5
Unchained Melody
is one of the best-known and most frequently recorded songs of
the past 60 years. That pattern shows no signs of slowing down in the 21
st
century. At the
least
Unchained Melody
has become an icon of popular culture. It is a favorite, if not
the
favorite, of those auditioning for TV singing contests like ‘American Idol,’ ‘Australian Idol,’ ‘Pop
Idol,’ ‘The X Factor,’ as contestants try to outdo Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield in the drama
department. There are few of us, regardless of age, sex, race, religion or nationality who
don’t know the song. It has been estimated that more than 1000 different recordings exist in
a variety of languages. Presently, iTunes contains 6337 files of
Unchained Melody
available for
download. It’s safe to say there’s plenty more where the tracks on this compilation came
from.
The Birth of a Hit
Much of
Unchained Melody’s
popularity owes its existence to a version attributed to The
Righteous Brothers, although only Bobby Hatfield’s voice seems to appear. Their hit record (#
4 in the summer of 1965) was produced by Phil Spector and contained just about every cliché
you can find in the soul singing style book, a quality that usually follows performances of the
song into the present day.
Unchained Melody
received another boost in popularity when the
Righteous Brothers recording appeared in the 1990 blockbuster film ‘Ghost.’ And it didn’t just
appear; the song underscored the movie’s most memorable scene.
