'Dirty Dancing' Songwriters Reflect On LI Roots For 36th Anniversary

LONG ISLAND, NY — When Stacy Widelitz, of Plainview, was in the fourth grade, his school’s band director sent home a note he’ll never forget.

“He said, ‘Please return Stacy's flute. I'm dropping him from the band program as he exhibits no musical ability whatsoever,’” he said.

It was the first musical instrument he ever played, and couldn’t “make heads or tails of the thing.”

But the note did not stop Widelitz’s dreams.

Widelitz would go on to compose music for ABC, and the Richard Simmons show, and many other productions. Some years later, he and fellow Long Islander John DeNicola, along with New Jersey-based Franke Previte and Donald Markowitz, would create three of the most famous and recognizable songs of all time for the timeless classic film "Dirty Dancing."

Growing Up On Long Island

Widelitz attended Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School.

He told Patch that his true musical beginnings started when his cousin, a “child prodigy classical pianist” gave him an impromptu piano lesson.

In just one hour, he was also told that he had “child prodigy” status.

“He ran up to my parents and said, ‘Get him (Widelitz) piano lessons!’” he said. “‘He just went through 10 weeks of a method book in an hour.’”

Widelitz’s parents then placed him in piano lessons. While he enjoyed it, he knew he wouldn’t be a classical pianist.

“I didn't have that gene for the obsessive compulsive practicing, that's necessary to achieve that level,” he said. However, he understood and learned basic chords and music theory, and was creating his own arrangements.

By the time he was 14, he joined a jazz combo with another saxophonist and trumpet player. For a brief time, the group’s drummer was Rod Morgenstein, also of Plainview, who went on to play with bands Dixie Dregs and Winger.

Their first gig was playing on weekends at the Port Royale Room at the King’s Grant Motor Inn in Plainview.

Performers had to be at 18 years of age or older to work there, as the restaurant served alcohol, he said.

Widelitz was underage. But his father, who had a background in art, wasn’t going to let that be a problem.

“When my father found out how much they were going to pay us, he took my birth certificate and altered it,” Widelitz said.

At 15 years old, he thought what his father had done was the coolest thing, he said.

“It was like this world opened up to me because there are drunks and there are waitresses in black leotards,” he said.”I'm 15 years old, in the midst of this, thinking, ‘This is great. This is absolutely fantastic.’”

The band continued to get booked at different catering halls such as the Huntington Townhouse, Leonard’s of Great Neck (now Leonard's Palazzo) in Great Neck, and My Father's Place in Rosyln.

The Huntington Townhouse closed in 2011.

With his work experience, Widelitz was able to join the Local 802 - American Federation of Musicians union in New York City.

At catered events, Widelitz said he played common event songs such as “The Girl from Ipanema.”

“Those formative years were all on Long Island, in various clubs,” said Widelitz. “I always say that I kind of learned my craft there by playing those places.”

But it wasn’t until his senior year of high school when he joined a rock band — a completely different genre.

“That was actually a lot of fun,” he said.

DeNicola told Patch that he “always knew” we would do something in music.

“I had no idea how, but that was my passion,” he said.

He first recalls picking up his brother’s guitar in his childhood home when he was about 7 years old.

“I was in the basement and I was picking it and I had no idea what I was doing,” DeNicola said. “And I overheard my mother upstairs talking to my dad saying, ‘Sounds like he'd be good on guitar.’”

DeNicola fondly remembered, at 12 years old, going to his cousin’s “one stop” record store and picking out three records — and being forever inspired by them.

“Music was everything in the 60s and 70s,” he said. “I picked out Traffic, Steve Winwood, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Are You Experienced' and a band called Moby Grape. And so I was knee-deep in music.”

Growing up, he moved around a few times on Long Island. He was born in Amityville, then moved to Centerport in the third grade, and lived and graduated from Smithtown High School.

But music, he said, was always a constant in his life.

DeNicola said his parents were supportive and “creative people.” His father was a bricklayer and his mother was a homemaker, who could play piano by ear and would sew DeNicola’s suits.

“They were very laid back, “ he said. “They didn't say, ‘Oh, you can't do that,’” he said. "They were always just encouraging.”

Up until 10th grade, DeNicola was into rock, and played bass in various bands.

Similar to Widelitz, DeNicola eventually then shifted to jazz and also performed at clubs in high school, creating a foundation for his future career.

“As a bass player, you're outlining the songs you're playing,” he said. “By learning all these songs, cover songs, you're seeing how it's done.”

Moving From Long Island

Catering halls became so successful, the songwriters told Patch, that ultimately, those gigs began to stunt their long-term career goals.

“I was really tired of people eating while I'm playing and not listening,” said Widelitz.

He also recalled having to lug his 125 lb. Fender Rhodes through the back of kitchens.

“I'd reel it in through the kitchen, past the dumpster. And then leave going back through the kitchen past the dumpster,” Widelitz said. “So I smelled garbage going in, and I smelled garbage going out.”

Widelitz said there was a “critical point” he experienced at the age of 18. He and his father were walking in Bayville when they saw a seafood restaurant with a sign that said: “Piano Player Wanted, Must Know How To Open Clams.”

DeNicola shared similar frustrations: While playing with Sweetback,Tony Outeda, the former manager of rock band, Foghat who were based out of Port Jefferson, approached the group, asking them to record a cover song for a record label.

“I could never get the band to do it. They were as so busy with doing the shows in the clubs,” he said. “So it was a missed opportunity.”

That experience was DeNicola’s own wake-up moment.

“I realized then, 'We've got to get out of this,'” he said.

Moving Forward

Widelitz attended college for two years. At 19, he quit his band and dropped out of school to focus on composing for a small studio in Stamford, Connecticut.

Although his mother had encouraged him to focus on composing, she insisted he complete a degree in music education.

But ultimately, his mother didn’t have much to worry about.

At 24, he wrote the theme song for “The Richard Simmons Show.”

That milestone steered him to move to Los Angeles. He’d go on to write more daytime TV themes and eventually some prime-time shows. Widelitz then scored a UCLA graduate film called “Chicken Thing”. It was a huge success, winning 30 awards around the world, and finally allowed him to secure an agent. The director got picked up by CAA, and he signed with Triad Artists.

After DeNicola’s “missed opportunity”, he purposefully looked for bands that were seeking record deals and focused on writing original songs.

“You can't get a record deal unless you have original music. So that's what got me. I just started writing.”

A few years later, he joined a jazz fusion band called Flight, which was signed to Motown Records. Their song, “Face to Face” was sampled in Erykah Badu’s 2003 hit “Back in the Day (Puff).”

From Long Island Clubs to the Big Screen

While living in Los Angeles, a friend of Widelitz asked him to play piano for him in an acting class at Beverly Hills Playhouse, taught by Milton Katselas.

The class consisted of about 60 students, including future famous actors such as Alec Baldwin and Tom Selleck.

After Widelitz played and he was getting ready to leave, a man came over to him, and that encounter, he said, would change the course of his life.

“He said, ‘Hi, I'm Buddy. I really liked your playing,’” Widelitz recalls Patrick Swayze saying.

“Buddy” was what Swayze’s close friends and family referred to him as, he said.

Widelitz told Swayze he looked familiar, but not from movies. It wasn’t until Swayze’s wife Lisa came over to introduce herself that he realized they were neighbors.

“I said, ‘Okay, the two of you are always working on your sports car on the weekends on La Jolla Avenue,'” said Widelitz. “They said, 'Yeah, how do you know that?’ And I said, 'I live right around the block from you.’”

From then on, Widelitz, his girlfriend at the time, Wendy Fraser, Swayze and Lisa would hang out together, becoming lifelong friends.

Swayze was later cast in the 1984 film, “Grandview U.S.A.” alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, C. Thomas Howell, and John Cusack.

The film was looking for original songs, and Swayze told Widelitz he had an idea for a piece.

“He came over with his guitar, and I was at the piano,” said Widelitz. “He had two chords and a lot of lyrics.”

Together, they wrote a demo for “She’s Like The Wind.”

Widelitz describes writing the song as a “unique experience”, because although he had written theme show songs, he didn’t consider himself a real “songwriter.”

“Neither Patrick nor myself really knew any rules of songwriting,” Widelitz said.

The lyrics, he said, were repetitive and used simple chords.

“I think that actually, in the long run, it worked to our advantage,” Widelitz said. “These were all things that we did on an instinctive level, not really knowing that that was going to contribute to the success of the song.”

Widelitz used synthesizers, brought in guitarist friends, and included his vocalist girlfriend Wendy in the demo’s production.

But ultimately, “Grandview U.S.A.” said they didn’t want the song.

“In retrospect, that was so lucky that they rejected it,” Widelitz said.

Two years later while Swayze was filming “Dirty Dancing” he gave Widelitz the call of a lifetime.

“He said, ‘Hey, I played the demo ‘She's Like the Wind’ for the director and the producers, and they really liked it,’” Widelitz recalled. “‘They want it for the movie’.”

“Hungry Eyes” and “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”

When DeNicola met his future songwriting partner, Franke Previte at a New Jersey recording studio, he already had all of the music for the song “Hungry Eyes” ready to go and “fleshed out.”

Previte was the lead singer of the band “Franke And The Knockouts” and had just lost a record deal with Millennium Records.

The two happened to be recording on the same day. At the time, he was trying to put together some material to try and get re-signed as an artist, DeNicola said.

David Prater, owner of the studio, played the music of “Hungry Eyes” for Previte to see if he’d want to write the lyrics.

“Franke said, ‘Yeah, I like this,” said DeNicola. “He went home, and that turned into ‘Hungry Eyes’.”

The duo continued working together on more material. One day, Previte got a call from Jimmy Ieener, the ex-head of his former record label.

“Jimmy said, ‘Listen, there's this movie. They're looking for a song for the final scene,’” DeNicola told Patch. "'It has to start slow, is kind of a dance tune and has to be like, seven minutes long.’”

Together, DeNicola and Previte, along with Donald Markowitz, wrote, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” specifically for “Dirty Dancing”’s final number, to submit for consideration.

As the “story goes,” the producers of the film were “bummed” because they couldn’t find a song close to filming the scene.

“They were getting ready to film that scene and they still didn't have the song,” DeNicola said.

But Swayze later told them that when the filmmakers played “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”, everyone’s moods were lifted.

“Everybody went, ‘Oh, this is the song,’’” DeNicola said.

In fact, the cast and crew loved the song so much that they filmed the final number to DeNicola and Previte’s demo instead of the version with vocalists Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes.

“So when Patrick's mouthing those words it’s to what Franke Previte sang, so that's why it's kind of out of sync,” DeNicola said.

@patchlocalnews Did you know “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” was specifically written for Dirtu Dancing? Patch talked to the movie’s songwriters for an inside scoop. #dirtydancing #timeofmylife #patrickswayze ♬ 80s Synth Rock Outrun(956506) - Hanadayama Music Lab

The producers also asked the duo if they could provide a song for the scene where Baby, played by Jennifer Grey, carries a watermelon into the employee’s dance. DeNicola and Previte submitted “Hungry Eyes”, but filmmakers didn’t think it was a good fit.

However, they enjoyed the scene so much, they tried pairing it with the Grey and Swayze’s dance lesson montage.

“And of course, it worked in the scene,” DeNicola said.

Cultural Relevance

When “Dirty Dancing” hit the screens, Widelitz told Patch that “She’s Like the Wind” was “really insignificant” to him at the time.

“The word was that it was going to be a bad movie, that it was going to be in the theaters for one week, and then disappear to video,” he said. “So when everything exploded, there was nobody more surprised than all of us that were involved with it.”

Before the song even released as a single, Michael Lloyd, the song’s producer, called and told Widelitz that they were to receive a gold album. A week later, Widelitz called him back, asking when he’d receive it in the mail.

“He said, ‘Oh, you're not getting a gold record,’” said Widelitz . “‘Now you're getting a platinum record.’ Which meant it had gone from 500,000 sold to a million sold in no time.”

In fact, the record was certified gold and platinum on the same day, he said.

Swayze also tried to have fun with the success of the film. On Dec. 31, 1987, at 5 p.m., Widelitz shared that Swayze called him, wanting to get a 7 p.m. reservation at Spago’s, the “hottest restaurant in LA” at the time.

“He called me and said, ‘I want to see how famous I've become.’”

Widelitz called the restaurant first, using only his name and leaving out Swayze’s. As expected, the maître d' blasted him for the thought of making a request so last minute.

“I called Patrick and I said, ‘You're on.’ Two minutes later, he called me, and said ‘We're in, 7 p.m.’”

"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song. It also won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocals.

It also won a TV Land Award for “Movie Dance Sequence You Reenacted in Your Living Room.”

“She’s Like the Wind” also won a BMI Film & TV Award for Most Performed Song from a Film.

The writer of Dirty Dancing, Eleanor Bergstein, wrote in the New York Times that the film captured the summer of 1963, the last summer before JFK was shot.

It captured a sort of “innocence” that characterized a part of American society, and that the name of Grey’s character, Baby, was a metaphor for change, she said.

“Baby, a metaphor for her, was, sort of growing up into the real world, and meeting Patrick (Johnny Castle),” DeNicola said.

The film also touched on multiple political issues that remain relevant today, such as abortion rights, class, and race, he said.

Many people can relate to the characters, such a Swayze’s character, Johnny Castle, who comes from the “other side of the tracks.”

Swayze’’s “star power” was also of a particular time, where actors were equally talented in their abilities to sing, act, dance, as well as display other talents such as ride horses and fence, Widelitz said.

“He knew how to do all of that stuff. And it made him unique,” he said.

At the same time, many young women saw themselves in Baby.

"She was extremely attractive without being classically, model beautiful," said Widelitz. "And I think that that made her more relatable for young women."

Years That Have Followed

The movie’s success enabled DeNicola to create his own record label, Omad Records, in 1995.

Through this, he’s discovered numerous musical acts such as Kara’s Flowers, which ultimately became Maroon 5. Also an accomplished producer, DeNicola has brought his finely honed instincts and vast experience to collaborations with legendary artists from all corners of the music world.

Over the past decade, he’s also served as a composer for the annual Shakespeare in the Valley program at the West Kortright Centre in East Meredith, NY. In 2019, he released his debut solo album “The Why Because” featuring his version of “Hungry Eyes” and “Time Of My Life.”

In 2021, he released an album titled “She Said”, comprised of all self-written songs.

“For the first time in my life, I wrote songs for myself as an artist,” he said.

He now resides in New York City.

Widelitz also created his own music publishing company, Plainview Diner Music, in honor of his favorite Long Island establishment.

The restaurant closed in September 2022, after 50 years in business. But Widelitz wanted its name to live on for all the cherished memories he had of hanging out with friends while growing up.

Two years ago, when visiting the diner with a former bandmate, the owner still recognized them.

“He looked at us, and he said, 'I remember the two of you when you were teenagers,'” Widelitz said.

He and Swayze would also co-write the song "Cliff's Edge", which the two sang together for the 1989 film, "Road House."

Widelitz's other credits include composing the theme song for the 1982 Regis Philbin Show; he scored more than 20 made-for-TV movies including the end-title song for "Disney's Pocahontas II : Journey to a New World", and numerous other projects.

These days, Widelitz has taken on a new creative endeavor, with black-and-white photography. He is preparing for a fourth show later this year, and has received six awards so far for his work.

“There's no age limit to it,” he said. “If you’re a creative person, then that's going to be a part of your life forever.”

Widelitz and DeNicola said that despite growing up on Long Island and both being in its music scene, they didn’t meet until working on “Dirty Dancing.”

“I'm just amazed that we didn't cross paths way back, but maybe we just didn't even know it,” said Widelitz .

“We captured lightning in a bottle,” said DeNicola.