John DeNicola&nbsp;is an American songwriter and producer. He is best known for co-writing the song "<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(I%27ve_Had)_The_Time_of_My_Life">(I've Had) The Time of My Life</a>", for which he won both an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards">Academy Award</a>&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Globe_Award">Golden Globe Award</a>, as well as receiving a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award">Grammy</a>&nbsp;nomination. He was the winner of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCAP_Awards">ASCAP Awards</a>' "Most Performed Song&nbsp;the year" for "Time of My Life" as well as for "<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry_Eyes">Hungry Eyes</a>", another song from the film. In addition to&nbsp;Dirty Dancing&nbsp;hits for&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Medley">Bill Medley</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Warnes">Jennifer Warnes</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Carmen">Eric Carmen</a>, he has also written songs with and for&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Money">Eddie Money</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Waite">John Waite</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristine_W">Kristine W</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Holy">Steve Holy</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannie_Kendall">Jeannie Kendall</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Jones">Sugar Jones</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Haslam">Annie Haslam</a>,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Worrell">Bernie Worrell</a>, The Sighs, Peter Lewis, Fifth Harmony and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Briley">Martin Briley</a>.A native of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amityville,_New_York">Amityville, New York</a>&nbsp;and a longtime resident of&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Village">Greenwich Village</a>, DeNicola began his musical career as a bass player with "Flight", a band which recorded for&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motown">Motown</a>&nbsp;in 1980 and was sampled by Erikah Badu on her hit song "Back in the Day".&nbsp;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&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franke_Previte">Franke Previte</a>&nbsp;and Donald Markowitz on the award-winning songs for&nbsp;Dirty Dancing.&nbsp;DeNicola shared an imprint, Omad/Paradigm Records, through which he produced a number of albums, before creating his own studio,&nbsp;Jake's Kitchen Sink.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara%27s_Flowers">Kara's Flowers</a>, who went on to become&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroon_5">Maroon 5</a>, are among the artists he has produced. 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. In 2021 John released his sophomore record She Said which contained 9 original songs he wrote for himself as an artist and two cover songs, "Morning Dew" and "Can't Find My Way Home"