Unchained Melody

One of the most recorded songs of the past 57 years, perhaps the first thing to consider is what's up with the song title? Ask someone if they like the song Unchained Melody and the most common answer is "Unchained what?" Then as soon as they hear the first few seconds of the song they say "oh. that song!" So where does the name of the song come from? In 1954 film composer Alex North was retained to provide music for a film in production called Unchained. He composed the musical theme for the film and it was simply titled Unchained Melody. Unchained was a prison film starring former football great Elroy 'Crazy Legs' Hirsch. Barbara Hale also starred in the film before becoming famous for her longtime role in Perry Mason.

During production of the film it was decided to do a scene with a prisoner singing a lyric to the theme and Hy Zaret wrote the lyrics and Todd Duncan, the famous baritone opera star, got the role as the singing prisoner. In 1935 Todd was George Gershwin's personal choice for the role of Porgy when Porgy & Bess first opened. He went on to do over 1800 performances as Porgy. The song was short, a single verse only lasting a minute, but when the film was released on January 19, 1955 it obviously made a big impact. If you search youtube 'Unchained Melody Todd Duncan' you can view the clip from the movie or listen below.

The song was almost immediately recorded by Les Baxter & His Orchestra and it became a big hit. To compensate for the short duration of the song, Les opened it with a chorus repeatedly singing "unchain me" (the only time the word "unchain" has ever been used in the song) followed by a very lush orchestra instrumental run through of the melody which was then repeated with vocals by a male chorus, stretching the song out long enough for record and airplay purposes.

The first recording of Unchained Melody may have been done by Les Baxter & His Orchestra. A big hit in early 1955, Les lengthened the song for record and airplay by opening it with a chorus repeatedly singing "unchain me" (the only time the word 'unchain' has been used in the song) followed by a very lush orchestra instrumental run through the verse and then repeating the verse with a male chorus.

On March 15, 1955, the song was recorded by June Valli with a big orchestra giving it a boléro treatment (!). Somewhat unique and never repeated to the best of my knowledge. To lengthen the song June simply same the verse twice with an instrumental/chorus break in between.

Around the same time Les and June were cutting the song, so was Al Hibbler. Al had a big hit with it and introduced a new bridge with lyrics that became standard for the song. Now, between the verse being sung twice, was the part "Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea, to the open arms of the sea / Lonely rivers sigh wait for me, wait for me, I'll be coming home, wait for me!" Al's emphasis on the "d" in God has also been repeated by many other singers.

Meanwhile, the song found it's way across the Atlantic where Jimmy Young's recording was a big hit in England. Legendary music publisher Dick James also recorded the song in England in 1955.

Also recording the song in 1955 were Cab Calloway, Liberace, guitarist and RCA exec Chet Atkins (who recorded the song several times), The Crew Cuts, Leroy Lovett, Perry Como and Harry Belafonte, but the last 1955 recording to be featured here is, to me, the definitive recording of Unchained Melody and that was done by Roy Hamilton. Roy's unique phrasing of the lyrics has been (shall we say) 'inspiring' to many other singers since, most notably Bobby Hatfield who had the biggest hit of the song in 1965 as half of the Righteous Brothers. 

That was 1955 and the song has been recorded hundreds of times since. Let's look at a few other pit stops it has made along the way.

In October 1956 rockabilly / rock 'n' roll cat Gene Vincent cut the song at a time when many similar artists would usually put a rocker on one side of the disc and a ballad on the other, thus doubling the potential for sales and airplay depending on the taste of the buyer or radio station. What Gene brought to the song was a move away from the big orchestration presenting it almost as stripped down as the original Todd Duncan recording.

In 1959 golden-throated Sam Cooke recorded the song fairly stripped-down musically yet showcasing the potential the song had as a big vocal number in a more intimate setting.

In 1960 Tony Middleton took the song in a new direction, presenting it as a finger-snapping up tempo lounge tune.

1961 saw the song go doo-wop with the recording by The Dials

and 1963 saw Unchained Melody done rock 'n' roll-vocal group by Vito & The Salutations.

The song continued to be a crooner favorite in the early 60's recorded by many of the popular male singers of that era. Andy Williams, Pat Boone, Jerry Vale, Conway Twitty, Matt Monro, Bobby Vinton, Steve Alaimo, Cliff Richard and so on. They all sounded pretty much the same but I thought I'd feature the recording done John Gary in 1963 just because he had such an incredible vocal range. He was both Righteous Brothers in one and when he goes way up high I have to wonder if Phil Spector was listening (as he produced the Righteous Brothers recording).

The Supremes Motown-ed it in early 1965.

Shortly after that came the biggest hit ever of Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers featuring the late Bobby Hatfield. This recording was featured in the 1990 movie Ghost and became a huge international hit again...25 years later. A few years after that two actors in the popular British TV drama Soldier Soldier, Robson Green and Jerome Flynn, did their Righteous Bros. impersonation on the TV show, the recording of which became one of the all-time biggest selling singles in the UK. 

In 1966 Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles had a modest hit with the song done with a more up tempo arrangement. Unfortunately, Patti's vocals are buried in the mix.

Unchained Melody went big 80's rock with this live version done by Heart in 1980

and perhaps came full circle by 1989 when it was even done by U2.