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Today marks a bittersweet milestone, as it would have been the 60th birthday of the late Patrick Swayze, Actor, Dancer… Singer??

 

Oh yes, Swayze had the moves, but he also had the pipes. Some of you might be surprised to know that it was Swayze himself that provided the voice for “She’s Like the Wind”, one of the many hits off the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

 

Swayze actually got his start on Broadway, exercising all three of his talents playing Danny Zuko in the original run of Grease and also appearances in Chicago and Goodtime Charley. TV and film roles followed but usually featuring Patrick as the sensitive tough guy or stern, butt-kicking role model... i.e.: no dancing or singing required. He finally got to put on his dancing shoes for the masses in 1987’s Dirty Dancing, sweeping Jennifer Grey off her feet and the rest of us with him. The fact that he also crooned one of the most knee-bucklingly romantic tunes on the film’s soundtrack with just the cherry on this manly sundae.

 

Though he never pursued music in earnest or cut any albums or anything, he still flexed his pipes every now and then, such as singing the song “Raising Heaven in Hell Tonight” from the Road House soundtrack, providing the speaking and singing voice for country pooch Cash in The Fox and the Hound 2, and returning to Broadway in 2006 for a stint as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls.

 

Patrick Swayze was a Triple Threat in every sense of the word, and he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you could be a classically trained dancer and sing love songs to your lady and still tear a guy’s throat out with his bare hands (thank you, Road House)!

 

Check out some of Swayze’s vocal offerings below. Happy Birthday, Patrick, we miss you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Katie Marzullo, YH Staff Editor

katie@younghollywood.com