Their recording immediately reached number 1 in the UK, selling 314,000 copies in its first week, at that time the fastest-selling debut single in UK chart history. It became the best selling single of 1995, and one of the country's all-time biggest-selling singles (No. 9 in November 2012), with 1.87 million copies sold. The self-titled album they released later in the year also became the best-selling album of 1995. Although the duo decided to quit the following year, they would eventually sell 7 million copies of albums and 5 million copies of the 3 singles released. Simon Cowell, who before this was known largely as a creator of novelty records with television characters such as the puppets Zig and Zag and action characters Power Rangers, then came to the attention of the media for his ability to create hit records.
Their performance triggered a strong response from the audience who attempted to find a recording of the song that was then unavailable. Simon Cowell was alerted to the interest shown by the public, and pursued the two reluctant actors for the next four months to record the song, to the extent that Robson Green threatened legal action to stop Cowell harassing them. The actors were eventually persuaded to sign a recording contract with Cowell and record a Righteous Brothers-type version of the song as a duo. The recording was produced by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken.
It was later revealed by Stock that the vocals were "assisted" and parts of the song were sung by other session singers. It was released as a double A-sided single with "White Cliffs of Dover", a popular song during World War II, included in recognition of the 50th anniversary of VE day, the date of the single release. The video released for "Unchained Melody" also incorporated clips from the 1945 film Brief Encounter.
In 1954, Alex North was contracted to compose the score for the prison film Unchained . North composed and recorded the score and then was asked to write a song based upon the movie's theme. 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" even 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. As with many popular songs of the time, numerous people recorded the song. Following the original recording by Todd Duncan, others artist released their own version including the Lennon Sisters version.
This recording is stylistically representative of the many versions of this song that artists recorded before the Righteous Brothers. Felton JarvisElvis Presley singles chronology"My Way""Unchained Melody"" Teddy Bear"On June 21, 1977, Elvis Presley performed the song at a show in Rapid City, South Dakota. The performance, described as "the last great moment of his career", was recorded for his last television special two months before his death in August 1977.
A single, based on this recording, was released in March 1978 by RCA Records with "Softly, As I Leave You" as the b-side. The song reached No. 6 in the country charts of both the US and Canada, and was certified Gold by Music Canada on July 10, 1986. Hy Zaret"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 little-known prison film Unchained , hence the song title. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers in July 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.
Two different versions of the song were released to coincide with the movie's release; an orchestral version and one with the lyrics performed by Al Hibbler. Hibbler's version of the song hit the number one position on the R&B charts in 1955, as did a version by Roy Hamilton. Another version from June Valli reached the #29 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles list in May 1955. The song was also recorded by Harry Belafonte later that same year.
From what I have read/researched this is a song about a man in prison who is longing for his lover and hoping she is still in love and waiting for him. But I do think the feelings and emotions evoked can be applicable to many situations and relationships. This was the song I grew up hearing every night of the summer at a family camp in MI. Every night, all summer long, and it never, ever got old.
I never knew the meaning, but as an adult I reflected on the Righteous Brothers release date(1965?) and it made me think of how much it must have meant to those with loved during the Vietnam War- although it was written in the 1950's for a prison movie. I have always appreciated how this song had layers of meaning and how it can mean so many things to different people, and is relatable in many levels. "Unchained Melody" reappeared on the Billboard charts in 1990 after The Righteous Brothers' recording was used in the box office blockbuster filmGhost. There was the reissue of the 1965 original Righteous Brothers single which received a lot of airplay, but sales were minimal since it was only available as a 45 RPM single.This version peaked at #13.
There was also a 1990 re-recording of the song which was available only as a cassette single. The re-recorded version saw minimal airplay, but excellent sales. For eight weeks, both versions were on the Hot 100 simultaneously. It reached #1 for the fifth time in the UK, becoming the UK's top selling single of 1990, and has since sold 1.04 million copies.It also reached #1 inAustralia, staying atnumber-onefor seven weeks through November 1990 and into January 1991.
Bobby Hatfield loved the Roy Hamilton version of this song, and was singing it in clubs before he met Bill Medley. When they started recording as the Righteous Brothers, they usually included one solo each on each of their albums. Bobby chose this song for the "Just Once in My Life" LP. Because it was never intended to be released as a single, Bill Medley produced it , and it was released as the intended "throwaway" B-side to the Spector-produced "Hung on You". However, radio stations flipped it over to play "Unchained Melody", which infuriated Spector. Spector attempted to convince radio stations to play "Hung on You" instead, but it ws too late--"Unchained Melody" had become an accidental smash hit. Bill Medley has since said that Bobby "just killed it," recording the song in about 30 minutes.
Medley sings it in tribute to Bobby at his shows now, complete with a video slide show. The 1965 original Righteous Brothers recording was reissued in 1990 by oldies-reissue label Verve Forecast under licensing from Polygram Records . The original version received a lot of airplay, and topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks in 1990. However, sales for this version were minimal in the US since it was only available as a 45 RPM single and the song peaked at No. 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 1 in the UK where it stayed for four weeks, becoming the UK's top selling single of 1990.
As of 2017, it has sold 1.17 million copies in the UK. The 1990 reissue also reached number 1 in Australia, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Roy Hamilton recorded his version of Unchained Melody hot on the heels of Hibbler's and it cashed in almost as well as Hibbler's 'official' release did. Hamilton was a seasoned Gospel artist and he took Unchained Melody to church in ways that Sam Cooke may have listened to and emulated to an extent - not that Cooke hadn't perfected the transition from gospel to secular music in his own career already.
Hamilton recorded for Columbia Records' 'pop label', Epic, one of Decca's main competitors in the multiple genres Unchained Melody participated in - easy listening, gospel, pop, r&b and country. Hamilton's ace in the hole, vocally, was that he had a voice that could tackle the operatic scale of songs such as Unchained Melody, as well as the earthier qualities vocalists such as Duncan and Hibbler mastered really well. Hamilton's golden period had started with his hit recording of You'll Never Walk Alone, and in his eager search for follow-up material, he had stumbled over Unchained Melody. After a brief career in the spotlight, Hamilton ran into health issues that led to retirement from performances. After several half-successful attempts at comebacks, he died in 1969 from a sudden aneurism in the brain and has lapsed into relative obscurity among music fans. Bartlett was happy enough with North's score to the movie, but reminded him that there needed to be a song in there as well.
After all he had cast African-American operatic baritone Todd Duncan (the original Porgy in Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess) in the flick, and he had to have a song to sing. North had a melody in mind, and called up his Tin Pan Alley lyricist Hy Zaret to get him to pen some lyrics. Zaret was pissed off, because he had made plans to paint his house that day and couldn't be bothered to churn out another set of trifling lyrics.
North cajoled him into it after all, and the result was a song without a title, that we all now know as "Unchained Melody". Heard outside the context of the prison setting that it was performed in in the film, it in fact sounds like any other love song from the dominant middle-class culture of the 1950s. The lyrics seem unconnected to the theme of the film, and the word "unchained" does not appear in the lyrics anywhere. The song, which handed the Righteous Brothers a massive hit in 1965 and has been covered by more than 650 artists worldwide including the late DJ Jimmy Young and Liberace, was composed as a theme for a prison film entitled Unchained. The lyricist Zaret apparently refused to use the word 'unchained', much to the film producer's chagrin.
Incidentally, the Righteous duo weren't brothers, with the hit performed as a solo by the wondrous tenor Bobby Hatfield. "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 popular song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. It has become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, by some counts having spawned over 500 versions in hundreds of different languages. In 1955, North used the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained, hence the name.
But most baby boomers remember the song from the Righteous Brothers' version. The record, produced by Phil Spector, reached No. 4 on the Billboard chart in 1965 and was a hit again 25 years later when it was used on the soundtrack of the film "Ghost," with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music composed by Alex North and lyrics written by Hy Zaret. North used the music as a theme for the little-known prison film "Unchained" – hence the name.
It has since become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers. The song was nominated in 1956 for 1955's Oscar for best original song from the film Unchained. The re-recorded version by The Righteous Brothers was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1991 in the best pop performance by a duo or group category, and their original version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000. The use of the Righteous Brothers' cover of "Unchained Melody" in the film Ghost resurrected the song's popularity as it was recognized as the "most played" song of 1992 by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers . ASCAP also announced it to be one of the 25 most-performed songs and musical works of the 20th century in 1999, and the most-performed love song of the 1950s in 2003. Gates' version of "Unchained Melody" became one of the fastest-selling singles in the UK, selling around 328,000 copies in the first day of release.
It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart in its first week of release with sales of 850,000 copies, and stayed at the top of the chart for four weeks. It became the second best-selling song in the UK in 2002, as well as that of the decade of 2000s, after the single by the winner Will Young. "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 there were licensing issues. 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 young 17-year-old Gareth Gates resurrected "Unchained Melody' at the 2002 singing competition 'Pop Idol' lead by Simon Cowel. He performed the song in the final round of the contest, which, however, was won by Will Young. Simon Cowel signed Gareth Gates and "Unchained Melody" was released as the first single by Gareth Gates as a signed artist.
The song saw a massive reception peaking at #1 in the UK, and selling 850,000 copies in the first week of release. This achievement also made Gareth Gates, at 17-years-old, the youngest solo male British artist to have a #1 charting hit. 50+ videos Play all Mix - unchained melody lyrics the righteous brothers YouTube; His Voice Is So Emotional That Even Simon Started To Cry!
Lyrics.com » Search results for 'Unchained Melody' Yee yee! It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers. The lyrics are not father/daughter type lyrics but I used to put my dad's righteous brothers record on and play that song over and over. I would stand on the coffee table and my dad would dance and sing along with me. I love this song but wasn't sure how it would be perceived at my wedding. I first heard this song on a Phil Spector's greatest hits comp around 1973.
It didn't entirely belong, perhaps for the reasons Andrew gives at number 4, but also because it felt like a much older song. I fell in love with it, though, ten years later, when Joni Mitchell released her cover as a medley with an original song 'Chinese Cafe', by far the stand-out track on the 'Wild Things Run Fast' album. "Unchained Melody," of course, is used in that famous scene, and thereafter throughout the film as a leitmotif of – what?
The long and loveless life which Moore will be obliged to live before she sees Swayze again? On our way back from the cinema after seeing Ghost we stopped off at the old Tower Records in Piccadilly. In 1995, the song was performed byRobson GreenandJerome Flynnin the UK drama seriesSoldier Soldier. They subsequently released a Righteous Brothers-type version as a single, which quickly reached #1 in the UK, becoming one of the country's all time biggest-selling records, and has sold 1.86 million copies as of November 2012. The best known version of "Unchained Melody" was recorded by The Righteous Brothers and produced byPhil Spectorin 1965 as the 'B' side of the single featuring the song, "Hung On You".
Although the version was credited to The Righteous Brothers, it was actually performed as a solo by Righteous BrotherBobby Hatfield, who later recorded other versions credited solely to him. This recording climbed to #4 on theBillboard Hot 100chart in 1965 and reached #14 in the UK in 1965. In 1955, Alex North and lyricist Hy Zaret were contracted to write a song as a theme for the obscure prison filmUnchained,and their song eventually became known as the "Unchained Melody". "Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music byAlex Northand lyrics byHy Zaret. Unchained lyrics and free love song lyrics and melodies for the best romantic songs and love songs melody - Unchained Melody chain free lyrics, music, video and midi. Downloads and copy for MySpace for free - unhained, un chained, chain, no chains, melody to listen to without chains and chain-free - and sing along with unchained melodie download music.
Elvis Presley, who had whitewashed a fair bit of black material in his younger days, was a late-comer to Unchained Melody, but managed to record it immediately before his death. His version paradoxically brought back some of the gospel elements Hatfield had taken out, which is especially audible in Elvis' live TV-version of the song from Cleveland Auditorium in 1977. The footage is strangely ghostly, as an overweight and obviously ill Presley huffs and puffs his way to the piano, only to belt his soul out when the song starts. Once again Unchained Melody becomes associated with impending death in the listener's mind. By odd coincidence, Elvis had met Hamilton shortly before Hamilton's death in 1969, while they were both recording in the same Memphis studio, both being produced by Chips Moman. Elvis was a long-time fan of Hamilton, particularly his gospel recordings.
When Elvis finally tackled Unchained Melody 8 years later he, in a manner of speaking, synthesized the versions that had come before and fused black and white vocal influences together in an all-American version of the song. For the nostalgia market, this version of the song was used in one of the ultimate 1990s love stories, the Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore movie about unattainable love after death, Ghost, sealing the Hatfield version's evergreen status. The duo also re-recorded the song and for a few weeks bizarrely had two versions of the same song in the US charts. When the re-release became a hit, the label that now owned the distribution rights underestimated it's popularity and the few copies that record stores had sold out quickly, with back orders that went into several weeks.
Meanwhile the Righteous Brothers, who weren't making a dime off of the original any more, decided to re-record the song and release it on Curb, Bill Medley's current label. Since the charts are based on radio airplay and record sales , both versions landed in the Top 20 at the same time. If these two figures had been added together, a song two decades old would have been the #1 song of the year. In the UK, that was exactly the case, as the song made #1 and was the biggest-selling single of 1990. Obviously, this song has spoken to something in the human soul, because through the years it has been recorded frequently by well-known artists.
