in popularity of the oldies contained in the movie led to a re-release of The Contours's single "Do You Love Me". "Do You Love Me" was featured in the movie, but was omitted from the original soundtrack; it was included on More Dirty Dancing. Upon being re-released, "Do You Love Me" became a surprise hit all over again, this time peaking at #11 (it originally hit #3 back in 1962).
Read more about this topic: Dirty Dancing
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“The great challenge which faces us is to assure that, in our society of big-ness, we do not strangle the voice of creativity, that the rules of the game do not come to overshadow its purpose, that the grand orchestration of society leaves ample room for the man who marches to the music of another drummer.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.”
—James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
“I cannot say what poetry is; I know that our sufferings and our concentrated joy, our states of plunging far and dark and turning to come back to the world—so that the moment of intense turning seems still and universal—all are here, in a music like the music of our time, like the hero and like the anonymous forgotten; and there is an exchange here in which our lives are met, and created.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)