Biography
by Richie Unterberger
They weren't brothers, but Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield
(both born in 1940) 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.
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