Sunday, July 29, 2018

The Song "This Overload" by Alfie Zappacosta

Two days before their Sheldrake Hotel performance, Baby Houseman and Johnny Castle are quarreling about their dance practices. Johnny says, "let's get out of here". They get into Johnny's car and drive to the countryside.


As they get into the car and drive, the soundtrack plays the song "This Overload", performed by Alfie Zappacosta. The song's lyrics follow:
This overload.
This overload.

I can hear your heels clicking on the sidewalk,
Beating to the rhythm of my heart.
Caught up in you --
You're the only one I want.

I follow you home every night
Just to make sure that you get there alright.
Baby, it's true,
I can't think of anything but you

And what I need, Baby,
Is a little bit of sympathy.
You got me on my knees.
I burn throughout the night.

And I can't live without your love
Won't you help me cure this overload?

Oh, you got to know;
You see me everywhere that you go.
Doesn't that say something?
Obsession's taken hold of me?

All because of you.
You've got to see me through.
I can't take another night alone without you.
Honey, it's true.

I am so hung up on you
What I really need, Baby, is a little of your company.
You got me on my knees.
I burn throughout the night ...
Alfie Zappacosta's 1986 album When I Fall in Love Again
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This song did not exist in 1963, when the story takes place. Rather, the song was recorded for the movie in 1987.

The song's lyrics do not express Johnny's thoughts as they get into the car and drive to the countryside on that day in 1963. Johnny does not feel that an obsession about Baby has taken hold of him. Johnny does not burn throughout the night because of Baby.

At this point in the story, Johnny just wants to train Baby well enough to perform at the Sheldrake Hotel, after which he intends to terminate his involvement with her.

Keep in mind, however, that Baby is narrating this story retrospectively from 1987. The song expresses her own fantasizing in 1987 that Johnny felt so passionately about her on that day in 1963.

On that day in 1963, Baby was obsessed and was burning through the night about Johnny, but he did not reciprocate those feelings yet. She merely fantasized that he too felt so passionately about her.

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The Wikipedia article about Zappacosta includes the following passages.
Alfredo Peter "Alfie" Zappacosta (born 1953 in Sora, Italy), also known by just his surname, is an Italian-born Canadian singer/songwriter.

Zappacosta's first band was Surrender, a five-piece group that recorded three albums in the late 1970s into the early 1980s. In 1984 he recorded his first self-titled solo album which contained the hit singles "Passion" and "We Should Be Lovers". As a result, he won the Juno Award for "Most Promising Male Vocalist".

The next year he lent his vocals to the Canadian charity production "Tears Are Not Enough", produced by David Foster singing the lines "Maybe we could understand the reasons why" in the fifth stanza with Dalbello.

His second album A-Z was released in 1986 and featured the hit singles "When I Fall (In Love Again)" and "Nothing Can Stand In Your Way". Following this, a Zappacosta song "Overload" was added to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, one of the biggest selling soundtracks of the 80s.

A third album Quick! .. .Don't Ask Any Questions was released in 1990, before Zappacosta took time off to hone his vocal and guitar skills. He also pursued acting in various stage performances, as well as a role in the 2005 Canadian movie Halo. ....

In December 2008, Zappacosta released the album At the Church at Berkeley which features his versions of classic jazz standards. He has been touring Canada to support this album since the summer of 2009. In 2010 Zappacosta released his last album to date, Blame It On Me
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When Baby and Johnny are going to his car, it's raining. Johnny finds that his car keys are locked inside.. Therefore he pulls a post out of the ground and uses the post to break through a car window so that he can open the door.

As they drive through the wind, Baby exclaims twice, "You're wild!" They both laugh.

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This scene with the car serves as an interlude that separates two long scenes of dance practice. The car scene is preceded by the "Hungry Eyes" dance-practice scene and is followed by the "Hey, Baby" dance-practice scene.

Th interlude's "Overload" song is visceral and hard-drumming -- in contrast to the thoughtful, melodic songs that accompany the two dance-practice scenes.

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