附注:
Version 2: corrected vocals to an octave lower,
replaced percussion track, added bells, added omitted
ad-lib section from bar 62, other minor improvements.
They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby
Hatfield (both born in 1941) were most definitely
righteous, defining (and perhaps even inspiring) the
term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s. The white
Southern California duo were an established
journeyman doo wop/R&B act before an association
with Phil Spector produced one of the most memorable
hits of the 1960s, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."
The collaboration soon fell apart, though, and while
the
singers had some other excellent hit singles in a similar
style, they proved unable to sustain their momentum
after just a year or two at the top.
When Medley and Hatfield combined forces in 1962,
they emerged from regional groups the Paramours and
the Variations; in fact, they kept the Paramours billing
for their first single. By 1963, they were calling
themselves the Righteous Brothers, Medley taking the
low parts with his smoky baritone, Hatfield taking the
higher tenor and falsetto lines. For the next couple of
years they did quite a few energetic R&B tunes on the
Moonglow label that bore similarity to the gospel/soul/
rock style of Ray Charles, copping their greatest
success with "Little Latin Lupe Lu," which became a
garage-band favorite covered by Mitch Ryder, the
Kingsmen, and others.
Even on the Moonglow recordings, Bill Medley acted
as producer and principal songwriter, but the duo
wouldn't break out nationally until they put themselves
at the services of Phil Spector. Spector gave the Wall
of Sound treatment to "You've Lost That Lovin'
Feelin'," a grandiose ballad penned by himself, Barry
Mann, and Cynthia Weil. At nearly four minutes, the
song was pushing the limits of what could be played
on
radio in the mid-'60s, and some listeners thought they
were hearing a 45 single played at 33 rpm due to
Medley's low, blurry lead vocal. No matter; the song
had a power that couldn't be denied, and went all the
way to number one.
The Righteous Brothers had three more big hits in
1965 on Spector's Philles label ("Just Once in My
Life,"
"Unchained Melody," and "Ebb Tide"), all employing
similar dense orchestral arrangements and swelling
vocal crescendos. Yet the Righteous Brothers-Spector
partnership wasn't a smooth one, and by 1966 the duo
had left Philles for a lucrative deal with Verve. Medley,
already an experienced hand in the producer's booth,
reclaimed the producer's chair, and the Righteous
Brothers had another number one hit with their first
Verve outing, "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration." Its
success must have been a particularly bitter blow for
Spector, given that Medley successfully emulated the
Wall of Sound orchestral ambience of the Righteous
Brothers' Philles singles down to the smallest detail,
even employing the same Mann-Weil writing team that
had contributed to "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'."
It's a bit of a mystery as to why the Righteous Brothers
never came close to duplicating that success during
the rest of their tenure at Verve. But they would only
have a couple of other Top 40 hits in the 1960s ("He"
and "Go Ahead and Cry," both in 1966), even with the
aid of occasional compositions by the formidable
Goffin-King team. In 1968 Medley left for a solo career;
Hatfield, the less talented of the pair (at least from a
songwriting and production standpoint), kept the
Righteous Brothers going with Jimmy Walker (who had
been in the Knickerbockers).
Medley had a couple of small hits in the late '60s as a
solo act, but unsurprisingly neither "brother" was worth
half as much on their own as they were together. In
1974 they reunited and had a number three hit with "
Rock and Roll Heaven," a tribute to dead rock stars
that some found tacky. A couple of smaller hits
followed before Medley retired from performing for five
years in 1976. The Righteous Brothers continued to
tour the oldies circuit off and on in the 1980s and
1990s. It was while on one of these tours that Bobby
Hatfield died suddenly on November 5, 2003.
