Unchained Melody
"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret. North composed the music as a theme for its namesake 1955 prison film. The version of the song in the film's soundtrack was sung by Todd Duncan. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, with the version recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1965 notable in its own right. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 singers, in multiple languages.
In 1955, three versions of the song – by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton – charted in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the versions by Hibbler, Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace ranked in the top 20 simultaneously, a record for any song. The song continued to chart in the 21st century, and until 2014 it was the only song to reach number one with four different recordings in the United Kingdom.
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 acquired renewed attention when it was featured in the 1990 film Ghost. In 2004, it was number 27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
Origin of song
In 1954, Alex North was contracted to compose the score for the prison film Unchained. North had a melody he had written in the 1930s and composed and recorded the score when he was asked to write a song based upon the movie's theme. North asked Hy Zaret to write the lyrics. After first refusing, Zaret and North together wrote "Unchained Melody". Zaret refused the producer's request to include the word "unchained" in his lyrics. The song eventually became known as the "Unchained Melody", though the song does not actually include the word "unchained". Instead, Zaret chose to focus on someone who pines for a lover he has not seen in a "long, lonely time". The film centered on a man who contemplates either escaping from prison to live life on the run or completing his sentence and returning to his wife and family. The song has an unusual harmonic device as the bridge ends on the tonic chord rather than the more usual dominant chord. "Unchained Melody" is written in the key of C major.Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack and performs an abbreviated version in the film. Playing one of the prisoners, he sings it, accompanied by another prisoner on guitar, while other prisoners listen sadly. With Duncan singing the vocals, the song was nominated in 1956 for 1955's Oscars, but the Best Song award went to the hit song "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing".
William Stirrat, an electrical engineer, claimed to have written the lyrics as a teenager in 1936 under the pen name "Hy Zaret", only to have North use the uncredited words in the 1955 original. The case went to court and the dispute was resolved completely in favor of the real Zaret, who continued to receive all royalties.
Early versions
Following the movie, several charting covers were released in 1955. Bandleader Les Baxter released a choral version, which reached number one on the US charts and number 10 in the UK. The words "unchain me" are sung repeatedly at the beginning and the lyrics are sung by a choir. Billboard ranked this version as the number-five song of 1955. Al Hibbler followed close behind with a vocal version, that reached number three on the Billboard charts and number two in the UK chart listings. Jimmy Young's release stayed at number one on the British charts for three weeks and remained on the UK charts for 19 weeks. Young re-recorded the song in early 1964 and it hit number 43 in the UK. Two weeks after Young's version entered the top 10 of the British charts in June 1955, Liberace scored a number-20 hit. Roy Hamilton's version reached number one on the R&B Best Sellers list and number six on the pop chart. June Valli recorded the song on March 15, 1955 with the flip side "Tomorrow", and took it to number 29 on the Top Pop Records list. Harry Belafonte recorded the song, and sang his version at the 1956 Academy Awards after it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1955.While the sheet-music business was losing its prominence to sound recordings, a sheet music release of the song peaked at number one on its 10th week on the Billboard Best Selling Sheet Music chart on the week ending June 18, 1955. It stayed at its peak position for nine weeks until it dropped to number four on its 20th week on the week ending August 27.
Charts
Les Baxter
Roy Hamilton
Jimmy Young
Al Hibbler
The Righteous Brothers versions
The best-known version of "Unchained Melody" was recorded by the duo the Righteous Brothers for Philles Records in 1965. The lead vocal was performed solo by Bobby Hatfield, who later recorded other versions of the song credited solely to him. According to his singing partner Bill Medley, they had agreed to do one solo piece each per album. Both wanted to sing "Unchained Melody" for their fourth album, but Hatfield won the coin toss.Recording
The song was not originally intended to be released as an A side. As Spector was not especially interested in producing B-sides or album tracks, he left the production to Bill Medley, who had produced the duo before they signed with Spector and Philles. He brought in a similar "wall of sound" instrumental track. Medley said: "Phil came to me and asked me to produce the Righteous Brothers albums because he would have taken too long and it would have cost too much money." By Medley's account, Spector only claimed production credit after it supplanted "Hung on You" as the hit. Early copies of the single did not credit a producer for "Unchained Melody" and only credited Spector as producer of the original single "Hung on You". Later pressings of the single credited Spector as the producer, as do album liner notes in the Spector box set Back to Mono .Hatfield made a change to the song during the recording sessions. The first two takes of the song, he performed it in the same style as Roy Hamilton. For a third take, he decided to change the melody for the "I need your love" line in the final verse, and sang it much higher, instead. After this recording, Hatfield said he could do another take better, to which Medley replied: "No, you can't." Medley played the Wurlitzer piano on the song; later, he noted, "if I knew that it was gonna be a hit I certainly would have brought in a better piano player."
Release
"Unchained Melody" was originally released as the B-side of the single "Hung on You" as the follow-up single to "Just Once in My Life". However, "Hung on You" failed to interest radio DJs, who instead chose to play the B-side, "Unchained Melody". According to Medley, producer Phil Spector, who would deliberately place a throwaway song that was not meant to be played on the B-side, was so incensed by DJs choosing to play the B-side that he started to call their radio stations to get them to stop playing "Unchained Melody". He failed, though, and the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 14 in the UK in 1965.Re-recording and re-release
"Unchained Melody" reappeared on the US Billboard charts in 1990 after the Righteous Brothers' recording was used in the box-office blockbuster film Ghost. Two versions charted in the US that year – the original and a new recording. According to Medley, he was interested in having the original recording released due to the renewed interest in the song, but was told that licensing issues existed. Although Hatfield's voice was no longer as good as when he first recorded the song, they decided to re-record it for Curb Records. The re-recorded version was released as both a cassette single and a CD single. It received minimal airplay, but sold well, peaking at number 19. The re-recorded version was certified platinum by the RIAA on January 10, 1991, and received a Grammy Award nomination.The 1965 original Righteous Brothers recording was reissued on October 15, 1990, by the oldies-reissue label Verve Forecast under licensing from Polygram Records. The original version received significant airplay, and topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks in 1990, but sales for this version were minimal in the US since it was available as only a 45 RPM single and the song peaked at number 13 based largely on airplay. For eight weeks, both versions were on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously and the Righteous Brothers became the first act to have two versions of the same song in the top 20 at the same time. This re-released song reached number one in the UK, where it stayed for four weeks, becoming the UK's top-selling single of 1990. As of 2017, it had sold 1.17 million copies in the UK. The 1990 reissue also reached number one in Australia, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.
Due to the success of their re-recording, the Righteous Brothers also re-recorded other songs and released them as part of a budget-priced CD compilation by Curb Records. For the original recordings, Polydor had licensed the CD rights to Rhino Records for a premium-priced 1989 compilation of Righteous Brothers hits from various labels; later in 1990, it issued its own regular-priced Righteous Brothers greatest-hits album that included the recording.