Rehearsals for the dancing, and some of the filming, used music from Bergstein’s personal collection of 45s. 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 incidental music 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 Duet, 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 by surprise. According to 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 1 on the Billboard 200 album sales charts and went platinum eleven times, selling more than 39 million copies worldwide. It spawned a follow-up multi-platinum album in February 1988, entitled More Dirty Dancing, selling 32 million copies worldwide.
Songs from the album which appeared on the charts included:
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“(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 number 1 on the pop charts
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“She’s Like the Wind”, performed by lead actor Patrick Swayze, composed by Swayze and Stacy Widelitz
- “Hungry Eyes”, performed by Eric Carmen, composed by Franke Previte and John deNicola
Track listing
- “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” - Bill Medley, Jennifer Warnes – 4:47
- “Be My Baby” - The Ronettes – 2:37
- “She’s Like the Wind” - Patrick Swayze – 3:51
- “Hungry Eyes” - Eric Carmen – 4:06
- “Stay” - Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs – 1:34
- “Yes” - Merry Clayton – 3:15
- “You Don’t Own Me” - The Blow Monkeys – 3:00
- “Hey! Baby” - Bruce Channel – 2:21
- “Overload” - Zappacosta – 3:39
- “Love Is Strange” - Mickey & Sylvia – 2:52
- “Where Are You Tonight?” - Tom Johnston – 3:59
- “In the Still of the Night” - The Five Satins – 3:03
Extra tracks
- “Big Girls Don’t Cry” - The Four Seasons – 2:26
- “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” - The Shirelles – 2:43
- “Cry to Me” - Solomon Burke – 2:33
- “Love Man” - Otis Redding – 2:16
- “Do You Love Me” - The Contours – 2:54
- “Some Kind of Wonderful” - The Drifters – 2:35
- “Wipe Out” - The Surfaris – 2:38
- “These Arms of Mine” - Otis Redding – 2:28
