John DeNicola (born October 4, 1955) is an American songwriter and producer. He is best known for co-writing the song " (I've Had) The Time of My Life", for which he won both an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

and a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

, as well as receiving a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

nomination, in 1988. In 1989 he was the co-winner of

ASCAP Awards The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit Performance rights organisation, performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' ...

' "Most Performed Songs from Motion Pictures" for "Time of My Life" as well as for "

Hungry Eyes "Hungry Eyes" is a song performed by American musician Eric Carmen, a former member of the band Raspberries, and was featured in the film '' Dirty Dancing'' (1987). The song was recorded at Beachwood Studios in Beachwood, Ohio in 1987. "Hungry ...

", another song from the film. In addition to ''Dirty Dancing'' hits for

Bill Medley William Thomas Medley (born September 19, 1940) is an American singer and songwriter, best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers. He is noted for his bass-baritone voice, exemplified in songs such as "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". Med ...

Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 fo ...

and

Eric Carmen Eric Howard Carmen (born August 11, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and keyboardist. He was first known as the lead vocalist of the Raspberries. He had numerous hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s, first as a member of the Rasp ...

, he has also written songs with and for

Eddie Money Edward Joseph Mahoney (March 21, 1949 – September 13, 2019), known professionally as Eddie Money, was an American singer and songwriter who, in the 1970s and 1980s, had eleven Top 40 songs, including "Baby Hold On", "Two Tickets to Parad ...

John Waite John Charles Waite (born 4 July 1952) is an English musician. As a solo artist, he has released ten studio albums and is best known for the 1984 hit single " Missing You", which reached No. 1 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and the top ten on ...

Kristine W Kristine Elizabeth Weitz, widely known by her stage name Kristine W, is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and entrepreneur. She is most widely known as a dance music artist. Born and raised in Pasco, Washington, she found ear ...

Steve Holy Stephen Kyle Holy (born February 23, 1972) is an American country music singer. Signed to Curb Records since 1999, he has released three studio albums: 2000's '' Blue Moon'', 2006's ''Brand New Girlfriend'', and 2011's ''Love Don't Run''. Fifteen ...

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Sugar Jones Sugar Jones was a Canadian all-female pop group created on the first season of the Canadian version of '' Popstars'' in 2001. It consisted of five members chosen from thousands of contestants who auditioned all over Canada in hopes of gaining a sp ...

Annie Haslam Annie Haslam (born 8 June 1947) is an English vocalist, songwriter and painter. She is best known as the lead singer of progressive rock band Renaissance since 1971, and for her long and diverse solo singing career. She has a five-octave vocal r ...

Bernie Worrell George Bernard Worrell, Jr. (April 19, 1944 – June 24, 2016) was an American keyboardist and record producer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll ...

, The Sighs and

Martin Briley Martin Steven Briley (born 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist. He was born in London and has recorded with and written for a variety of well-known musicians, as well as releasing several solo albums. Music career B ...

Songwriter and producer

A native of

Smithtown, New York Smithtown is a town in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. The population was 116,296 at the 2020 Census. The census-designated place (CDP) of Smithtown lies within the tow ...

and a longtime resident of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, DeNicola began his musical career as a bass player with "Flight", a band which recorded for

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

in 1980 and was sampled by Erikah Badu on her hit song "Back in the Day". He played with several other acts before changing his career. Although his songwriter portfolio includes music written for and performed by other artists, he is best known for his collaboration with

Franke Previte Franke Jon Previte (born May 2, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, and Academy Award-winning composer. He was the lead singer of the 1980s pop rock band Franke and the Knockouts. Biography Born and raised in New Brunswick, New Jersey to Fr ...

and Donald Markowitz on the award-winning songs for ''Dirty Dancing''. DeNicola shared an imprint, Omad/Paradigm Records, through which he produced a number of albums, before creating his own studio, ''Jake's Kitchen Sink''.

Kara's Flowers Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine, drummer Matt Flynn, keyboardist PJ Mor ...

, who went on to become

Maroon 5 Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, drummer Matt ...

, are among the artists he has produced for. In September 2019 John DeNicola released his debut album of songs he has written called "The Why Because" which include his synth pop version of "Hungry Eyes" and a stripped down acoustic guitar and brass section version of "I've Had The Time Of My Life". Also included is "In God's Shadow" which he wrote with John Waite, Anthony Krizan and lyrics by Keith Reid (Whiter Shade Of Pale) with Mickey Madden (Maroon 5) on bass. DeNicola continues to write songs and works with new musical talent.

References

External links

John DeNicola official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Denicola, John Songwriters from New York (state) American male songwriters Best Original Song Academy Award-winning songwriters Golden Globe Award-winning musicians People from Greenwich Village 1955 births Living people Record producers from New York (state) Guitarists from New York City American male bass guitarists 20th-century American bass guitarists 20th-century American male musicians