Dirty Dancing: Live in Concert

by

Various Artists

Edit

Recorded Live at The Greek Theatre, this album is a hidden jewel. Merry Clayton (who sang backup on the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter) is a dynamic singer and performer. The songs 'Overload' and "Steamroller Blues' are real, from the heart, rockers. Also included in this album is the song 'Cry to me', from the scene in the cabin when the two main characters first make love in the movie. All music is played by "The Contours", the original Dirty Dancin' band. Eric Carmen's 3 best songs ever, 'Make Me Lose Control', 'Almost Paradise', and 'Hungry Eyes' have that extra "live" excitement to them. This is a great album and a hidden jewel!!! Enjoy!!!

Without question, Dirty Dancing was a hugely popular movie when it came out, and now stands as one of the greatest 80s movies ever made, and that has as much to do with its brilliant soundtrack as with anything else, so when this live set was recorded in 1988, many people were understandably excited. It's not bad, however Bill Medley and Merry Clayton are mostly left to carry it by themselves. Jennifer Warnes and the Ronettes are missing, Eric Carmen does a highly inferior cover of the great Mike Reno/Ann Wilson duet "Almost Paradise," and much of the female singing other than Clayton's is left to a bunch of nameless backup singers known simply as "The Dirty Dancers." As everyone probably knows, the songs themselves are among some of the most unforgettable ever recorded, but without some of the people who made them famous, the spirit and overall feelgoodness of 1987 just isn't here the way some people would like it to be.