附注:
Unchained Melody is probably one of the most
covered songs ever. This 1965 Righteous Brothers'
version was the first of the best. Their version omits
the 2nd bridge. My version has a semitone key change
for the last verse (at Lenono's request!).
They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby
Hatfield (both born in 1941) were most definitely
righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the
term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s. The white
Southern California duo were an established
journeyman doo wop/R&B act before an association
with Phil Spector produced one of the most memorable
hits of the 1960s, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."
The collaboration soon fell apart, though, and while
the singers had some other excellent hit singles in a
similar style, they proved unable to sustain their
momentum after just a year or two at the top.
When Medley and Hatfield combined forces in 1962,
they emerged from regional groups the Paramours and
the Variations; in fact, they kept the Paramours billing
for their first single. By 1963, they were calling
themselves the Righteous Brothers, Medley taking the
low parts with his smoky baritone, Hatfield taking the
higher tenor and falsetto lines. For the next couple of
years they did quite a few energetic R&B tunes on the
Moonglow label that bore similarity to the
gospel/soul/rock style of Ray Charles, copping their
greatest success with "Little Latin Lupe Lu," which
became a garage-band favorite covered by Mitch
Ryder, the Kingsmen, and others.
Even on the Moonglow recordings, Bill Medley acted
as producer and principal songwriter, but the duo
wouldn't break out nationally until they put themselves
at the services of Phil Spector. Spector gave the Wall
of Sound treatment to "You've Lost That Lovin'
Feelin'," a grandiose ballad penned by himself, Barry
Mann, and Cynthia Weil. At nearly four minutes, the
song was pushing the limits of what could be played
on radio in the mid-'60s, and some listeners thought
they were hearing a 45 single played at 33 rpm due to
Medley's low, blurry lead vocal. No matter; the song
had a power that couldn't be denied, and went all the
way to number one.
The Righteous Brothers had three more big hits in
1965 on Spector's Philles label ("Just Once in My
Life," "Unchained Melody," and "Ebb Tide"), all
employing similar dense orchestral arrangements and
swelling vocal crescendos. Yet the Righteous
Brothers-Spector partnership wasn't a smooth one, and
by 1966 the duo had left Philles for a lucrative deal
with Verve. Medley, already an experienced hand in
the producer's booth, reclaimed the producer's chair,
and the Righteous Brothers had another number one
hit with their first Verve outing, "(You're My) Soul and
Inspiration." Its success must have been a particularly
bitter blow for Spector, given that Medley successfully
emulated the Wall of Sound orchestral ambience of
the Righteous Brothers' Philles singles down to the
smallest detail, even employing the same Mann-Weil
writing team that had contributed to "You've Lost That
Lovin' Feelin'." It's a bit of a mystery as to why the
Righteous Brothers never came close to duplicating
that success during the rest of their tenure at Verve.
But they would only have a couple of other Top 40 hits
in the 1960s ("He" and "Go Ahead and Cry," both in
1966), even with the aid of occasional compositions by
the formidable Goffin-King team. In 1968 Medley left for
a solo career; Hatfield, the less talented of the pair (at
least from a songwriting and production standpoint),
kept the Righteous Brothers going with Jimmy Walker
(who had been in the Knickerbockers).
Medley had a couple of small hits in the late '60s as a
solo act, but unsurprisingly neither "brother" was worth
half as much on their own as they were together. In
1974 they reunited and had a number three hit with
"Rock and Roll Heaven," a tribute to dead rock stars
that some found tacky. A couple of smaller hits
followed before Medley retired from performing for five
years in 1976. The Righteous Brothers continued to
tour the oldies circuit off and on in the 1980s and
1990s. It was while on one of these tours that Bobby
Hatfield died suddenly on November 5, 2003.
