'You've Got a Friend': 'Dirty Dancing' songwriter brings '70s classics to New Brunswick

Franke Previte knows Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick.

The Oscar-winning music legend, who now lives in Oceanport, is a Hub City native who was living on Livingston when he received a very important phone call.

“I remember the day when I was called by Jimmy Ienner to write a song for ‘Dirty Dancing’ and I told him, ‘Hey, I’m too busy, I’m trying to get a deal,’ ” said Previte, writer of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” with John DeNicola.

“He said the name of the movie, ‘Dirty Dancing,’ I thought he was doing a porn flick,” Previte said. “But I accepted it as a job and I remember walking out of my house on Livingston Avenue and a bird pooped on my shoulder. I looked up and said this is either really good luck or this is really bad. So I guess it was good luck because on the Garden State Parkway, Exit 140, that’s where I wrote ‘Time of My Life.’ ”

Previte is returning to town as co-producer of the Taylor Simon King: A Celebration of Three American Troubadours concert Saturday, March 25, at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. The show features songs of early ’70s by James Taylor, Carly Simon and Carole King.

“Taylor Simon King” stars Lisa Sherman, Previte’s wife, who also is co-producer. Mary McCrink and James Gedeon also sing. The band includes Gary Oleyar, Ralph Notaro, Tommy Labella, Lance Hyland Stark, Buddy Allen, Todd Sherman and Sam Sherman. They’ve played with everyone from Loggins & Massina to Jon Bon Jovi.

“This music was kind of the soundtrack to our lives and it became the baby-boomer night out,” Previte said. The people there are 35, 40, up to their 80s, and at times they’re singing louder than the band. That’s the power of music.”

“Dirty Dancing” and its songs, which also include Previte’s “Hungry Eyes,” became a cultural phenomenon of Beatles-esque proportions that still burns bright, thanks to related stage plays, commercials and movies. Previte has been asked to write music for the upcoming “Dirty Dancing” sequel, starring Jennifer Grey. Her “Dirty Dancing” co-star, Patrick Swayze, died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 at 57.

Previte routinely performs in benefits for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in remembrance of Swayze. It’s part of his long, winding and stardust-filled musical journey, which included opening for Rod Stewart at Madison Square Garden in the hard rock band Bull Angus, and being an MTV video star, thanks to the Franke and the Knockouts hit, “Sweetheart.”

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“Growing up, being that my father was an opera singer, there was all this Caruso and Mario Lanza and all these Italian notes going on, so I was constantly looking for the blue notes,” Previte said of his music days in New Brunswick, which started with a group that did Franke Lymon and the Teenagers songs.

“Then I started listening to soul music,” Previte said. “It really changed in 1964 when I started listening to the Young Rascals. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s who I want to be. That’s who I want to sound like, that blue-eyed soul.’ ”

Go: Taylor Simon King: A Celebration of Three American Troubadours, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25, New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, $35 to $45; nbpac.org.

E Street in Belmar

D'Jais Bar and Grill, located on Ocean Avenue in Belmar, is not that far from the borough's E Street.

It's also not far from the thoughts of E Street Band members. Bruce Springsteen wistfully pined about summer nights at the Jersey Shore landmark during the depths of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“D'Jais in Belmar, what are we going to do this summer! Hell, let's go dancing in the street,” said the Boss during a May 2020 broadcast of his “Bruce Springsteen: From My Home To Yours” on SiriusXM.

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On Sunday, March 19, the D'Jais crew will take a step to preserve the legacy of E Street with a Piano in Pyanoe Plaza project fundraiser. The mission is to install a weatherproof piano at the plaza in honor of David Sancious, former keyboardist for the E Street Band, and his mom Stelma Sancious, an educator in Neptune and Belmar who helped generations of students.

The E Street Band is so named because Sancious lived there.

“I'm very honored by that,” said Sancious previously of the piano project.

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Holme, Pat Roddy, Tommy LaBella, Danny White, Tommy B and the Deep Blue Sea, Dan Leeds, Cody Faye and Trice, Stringbean and the Boardwalk Social Club, E Boro Bandits, Nikki Aerosmith, Richard Blackwell, Bobby Bandiera and surprise guests will be at D'Jais on Sunday.

Visit belmararts.org for more information on the piano project.

Go: Piano in Pyanoe Plaza Concert Fundraiser starring Holme, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, March 19, D'Jais Bar and Grill, 1801 Ocean Ave., $20 in advance, $25 at the door; djais.com.

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Chris Jordan, a Jersey Shore native, covers entertainment and features for the USA Today Network New Jersey. Contact him at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Dirty Dancing songwriter Franke Previte returns to New Brunswick