King Snare Drum

Review of "Ultimate Dirty Dancing" CD

Review of "Ultimate Dirty Dancing" CD
Dirty Dancing was a 1987 U.S. film about the relationship between a male dance ilesheet"r and one of the guests at the resort where he is working.  It is a romantic film which is basically a showcase for Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey's dancing prowess.  The film became somewhat of an 80's iconic event mainly because of Swayze's dancing and film star status, and also because of the film's climactic main hit song "(I Had) The Time Of My Life".  This song was a major hit for Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes earning a Golden Globe Award, The Academy Award for Best Original Song as well as a Grammy Award for best duet.  ".
It has a distinctly 80's style arrangement with its insistent bass line and highly-processed drum sound with plenty of Latin percussion – congas and shaker.
It was a  feel-good anthem with great harmonies from the two lead singers :

The Ultimate Dirty Dancing CD contains all the songs from the movie in the order that are heard in the film.

The majority of the songs on ULTIMATE DIRTY DANCING are 1960's R&B classics with a sprinkling of 80's recordings and some Latin dance instrumentals.

Here are some of the highlights:

Will You Love Me Tomorrow – was released by Shirelles in 1960 and was ranked number 125 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  It was written famously by Carole King and Gerry Goffin appearing on King's album Tapestry.  Look for the jazz-flavoured live version on YouTube byd ArticlKing with a live band featuring a nice descending bass line in the first part of the verse.

The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" was a hit in 1963 with Phil Spector as the producer creating his famous "Wall Of Sound" approach to recording.  This was achieved by having many of the parts of the song played in unison by more than one musician so the sound was rich and full.  The whole song was also treated with copious amounts of reverb which also added a sense of space and magnitude to the sound.  The resulting recording prompted Brian Wilson to call Be My Baby "the greatest pop record ever made".

Songwriter Bruce Channel's "Hey Baby", released in 1961, features a strong harmonica theme as well echoing the vocal tune on harmonica.  This harmonica sound no doubt influenced John Lennon's solo on "Love Me Do" as well as Frank Ifield's "I Remember You" – both big 60's hits.

Otis Redding's pleading ballad "These Arms of Mine" for me is an absolute joy with it's gently insistent piano part of 6/8 triplets and which underpin the entire song.  The guitar is exactly the style that veteran Stax label guitarist Steve Cropper would have played but was in fact played by Johnny Jenkins of the Pinetoppers (source : http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/06/behind-the-song-these-arms-of-mine/).  Redding also contributes "Love Man" which is a high-energy dance workout with classic Sd="copyrrd label brass and strong snare drum backbeat.<br /><br />Solomon Burke's consoling, soulful  "Cry to Me" (recently covered by Duffy) is one of his most significant and influential recordings and is a song about loneliness and longing and features early Elvis-style instrumentation with xylophone and some nice rhythmic improvising at the end.  

All in all a good mix of styles orientated to jazz-style dancing with some truly classic artists as a soundtrack to a simple sentimental storyline.    

About the Author

Mike Gradint is a bass player. His blog is www.cdmusicclub.co.uk which has reviews of CDs and offers news about music and the music industry.

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