Unchained melody (the righteous brothers)

my favorite "oldie" of all my favorite "oldies". This song first appeared in the 1955 movie Unchained, starring former football player Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. Alex North wrote the music, Hy Zaret wrote the lyrics. A black singer, Todd Duncan, sang the version in the movie. When the movie came out, an orchestral version by Les Baxter was released along with a version by Al Hibbler. Baxter's version hit #1 in the US; Hibbler's went to #3.The Righteous Brothers' version was a huge hit, released as a B-side to Gerry Goffin & Carole King's "Hung on You"; but many DJ's preferred to flip the single and played "Unchained Melody" instead. This infuriated Phil Spector, who left no doubt as to which side of a Philles single was the A-side.Bobby Hatfield sang lead. He had a higher voice than Bill Medley, the other half of the duo. In 2003, Hatfield (63) died of a heart attack.This was released on Philles Records, Phil Spector's label. Spector did not produce this - Bill Medley did. In a 2007 statement to the Forgotten Hits newsletter, Medley said: "You have to remember that I was producing our stuff before Phil Spector... I produced 'Little Latin Lupe Lu,' 'My Babe' and all that stuff. Then when we went with Phil, he asked if I would produce the albums as it was too time consuming for him to produce the entire albums. So he was going to do the singles and I would do the album. So that's how that happened and that's how I produced 'Unchained Melody,' which Phil Spector apparently now takes credit for. He can have the credit. And I'm not a producer. I know how to produce. But it's obviously not a Spector production. "Unchained Melody" was never intended to be the single... it was produced to be on the album. It was put on the B side of a Phil Spector single "Hung On You" and the minute it was released "Unchained Melody" just went through the roof." This returned to both the US and UK charts in 1990 after it was included in the motion picture Ghost (featuring Patrick Swayze & Demi Moore). Two versions charted in the US that year: a reissue of the 1965 original Righteous Bros single was available only as a 45 RPM single, peaking at #13, and a 1990 re-recording of the song was available only as a cassette single, peaking at #19. For eight weeks, both versions were in the Hot 100.When the re-release became a hit, the label that now owned the distribution rights underestimated it's popularity & 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 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 (only the original version) and record sales (only the Curb release), both versions landed in the Top 20 at the same time. If these 2 figures had been added together, a song 2 decades old would have been the #1 song of the year.