Dirty Dancing was a box office smash for Swayze. You may be surprised to learn that the co-writer of the film’s smash song, “She’s Like the Wind,” is a Nashville resident.
In an interview with Stacy Widelitz, News 2’s Neil Orne spoke about his experiences of working with Swayze on the song.
a manner you could tell who knew him and who truly didn’t know him was intriguing,” he says. If somebody addressed him as ‘Patrick,’ then you may assume that they had some familiarity with him. Family and friends would only use the nickname “Buddy” if they were calling him that.
For Widelitz it was always, ‘Buddy.’ It was a relationship forged in Los Angeles acting class in 1984 and made famous when Swayze showed up at his home with a guitar in hand.
“The first two sentences were fascinating, which were ‘She’s like the wind through my tree. She writes the night next to me.’ And then I didn’t like the third and fourth lines that he had, which I told him and he got a bit defensive and said, ‘well, what would you say?’ So I, just off the top of my head, I responded,’ Well, you know, thinking natural imagery,’ I said, ‘She takes me through night just to scorch me with the sun.’ And he then asked, ‘What does it mean?’ And I answered, ‘I don’t care. Just write it down.’”
The song almost made it into two other projects, but as luck would have it, the tune landed on the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing — a movie that no one anticipated would amount to anything.
Soon after Widelitz stated it turned Gold, yet, “Like a week and a half later, I contacted him and I said, ‘Hey, you know, when do I get the gold record? Does it arrive in the mail? How does it work?’ And he responded, ‘you’re not getting the gold record.’ ‘Why did you tell me that?’ I said. “Because you’re going to receive a platinum album now,” he continued.
When Swayze died in 2009, it ended a relationship that had lasted for decades. The two buddies, though, continue to meet together.
That’s true. He appears in my dreams from time to time, which is a fascinating occurrence. Lisa and I have discussed this as well. She’s the love of his life. You know, he was a lot of fun to be around, and he was a bit of a prankster. At times, he was a little foolish, but he was also amusing and a joy to be around. It was just amazing how many skills he has.
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