What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the first notes of “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers begin to play on the radio, or more likely, on your smartphone playlist? For most of us, this song gives us goosebumps. It’s one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and although the Righteous Brothers weren’t the first to record it, it’s their version that stands out the most and that people more easily recognize. We’ve written this up before (last year), but this video just keeps going viral. It seems like every single year, at some point in the year, people get all up in their feels and start sharing this video again.
Reportedly, this is Simon Cowell’s favorite song. Yep, the grump judge from the hit TV show “American Idol” apparently is a softy at heart. The song was written by Alex North in 1955, with the lyrics written by Hy Zaret. The reason it’s called “Unchained Melody” (which is an awesome name, in my opinion), is because it was the theme song of a movie called “Unchained,” which was about a prison. For the movie’s track, a singer named Todd Duncan performed the vocals.
This beautiful song is one of the most recorded songs of the 1900s. The song’s publishing administrator says that the song has been covered by more than 670 artists and there are more than 1,500 recordings of the song. It’s also been recorded in multiple languages, not just English.
Ghost Movie Version of “Unchained Melody”
It was popular when the Righteous Brothers first released it, but the song had a resurgence of popularity when it was on the soundtrack for the “Ghost” movie that starred Patrick Swayze, Whoopi Goldberg, and Demi Moore. The movie “Ghost” was the 93rd highest-grossing moving of all time, as of 2015.
When people flocked to theaters to see “Ghost,” they fell in love with “Unchained Melody” all over again. Below, watch the song performed live by the Righteous Brothers.
My day just got a lot better and I hope yours did, too.
