dirty dancing album torrent time of my life

It worked out perfectly, as if it were written for the movie.

Medley was escorted into a spacious room with a wall completely lined with platinum album plaques.

Multi-platinum blockbuster albums, a rarity in todays music business, were regular occurrences in the Eighties: Thriller, Appetite for Destruction, Purple Rain, Faith, Born in the U.S.A.

But none was quite like Dirty Dancing.

The soundtrack to a low-budget movie starring largely unknown leading actors ( Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey ), the album should have been the last thing any teenager would have wanted to buy in 1987: It was a hodgepodge of early-Sixties oldies, Latin instrumentals and new material by veteran acts (Medley, Eric Carmen, the Doobie Brothers Tom Johnson) who hadnt had Top 40 hits in years.

And in stats that are unimaginable these days, the album would sell 11 million copies and cling to the Number One spot on the Billboard album chart for over four months.

It was a freight train, recalls music supervisor Michael Lloyd, who by then had racked up hits with Belinda Carlisle, the Osmonds, Shaun Cassidy and others.

True to that phrase, the album begat a sequel soundtrack, a tour, another film (2004s Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights ), a 20th-anniversary deluxe-edition soundtrack, and a recent, largely forgettable TV-musical remake.

Although its hard to imagine a time when Swayze wasnt a marquee name, such was the case when Lloyd and album executive producer Jimmy Ienner began the process of rounding up artists for the soundtrack.

The movie was being made by a new company that no one had heard of and the stars werent big stars, so I couldnt get anybody to sing on it, says Lloyd.

Lloyd says he approached Donna Summer and Lionel Richie for (Ive Had) the Time of My Life; they passed, as did Daryl Hall and Kim Carnes.

I went through all these people, and they said no, Lloyd says.

I didnt blame them it was hard to imagine that this would have been something special.

To flesh out the album, Ienner turned to the likes of Canadian singer-guitarist Alfie Zappacosta, who wrote and cut Overload for 2,000.

Back then you had all the Michael McDonalds and Kenny Logginses doing all those songs on soundtracks, says Zappacosta.

When Ienner reached out to him, Medley says he was initially skeptical.

Based on the title, he thought the movie sounded like a bad porno.

Then I said, Whos in it and he said Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, says Medley, and I said, Whos that With his wife expecting a baby any day, and the recording session set for New York, the Orange Countybased Medley opted out.

Warnes had a few doubts thanks to the credits: It was the first time Id accepted a song written by three people.

But when the session was moved to L.A.

Medley learned he was singing with Warnes he changed his mind.

Medleys baby now the adult McKenna Medley now sings the song with her father as part of current Vegas residency with a new version of the Righteous Brothers with Bucky Heard.).

Recalls Medley, Im kind of supposed to be Swayze on the record, and Jennifers voice kind of fit Jennifer Greys character.

To connect with those characters as much as possible, Medley and Warnes recorded the song together while footage from the movie was played in the studio.

When he raised her up in the air, I knew it had to be joyful, and thats why theres a real spirit and joy in the vocals.

Dirty Dancing Album Torrent Time Of My Life