"Unchained Melody" - Karaoke Track - In The Style Of - The Righteous Brothers

Details

Description

"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers in 1965. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages.

In 1955, three versions of the song (by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton) charted in the Billboard top 10 in the United States and four versions (by Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace) appeared in the top 20 in the United Kingdom simultaneously, a record for any song. The song continued to chart in the 21st century, and it was the only song to reach number one with four different recordings in the United Kingdom until it was joined by Band Aid 30's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 2014.

Of the hundreds of recordings made, the Righteous Brothers' version, with a solo by Bobby Hatfield, became the jukebox standard after its release. Hatfield changed the melody in the final verse and many subsequent covers of the song are based on his version. The Righteous Brothers recording achieved a second round of great popularity when featured in the film Ghost in 1990. In 2004, it was number 27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

The song was nominated in 1956 for 1955's Oscar for best original song from the film Unchained. The re-recorded version by the Righteous Brothers was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1991 in the best pop performance by a duo or group category and their original version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000. The use of the Righteous Brothers' cover of "Unchained Melody" in the film Ghost resurrected the song's popularity as it was recognized as the "most played" song of 1992 by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). ASCAP also announced it to be one of the 25 most-performed songs and musical works of the 20th century in 1999, and the most-performed love song of the 1950s in 2003.

In 2001, the song was ranked at No.138 in the list of Songs of the Century released by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the Righteous Brothers version of the song at number 365 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was placed first in Magic 1278's 500 greatest songs of all time. It was also listed in 2004 at No.27 in the list of the 100 top movie songs of all time in American Film institute's centenary AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of songs in American cinema. In 2007, the Songwriters Hall of Fame honored "Unchained Melody" with a Towering Song award that is presented to creators of a song "that has influenced the culture in a unique way over many years.

In formation sourced through Wikipedia. Backing track by "Paris Music Ltd".