The Time Of My Life

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My cover of this hugely popular song from 1987's box office hit, Dirty Dancing. The original version was sung by Bill Medley (formerly of the Righteous Brothers) and Jennifer Warnes. It's an epic song that won many awards, including the 1987 Academy Award for Best Original Song and the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. I'm singing a duet with a wonderful singer, Gloria Wind, who has a special, personal connection to this song: she sang it on stage, as lead singer in the Dirty Dancing Tour, with shows across Germany, from 2014 to 2018.

Now I've had the time of my life.
No, I never felt like this before.
Yes I swear, it's the truth.
And I owe it all to you.

'Cause I've had the time of my life.
And I owe it all to you.

I've been waiting for so long.
Now I've finally found someone
to stand by me.
Saw the writing on the wall
As we felt this magical fantasy.

Now with passion in our eyes
There's no way we could disguise it secretly.
So we take each other's hand
'Cause we seem to understand the urgency.

Just remember
You're the one thing
I can't get enough of.
So I tell you something:
This could be love, because

I've had the time of my life —
No, I never felt this way before.
Yes, I swear, it's the truth.
And I owe it all to you.

Hey, baby!

With my body and soul
I want you more than you'll ever know.
So we'll just let it go,
won't be afraid to lose control.

Yes, I know what's on your mind
When you say, "Stay with me tonight".

Stay with me!
Just remember
You're the one thing
that I can't get enough of
So I tell you something
This could be love, because

I've had the time of my life.
No, I never felt this way before
Yes, I swear, it's the truth.
And I owe it all to you.

'Cause I've had the time of my life.
And I've searched through every open door
'Til I found the truth
And I owe it all to you.

[INSTRUMENTAL]

Now I've had the time of my life.
No, I never felt this way before.
Yes, I swear, it's the truth
And I owe it all to you.

I've had the time of my life.
No, I never felt this way before.
Yes, I swear, it's the truth.
And I owe it all to you.

'Cause I've had the time of my life
And I've searched through every open door
'Til I found the truth
And I owe it all to you.

An epic song. Investing myself in covering this song renewed my appreciation for just what an epic song it is! Clocking in at nearly five minutes in length, the song takes us through many moods, swinging especially between desire and love. The verses are an exquisite expression of desire and passion, while the chorus is an anthem of timeless love.

And indeed, the core of the story — both of the movie and the song — is just this question: Is what the two main characters share love (a love that may last for a lifetime)? Or is it just passion (which comes and goes)?

Because of this running question, the lyrics are cautious — "This could be love" — with the characters assuaging each others' doubts: "Yes, I swear it's the truth". But, in contrast with the lyrics, the music of the chorus expresses no doubt whatsoever: it is a joyous celebration of love. And it points to a path for initiating a deep, heartfelt relationship — mutual gratitude: "I owe it all to you."

Musical theater. In addition to the complex moods of the song's story, the song is also set up as a duet between a male and female singer. For all these reasons, performing the song well is not just a matter of musical technique, but also, musical theater: the lyrics, the instruments, and the singers all have to convincingly express these emotions of desire and love; and, as a duet, the male and female voices have to match each other's qualities (or not, if contrast is what the song's story calls for). Part of the art of musical theater singing is how to add emotional touches like this without detracting from the musicality of the singing. Sometimes purity of tone may be sacrificed for greater emotional expressiveness — just not too much, generally speaking! Although there are notable exceptions, like when Gloria Wind deliberately sings off-key for laughs in the Hula Song of Dirty Dancing.

So for me, choosing this song to sing was a terrific way to extend my singing capability into musical theater. And I had a wonderful resource for helping me do this: Gloria Wind earned a degree in musical entertainment from the Vienna Conservatory, and has been a veteran of musical theater for more than two decades. Most importantly, she has a special, personal connection to this song: she sang it on stage, as lead singer in the Dirty Dancing Tour, with shows across Germany, from 2014 to 2018. My starting point for my cover was the recording of her "half" of this song. So I took all my "musical theater" cues from the singing choices she had already made in her half. Thanks so much, Gloria, for sharing your voice!

In fact, this song is a (virtual) return for me to musical theater, which I enjoyed performing in briefly, many years ago, as a college student at Columbia University. I was the narrator of the 1978 Columbia Varsity Show, and enjoyed singing and dancing on stage before a live audience for a several-show run. But the performance I most remember was when the word spread to us backstage, before the performance, that Richard Rodgers was going to be in our audience that night! You've probably heard of him: the "Rodgers" of Rodgers and Hammerstein (and Rodgers and Hart), and one of the greatest songwriters for musicals of all time, composing such beloved works as The Sound of Music, South Pacific, Oklahoma!, Blue Moon, etc. etc. He had been a Columbia graduate himself. The Columbia Varsity Show had been an annual tradition since 1894, and Rodgers had written several of the annual Columbia Varsity Shows himself, while he was a student: "The Varsity Show at Columbia offered a boy like me something no other school in the country could supply: an almost professional production. There were experienced directors, a beautifully equipped stage with good lighting situated in the heart of the Broadway theatre district, and best of all, professional musicians in the pit. Here, certainly, were near-ideal working conditions; here, possibly, was an opportunity that could be of incalculable help in furthering my career." The show had stopped running in 1968 (when the student riots occurred), so this was the first show in ten years — and Rodgers was here to see us revive his tradition! Knowing that he was watching the show, we all went through it on stage that night (we heard he could be notoriously critical), as we sang and danced our hearts out on stage in front of him. . . So we were greatly relieved and delighted to hear later that he had liked and enjoyed the show!

Desire. I mentioned earlier how desire and love are the two central themes of this song. The lyrics associated with the expression of desire are very expressive:

Now with passion in our eyes
There's no way we could disguise it secretly.
So we take each other's hand
'Cause we seem to understand the urgency.

Just remember
You're the one thing
I can't get enough of.

and:

With my body and soul
I want you more than you'll ever know.
So we'll just let it go,
won't be afraid to lose control.

Yes, I know what's on your mind
When you say, "Stay with me tonight".

Stay with me!
Just remember
You're the one thing
that I can't get enough of.

The musical arrangement accompanying some of these sections expresses that passion with a pulsing guitar beat, and guitar slides:

The singing expresses the same, in all kinds of ways (often subtle). For example, in the following section, both singers end their words with a bit of an "animal growl" or vibrato:

In another section, the two voices are now a bit ragged (like they're expressing people on the edge of restraint):

Love. The words leading into the chorus set up its theme of love:

So I tell you something
This could be love, because. . .

This is followed by the chorus itself:

I've had the time of my life.
No, I never felt this way before
Yes, I swear, it's the truth.
And I owe it all to you.

'Cause I've had the time of my life.
And I've searched through every open door
'Til I found the truth
And I owe it all to you.

The song has flowered, in a very brief time, from a confession of passion to a more profound communication of the heart. The music is completely transformed into an anthem, with a very full, open, rich sound. The male and female voices are reverberating with the fullness of a choral section, almost like a gospel choir. This is further enhanced by having the male and female singers adding other words to the chorus. In my version, I take it a step further and add a male harmony line so the section is even more like a choral section or gospel chorus:

One of the reasons the song is so long is because the chorus keeps re-appearing, in different musical forms. The song opens with a low-key version of the chorus, sung first by the man to the woman, then by the woman to the man:

Later, the first half the chorus appears, in its fuller musical form, with both man and woman singing together:

Still later, the full version of the chorus appears, with both halves:

As we come near the song's close, we get a low-key version of the chorus again, like the opening, but now much more forceful, and transitioning explosively into the final, full version of the chorus that ends the song:

That chime synthesizer. There is a wonderful, simple melody line provided by a chime-like synthesizer in the chorus of the song. For some reason, that melody line could barely be hard in the karaoke arrangement I was using. Because I couldn't imagine doing this song without hearing that chime-like melody, I added my own version of the chime melody, everywhere it was needed. You can hear it here:

(I've removed the male voice and lowered the volume of the female voice so you can clearly hear the chime. It's not this loud in the actual song.)

Hidden Righteous Brothers homage. One thing about this song that has always delighted me, as a songwriter and musical arranger: the song's musical arrangers managed to sneak in a musical "homage" to Bill Medley's former persona as one of the Righteous Brothers. Their greatest hit, You've Lost That Loving Feeling, had an unmistakable rising violin line, which you can hear at the end of this short excerpt:

Now here's that same violin line, in The Time Of My Life:

What fun! I'm certain Bill Medley must have been tickled when he heard that.