Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers (1965)

Description

Additional information about this, The Righteous Brothers vinyl art.

The Righteous Brothers – The Artist/s

The Righteous Brothers are an American musical duo originally formed by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield but now comprising Medley and Bucky Heard. Medley formed the group with Hatfield in 1963. They had first performed together in 1962 in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called the Paramours, and adopted the name The Righteous Brothers when they became a duo. Their most active recording period was in the 1960s and ’70s, and, after several years inactive as a duo, Hatfield and Medley reunited in 1981 and continued to perform until Hatfield’s death in 2003. The music they performed is sometimes dubbed “blue-eyed soul”.Hatfield and Medley had contrasting vocal ranges, which helped them create a distinctive sound as a duet. They each had the vocal talent to perform as soloists. Medley sang the low parts with his bass-baritone voice, with Hatfield taking the higher-register vocals with his tenor. His voice reached the register of a countertenor. The duo hit big with the 1964 release of what would become their signature record, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” – a transatlantic number one produced by Phil Spector, often considered one of his finest works and a landmark recording in popular music. Other notable hits include – “Just Once in My Life” and covers of “Unchained Melody” (also a huge hit in 1990 after being featured in the film Ghost) In 2016, Medley re-formed The Righteous Brothers with Bucky Heard and they continue to perform as a duo.

Unchained Melody – The Song

‘Unchained Melody’  is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers in 1965. According to the song’s publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of “Unchained Melody” have been made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. Of the hundreds of recordings made, the Righteous Brothers’ version, with a solo by Bobby Hatfield, became the jukebox standard after its release. Hatfield changed the melody in the final verse and many subsequent covers of the song are based on his version. The Righteous Brothers recording achieved a second round of great popularity when featured in the film Ghost in 1990.

Two Hearts – The Shape

This record has been modelled into two interconnecting hearts. The heart shape and its meaning has evolved over hundreds of years. Nowadays it means love but before the 13th and 14th centuries it was generally drawn for decorative purposes. People at that time thought of our hearts as books of memory and believed feelings for the beloved were somehow written on your heart. 

Ghost is a 1990 American supernatural romance film directed by Jerry Zucker from a screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, Vincent Schiavelli, and Rick Aviles. It focuses on Sam Wheat (Swayze), a murdered banker, whose ghost sets out to save his girlfriend, Molly Jensen (Moore), from the person who killed him – through the help of the psychic Oda Mae Brown (Goldberg).

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