Advert 'imitation' case settled

The film Dirty Dancing made a star of Patrick Swayze

Singers Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes have settled a lawsuit after a US commercial used singers whose voices were ajudged to be almost indistinguishable from theirs.

Sandals Resorts International used the duo's hit song (I've Had) The Time of My Life in a TV commercial.

But the singers hired for the song were coached, the lawsuit said, "to imitate, as closely as possible, the sonic qualities of plaintiffs' voices".

Medley and Warnes claimed that using the singers unfairly cashed in on their success - and gave the false impression that they endorsed the Sandals resort.

Dirty Dancing

The singers sued Sandals Resorts International in 1998, but only reached a settlement in October.

The terms of the settlement, in the Los Angeles Superior Court, were not disclosed.

The song, which was featured in the soundtrack of the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, was a UK number six hit in the same year and a number eight hit in 1990.

In the US it hit number one and spent nine weeks in the Billboard top 20.

The song also won a Grammy award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group and an Oscar for Best Song.

The Jamaica-based holiday company could not be reached for comment.