"Dirty Dancing" is the third overall single from
New Kids on the Block
New Kids on the Block (also initialized as NKOTB) is an American boy band from Dorchester, Massachusetts. The band consists of brothers Jonathan and Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. New Kids on the Block enjoy ...
's 2008 album, ''
The Block''. It was produced by
RedOne. The lead vocals were sung by
Jordan Knight
Jordan Nathaniel Marcel Knight (born May 17, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He is a singer in the boy band New Kids on the Block (NKOTB), who rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s, using a falsetto style of singing influenced by ...
and
Donnie Wahlberg
Donald Edmond Wahlberg Jr. (born August 17, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actor, record producer, and film producer. He is a founding member of the boy band New Kids on the Block. Outside music, he has had roles in the ''Saw' ...
.
Song information
"Dirty Dancing" was only released in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
on December 19, 2008, as the second single from the album in that market. However, the song has charted in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and on the
European Hot 100. It became ''
The Blocks most successful single in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
.
Critical reception
British
tabloid The News Letter
The ''News Letter'' is one of Northern Ireland's main daily newspapers, published from Monday to Saturday. It is the world's oldest English-language general daily newspaper still in publication, having first been printed in 1737.
The newspape ...
described the song as "more sophisticated than the blaring, synth-heavy pop of their classic years".
In its review of ''
The Block'', Sputnik Music said: "to the wafer-thin sexual metaphors of ‘Dirty Dancing’".
Slant Magazine said: "they show their age by pretending it's still 1987 on "Dirty Dancing" ("Ooh, it's so crazy/She's like Baby/I'm like Swayze")". In its review of ''The Block'', ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' stated that "in songs like "Dirty Dancing" they… well, they merely sound like a boy band, and pay for the simple incongruity of it all"
Now Magazine comments on the song: "Throwback references date their fan base, though, with songs like Dirty Dancing (“She’s like Baby, I’m like Swayze”)".
British
newspaper
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
''Lisburn Today'' described it as "sexy". In its review of ''The Block'', ''
Billboard'' declared: "They also turn an homage to "Dirty Dancing" into a bump and grind that is far, far from the innocence of the Patrick Swayze original, or the New Kids music, for that matter".
Promotion
New Kids On The Block sang an excerpt from the song at 2008
American Music Awards
The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Pro ...
as well as
Good Morning America.
Music video
Shot in a
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
background, the video, directed by
Til Schweiger
Tilman Valentin Schweiger (; born 19 December 1963) is a German actor, voice actor and filmmaker. He runs his own production company, Barefoot Films, in Berlin.
Early life
Schweiger was born in Freiburg, West Germany, to two teachers. He grew ...
, intersperses scenes from the German film "The 1½ Knights - In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde" (German title: "1½ Ritter - Auf der Suche nach der hinreißenden Herzelinde"), in which he appears, with footage of the band performing the song in front of a mostly all-female audience.
Track listing
Germany
# Dirty Dancing
edOne mix# Dirty Dancing
ideo
IDEO () is a design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 700 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, enviro ...
Maxi Single
# Dirty Dancing
edOne mix# Looking Like Danger
# Dirty Dancing
usic video
Chart performance
The song debuted at #92 on the
German Singles Chart
The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindust ...
and peaked at #23. On the
Canadian Hot 100 it also debuted at #92 and is now at #31 and on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles Chart debuted at #72 and then rose to #59. It debuted at #100 on the
Canadian Airplay Chart and it peaked at #72. The single debuted at #82 on the
European Hot 100. In its second week, it rose to #76. The song remained on chart for four weeks. In
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, the song debuted at #65 and after having fallen a week later, rose to #71 in its third week on the chart.
"Dirty Dancing" has gathered 17,577,000 audience impressions and 3,354 total spins in the
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
to date, without being officially released.
"Dirty Dancing" reached the #1 position on the
CHUM chart
The CHUM Chart was a ranking of top 30 (and, until August 1968, the top 50) songs on Toronto, Ontario radio station CHUM AM, from 1957 to 1986, and was the longest-running Top 40 chart in the world produced by an individual radio station. On Janua ...
in Toronto on February 21, 2009. "Dirty Dancing" has been on the CHUM Chart 12 weeks before reaching #1.
Chum Chart
/ref>
Charts
References
{{authority control
2008 singles
2008 songs
New Kids on the Block songs
Interscope Records singles
Songs written by RedOne
Song recordings produced by RedOne
Songs written by Donnie Wahlberg