She's Like The Wind

Album

Dirty Dancing (soundtrack)

Label

RCA Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Media Type

45s

Composer(s)

Patrick Swayze;Stacy Widelitz

Entered Chart

Dec 19, 1987

Peak Date

Feb 27, 1988

Released

December 1987

Recorded

November 1986

Catalog #

RCA 5363

B-Side

Stay (Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs)

This song features in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing in a scene where Patrick Swayze says goodbye to Jennifer Grey after their summer fling, telling her, "I'll never be sorry." Her reply: "Neither will I." Swayze doesn't sing it on camera, making it a rare case where the star of a film soundtracks his own scene. This wasn't written for Dirty Dancing; Swayze wrote the song with his friend Stacy Widelitz for a movie he was shooting in 1984 called Grandview, U.S.A. Swayze had the basic chords and the opening lyrics ("She's like the wind, through my tree..."). They hashed out the song over the next few days, but it was rejected for the film. Two years later, Swayze was working on Dirty Dancing, and he played the demo of the song for the producers, who gave it the green light. They recorded a proper version with Michael Lloyd producing, and the song became a big part of the soundtrack, which sold over 30 million copies and spent 18 weeks at #1 in the US. The song is about a guy with some self-esteem issues: there's a girl he's after, but he thinks she's out of his league. She's close by, but elusive - like the wind. You kinda hope the guy will grow some confidence when he sings, "Just a fool to believe I have anything she needs." Man up! The female voice on this song is Wendy Fraser, who was co-writer Stacy Widelitz' girlfriend. She sang on the demo, and then years later when they recorded the song for Dirty Dancing, producer Michael Lloyd brought her back to sing on the track. Fraser, who studied music at Hunter College in New York, went to Los Angeles to pursue a career in pop music, but found her calling as a jazz singer. In 2008 she released an album called It's A Woman Thing. This was the third single released from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which hung around for quite a while. The film was released in August 1987, and the first single, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" hit #1 US in November. The next single, "Hungry Eyes," reached #4 in February, and "She's Like The Wind" landed at #3 later that month. Report this ad Stacy Widelitz, who co-wrote this song with Swayze, became a successful songwriter, composing music for a number of TV shows. His name is often misspelled "Stacey Widelitz" in credits, leading many to believe it was a woman who wrote this song with Swayze. Patrick Swayze was big into music, but there was far more demand for his acting than his singing. He did a duet with Larry Gatlin called "Brothers" for the soundtrack of his 1989 film Next Of Kin, and has two songs on the soundtrack to Road House, another film his starred in that year. His 2003 film One Last Dance also featured two Swayze songs on the soundtrack, but "She's Like The Wind" was his only hit, making Swayze one of the more high-profile one-hit wonders. This spent two weeks at the top of the Adult Contemporary chart. A version by Lumidee featuring Tony Sunshine went to #43 US in 2007. In this rendition, Tony Sunshine sings the lyrics, which are interspersed with raps by Lumidee, who takes the female perspective, telling him to step up and make his move.

She's like the wind through my tree
She rides the night next to me
She leads me through moonlight
Only to burn me with the sun
She's taken my heart
But she doesn't know what she's done

Feel her breath in my face
Her body close to me
Can't look in her eyes
She's out of my league
Just a fool to believe
I have anything she needs
She's like the wind

I look in the mirror and all I see
Is a young old man with only a dream
Am I just fooling myself
That she'll stop the pain
Living without her
I'd go insane

Feel her breath in my face
Her body close to me
Can't look in her eyes
She's out of my league
Just a fool to believe
I have anything she needs
She's like the wind

Feel your breath in my face
Your body close to me
Can't look in your eyes
You're out of my league
Just a fool to believe
(Just a fool to believe) she's like the wind

Just a fool to believe (just a fool to believe)
She's like the wind
Just a fool to believe (just a fool to believe)
She's like the wind
Just a fool to believe (just a fool to believe)
She's like the wind
Just a fool
She's like the wind
She's like the wind
Just a fool
She's like the wind, just a fool