Tuesday, September 15, 2009

She's Like the Wind

Jake Houseman: Don't you tell me what to see! I see someone in front of me who got his partner in trouble and sent her off to some butcher, while he moved on to an innocent young girl like my daughter!

[silence]

Johnny: [angry] Yeah, I guess that's what you *would* see.

He had so many great lines in that movie, and this exchange is surely one of the most underrated. I always found THAT line and scene at the end to be a bit too hokey, but the movie is supposed to be a fairy tale with a happy and tidy ending, so I wouldn't begrudge anyone who disagrees.

Based on some of the reactions I've been seeing around the 'net, are there really some Swayze and "Dirty Dancing" fans out there who didn't realize that he sang and wrote "She's Like the Wind"? How can this be? The soundtrack, of course, is unimpeachable. Much like the "Big Chill", it collected a bunch of classic old songs and it OWNED them to such a degree that today, many of these songs are so well-known for being featured in "Dirty Dancing" that their reputations as sizable hits in their own right has been outstripped. "Dirty Dancing" is still the first thing I think about when I hear "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" or "Big Girls Don't Cry" (out of all the old songs, I think only "Be My Baby" escapes this association completely)*. It also revived the careers of Bill Medley and Eric Carmen. What more could you want in a soundtrack?

* OK, OK, I know that those songs were featured on the "More Songs From ..." companion soundtrack and were not on the "official" soundtrack ... does that distinction really matter so much?

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