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"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret. North composed the music as a theme for its namesake 1955 prison film. The version of the song in the film's soundtrack was sung by Todd Duncan. It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, with the version recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1965 notable in its own right. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 singers, in multiple languages.

In 1955, three versions of the song – by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton – charted in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. In the United Kingdom, the versions by Hibbler, Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace ranked in the top 20 simultaneously, a record for any song. North asked Hy Zaret to write the lyrics. After first refusing, Zaret and North together wrote "Unchained Melody". The song eventually became known as the "Unchained Melody", though the song does not actually include the word "unchained"; Zaret had refused the producer's request to include the word "unchained" in his lyrics.

Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack and performs an abbreviated version in the film. Playing one of the prisoners, he sings it, accompanied by another prisoner on guitar, while other prisoners listen sadly.

William Stirrat, an electrical engineer, claimed to have written the lyrics as a teenager in 1936 under the pen name "Hy Zaret", only to have North use the uncredited words in the 1955 original. The case went to court and the dispute was resolved completely in favor of the real Zaret (the one born Hyman Zaritsky), who continued to receive all royalties. The words "unchain me" are sung repeatedly at the beginning and the lyrics are sung by a choir. Billboard ranked this version as the number-five song of 1955. Al Hibbler followed close behind with a vocal version (Decca Records catalog number 29441), that reached number three on the Billboard charts and number two in the UK chart listings. Jimmy Young's release (on Decca Records UK catalog number F10502) stayed at number one on the British charts for three weeks and remained on the UK charts for 19 weeks. Young re-recorded the song in early 1964 and it hit number 43 in the UK. Two weeks after Young's version entered the top 10 of the British charts in June 1955, Liberace scored a number-20 hit (Philips PB 430). Roy Hamilton's version (Epic Records catalog number 9102) reached number one on the R&B Best Sellers list and number six on the pop chart. June Valli recorded the song on March 15, 1955 (RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-6078) with the flip side "Tomorrow", and took it to number 29 on the Top Pop Records list. Harry Belafonte recorded the song, and sang his version at the 1956 Academy Awards after it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1955.

While the sheet-music business was losing its prominence to sound recordings, a sheet music release of the song peaked at number one on its 10th week on the Billboard Best Selling Sheet Music chart on the week ending June 18, 1955. It stayed at its peak position for nine weeks until it dropped to number four on its 20th week on the week ending August 27.

Charts

Les Baxter

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!Chart (1955)

!Peak<br />position

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|Australia (AMR)

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|UK (Record Mirror)

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|US (Billboard Best Seller in Stores)

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Roy Hamilton

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!Chart (1955)

!Peak<br />position

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|US (Billboard Most Played by Jockeys)

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|US (Billboard R&B Best Sellers in Stores)

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Jimmy Young

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!Chart (1955)

!Peak<br />position

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|UK (Record Mirror)

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Al Hibbler

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!Chart (1955)

!Peak<br />position

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|Australia (AMR)

| style="text-align:center;"|1

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|US (Billboard Most Played by Jockeys)

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|US (Billboard R&B Best Sellers in Stores)

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The Righteous Brothers versions

The best-known version of "Unchained Melody" was recorded by the duo the Righteous Brothers for Philles Records in 1965.

Recording

The song was not originally intended to be released as an A side. As Spector was not especially interested in producing B-sides or album tracks, he left the production to Bill Medley, Medley said: "Phil came to me and asked me to produce the Righteous Brothers albums because he would have taken too long and it would have cost too much money." By Medley's account, Spector only claimed production credit after it supplanted "Hung on You" as the hit. Early copies of the single did not credit a producer for "Unchained Melody" and only credited Spector as producer of the original single "Hung on You".

Hatfield made a change to the song during the recording sessions. The first two takes of the song, he performed it in the same style as Roy Hamilton. was so incensed by DJs choosing to play the B-side that he started to call their radio stations to get them to stop playing "Unchained Melody". He failed, though, and the song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 14 in the UK in 1965.

Re-recording and re-release

"Unchained Melody" reappeared on the US Billboard charts in 1990 after the Righteous Brothers' recording was used in the box-office blockbuster film Ghost. and a CD single. It received minimal airplay, but sold well, peaking at number 19. The re-recorded version was certified platinum by the RIAA on January 10, 1991, and received a Grammy Award nomination.

The 1965 original Righteous Brothers recording was reissued on October 15, 1990, by the oldies-reissue label Verve Forecast (which had acquired the rights years earlier). The original version received significant airplay, and topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks in 1990, but sales for this version were minimal in the US since it was available as only a 45&nbsp;rpm single and the song peaked at number 13 based largely on airplay. For eight weeks, both versions were on the Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously and the Righteous Brothers became the first act to have two versions of the same song in the top 20 at the same time. This re-released song reached number one in the UK, where it stayed for four weeks, becoming the UK's top-selling single of 1990. As of 2017, it had sold 1.17 million copies in the UK. The 1990 reissue also reached number one in Australia, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

Due to the success of their re-recording, the Righteous Brothers also re-recorded other songs and released them as part of a budget-priced CD compilation by Curb Records. For the original recordings, Polydor had licensed the CD rights to Rhino Records for a premium-priced 1989 compilation of Righteous Brothers hits from various labels; later in 1990, it issued its own regular-priced Righteous Brothers greatest-hits album that included the recording.

Reception

The Righteous Brothers' cover of "Unchained Melody" is now widely considered the definitive version of the song. The production of their original recording has been described as "epic", and that with "Hatfield's emotion-packed tenor soaring to stratospheric heights, it's a record designed to reduce anyone separated from the one they loved to a "pile of mush".

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|US Cash Box Top 100

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|US Cash Box Top 50 R&B

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!Chart (1990–1991)

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|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)

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|Europe (European Hit Radio)

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|Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)

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|Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg)

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|US Cash Box Top 100

|align="center"|9

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Year-end charts

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!Chart (1965)

!Position

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|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)

|align="center"|61

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|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)

|align="center"|54

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|US Billboard Hot 100

|align="center"|21

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{|class="wikitable sortable"

!Chart (1990)

!Position

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|Australia (ARIA)

|align="center"|8

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|Canada Top Singles (RPM)

|align="center"|48

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|Canada Adult Contemporary (RPM)

|align="center"|34

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|Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)

|align="center"|59

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|Netherlands (Single Top 100)

|align="center"|29

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|UK Singles (OCC)

|align="center"|1

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|US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)

|align="center"|28

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{|class="wikitable sortable"

!Chart (1991)

!Position

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|Australia (ARIA)

|align="center"|45

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|Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)

|align="center"|4

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|Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)

|align="center"|59

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|Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)

|align="center"|17

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|Germany (Media Control)

|align="center"|47

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|New Zealand (RIANZ)

|align="center"|2

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|Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)

|align="center"|29

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Certifications