Clay Aiken – Dirty Dancing

By musicfan123 · Comments (10)
Monday, September 26th, 2011

Do you remember the movie, Dirty Dancing?  Released in 1987, the romantic film starred Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze.

Dirty Dancing was a huge box office hit. It earned over $214 million worldwide. It was also the first film to sell more than a million copies on home video.

Patrick Swayze, the romantic dancer in the movie had his first professional appearance as a dancer for Disney on Parade. Next, he was seen as a replacement playing the role of Danny Zuko in the long-running production of Grease on Broadway.

Swayze, chosen by People magazine as the “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1991 was most famous for his role in Dirty Dancing and the 1990 film, Ghost.

Jennifer Grey is the daughter of stage and Academy Award-winning actor Joel Grey.  As a young actor she was best know for her role as Ferris Bueller’s sister and her role of Baby in Dirty Dancing.

In the early 1990s, Grey underwent a rhinoplasty procedure that many people thought was not helpful to her looks and they thought it was one of the reasons she was not asked to star in many more projects.

After two very serious accidents, Grey became the winner of season 11 of Dancing With The Stars in 2010.

WAIT…What does this have to do with Clay Aiken?  Well, if you know the talented SueReu and the way she is able to put together wonderful videos, you won’t be surprised that she put together a wonderful new video to Clay’s performance of Unchained Melody.  Using the beautiful arrangement by Ben Cohn, Clay’s voice is the backdrop for Jennifer Grey’s dancing in both Dirty Dancing and Dancing With The Stars.

 

 

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Clay Aiken – Americas Greatest Movie Music

By musicfan123 · Comments (10)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

On June 22, 2004, CBS aired a 3 hour special called “AFI – 100 Years, 100 Songs. Hosted by John Travolta, the countdown from the American Film Institute featured clips of 100 songs.

Clay Aiken joined Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Barry Gibb, Barbra Streisand, and Paul Simon who commented on the songs in the Top 100.

The 100 songs were chosen by 1,500 “industry experts”; songs were evaluated on quality of music and lyrics as well as their cultural impact and legacy. “Over the Rainbow” – the Judy Garland anthem from “The Wizard of Oz” – was voted the greatest movie song ever.

The top ten list of greatest movie tunes follows:
Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz
As Time Goes By from Casablanca
Singin’ in the Rain from Singin’ in the Rain
Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s
White Christmas from Holiday Inn
Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate
When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinnochio
The Way We Were from The Way We Were
Stayin’ Alive from Saturday Night Fever
The Sound of Music from The Sound of Music

Commenting on “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, Clay said:

“Movie music does not have to be soaring love ballads. Lose Yourself is definitely an example of a movie song that makes a movie much more hip and much more popular for today’s culture.”

When commenting on “Unchained Melody” from Ghost, Clay said his mother had a dream that Clay would record a cover of Unchained Melody and it would be a big hit. One week later, LeAnn Rimes came out with the recording and it became a big hit. The hopes of Clay’s mom were dashed. Clay also commented that he was in 4th grade when Ghost was released and that he did not understand the significance of the hands on the potter’s wheel during the song.

Little did anyone know that Clay would record the very best arrangement of Unchained Melody seven years later.  A big thank you to Clay and Ben Cohn.
Another of Clay’s comments brought a laugh when he shared that he tried hard to learn to spell supercalifragalisticexpialidocious.

100 Years, 100 Songs, with the American Film Institute,  had an audience of 12.3 million people. How many of those people were fans of Clay Aiken?

Watch the video below to see Clay’s part of the AFI show.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUUzhRJnC7g

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Clay Aiken – He “Owns” Unchained Melody!

By musicfan123 · Comments (8)
Thursday, April 7th, 2011

On March 12, 2010, Clay Aiken stood on the stage of the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium and sang one of the most popular songs in history.  Unchained Melody is thought to be the most recorded song written in the 20th century.  There are approximately 500 different versions of this song.

In 1955, HyZaret wrote the beautiful lyrics and put them to the music created by Alex North.  Unchained melody was originally written for the 1955 movie, Unchained. Todd Duncan sang the song.

In 1965, The Righteous Brothers created a new version of Unchained Melody.  It hit the number four spot on the music charts and continued on the charts for 12 weeks.  Their version of the song was used in the 1990 film, Ghost.  After the movie, Unchained Melody was once again in the number one spot on the charts.

The song was also used in the film, Soldier, a military drama.  Two actors from the film sang a simple rendition of the song.  No one really thought much about it until the television station that broadcast the movie received countless calls from viewers who wanted to buy the version by the actors.  It was Simon Cowell of American Idol fame who convinced the actors to record the song. And their recording hit platinum status within its first week in 1995.

In 2010, the talented Ben Cohn wrote a beautiful arrangement of Unchained Melody for Clay Aiken.  The lush orchestration highlighted the strengths of Clay’s voice.  Many feel that this production of the song is one of the best around.

No one can sing Unchained Melody better than Clay Aiken who has loved the song since he was a young child.  His passionate rendition will be around a long time.  Clay now “owns” Unchained Melody.

On Wednesday, a list of the Top 25 most shared videos from The View listed Clay Aiken’s performance of Unchained Melody as # 3.  The wonderful performance has been shared on Twitter, Facebook and many different blogs. The following is the YouTube of Clay singing Unchained Melody on The View.

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Clay Aiken – Remembering Patrick Swayze

By musicfan123 · Comments (10)
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

The world received sad news on Monday when it was reported that actor Patrick Swayze had lost his long battle with pancreatic cancer. Patrick’s family was at his side.

Patrick was a three-time Golden Globe nominated actor, dancer, and singer/songwriter.  He is probably best known for being the romantic lead in the movies, “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost.”  He also had a starring role in the TV series, “North and South.”

According to Broadway World, Patrick’s first professional job was in Disney on Parade where he put his dancing skills to use.  On Broadway, Patrick starred as Danny Zuko in the musical, Grease. In 2006, Patrick made his London stage debut in Guys and Dolls

Patrick’s peers from Hollywood and Broadway have been reacting to the news of his death.  Jennifer Grey, his co-star in “Dirty Dancing” said:

“When I think of him, I think of being in his arms when we were kids, dancing, practicing the lift in the freezing lake, having a blast doing this tiny little movie we thought no one would ever see. … Patrick was a rare and beautiful combination of raw masculinity and amazing grace.”

Whoopi Goldberg talked of Patrick on The View.  She stated that because of Patrick, she won an Academy Award.  She was visibly upset on the show as she remembered him.

I will always remember “Dirty Dancing.”  I saw it so many times I could almost say the lines with the actors.

But, when I think of Patrick Swayze, I think of “Ghost” and the beautiful song Unchained Melody. I am so glad that Clay Aiken likes the song too.  His rendition of the song is vulnerable, yet full of passion.  No one can sing it better.

There are two videos to see attached to this article.  The first is of Clay singing Unchained Melody at a Benefit Concert for David Foster’s Charity.  The second video is Clay’s part in the AFI – 100 Songs from the movies.  Clay recalls his memories of the movie “Ghost” and his love of Unchained Melody.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AZHYG2AiNY

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUUzhRJnC7g

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It is not always about performance art, but about receiving positive energy from people with positive spirits. Sometimes we can see someone's spirit, and those are the people with great energy. Those are the people that get me through the day, especially on Broadway. -Clay Aiken

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