Swayze To Be Honoured By Dirty Dancing Songwriter
By WENNFriday, September 10, 2010
The songwriter who penned the DIRTY DANCING love theme which became tragic PATRICK SWAYZE’s signature tune is honouring the actor on the first anniversary of his death by selling the songs’ lyrics and his original demos to raise money for charity.
Franke Previte, who won an Oscar for the anthem Time of My Life, will travel to the scenic set of the 1987 movie hit, for an upcoming fan festival next week (17-18Sep10), and he plans to use the occasion and the sad anniversary of his friend’s death to raise funds for Swayze’s cancer charity.
Previte has teamed up with bosses at the Mountain Lake Hotel in Pembroke, Virginia, where iconic scenes from the movie were shot, to auction off his handwritten lyrics for the songs on eBay.com
He also plans to release demo versions of Time of My Life and Hungry Eyes, another Dirty Dancing favourite, as digital downloads on iTunes, to raise money for the Patrick Swayze Pancreas Cancer Research Fund.
The songwriter says, “Patrick was a really good guy. That tender guy in the film is really who he is. That’s what saddened me.
“I know this song meant a lot to him, and it’s been such a lucky thing for me. I’d be grateful if I could do something else with it that would do some good.”
During his trip to Virginia, Previte will also visit a memorial to Swayze that was erected at the hotel last November (09), and take part in festival activities with fans at nearby Lake Lure, North Carolina where Swayze and co-star Jennifer Grey danced in the movie.
Participants in the two-day festival will get the chance to recreate scenes from the film and take part in dance lessons, contests and a cast lookalike competition.
