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Artist: Bill Medley
Genre: Pop
Latest Album:N/A
Background:
William Thomas Medley is best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers singing duo. Medley and Bobby Hatfield began singing as a duo in 1962 which spawned hits like "Little Latin Lupe Lu"; their first hit was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced by Phil Spector in 1964. Follow-up hits included "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" and "Unchained Melody".The duo broke up in 1968, but returned with another hit in 1974, "Rock And Roll Heaven", and continuously appeared together until Hatfield's death in November 2003. Medley is also renowned for his moderate successful solo career after the duo parted ways in 1968.
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About Bill Medley
He scored hits by releasing albums like Soft and Soulful, Nobody Knows, and A Song for You. Medley reunited with Hatfield in 1974. His most notable hit is the Grammy Award-winning number one single “I've Had The Time of my Life”, a duet with Jennifer Warnes taken from the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing. The Righteous Brothers' popularity rose once again with "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" on the Top Gun soundtrack and "Unchained Melody" on the Ghost soundtrack.
When Medley and Hatfield combined forces in 1962, they emerged from regional groups the Paramours and the Variations. They called calling themselves the Righteous Brothers by 1963. For a few couple of years they released 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.
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.
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 continued his solo career even after releasing albums such as 1996's Christmas Memories and the following year's Almost Home. The Righteous Brothers never came close to duplicating the success during the rest of their tenure at Verve. They had 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 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.
