Unchained Melody
Unchained Melody is the title of one of Hy Zaret (text) and Alex North (music ) in the year 1955 composed pop songs that reached the status of a million Sellers of the four versions.
Genesis
Unchained Melody is one of the few pop songs that contains no immediately identifiable Pointe ( " groove " ), in which the song title does not occur in the text and the title for the song has no meaning.
The authorship of the evergreens is controversial. The copyright administer music publishing MPL Music Publishing has in 1942 Hy Zaret (text) and Alex North (Music) registered as authors at the ASCAP. William Albert Stirrat ( born November 5, 1919 † 2 July 2004), a qualified electrician, claimed his alleged copyright until the year 1982 as a copywriter unpublished work. After that, he should have thought the text was 16 years old in 1936 as a reminder of the love of a young woman named Marie Louise "Cookie" Pierece. An unverified newspaper report, he had to sign documents for the 1941 1936 Lyrics written in the composer Alex North legitimate to consider the song in a movie. Only in 1979 had joined Stirrat of American Authors Guild. In the single, originating from the article author DeNicola source, however, some contradictions from the interview are included with Stirrat. While it may be that Stirrat has written a Song as a 16- year-old, but he appears contrary to his assertion is not on the list of participants of the Yaddo summer camps, where he the - will have taken 26- year-old composer Alex North - also not listed. The film Unchained, in which the Unchained melody seemed for the first time, came 14 years after the alleged Dokumentenunterzeichnng in theaters ( in Germany under the title Escape - The Escape ). In addition, is puzzling why the plaintiff in 1982 came up with the idea to bring a copyright lawsuit - a long time after the successful titles released. While the ASCAP lists 235 titles protected by copyright as Hy Zaret for, none is listed for Stirrat - although his name is registered there. There seems to be a typical internet hoax, in which a single source is uncritically accepted by third parties without further research.
Secured is certainly that North wrote the music for the obscure and energized movie Unchained on a California prison, which was released in theaters on January 19, 1955. Zaret was asked by North, to write a text to the existing melody. He refused the request of the film producers to use the word " unchained " in the text. In the film, the song by baritone Todd Duncan - who was known as the singer in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess - ( 1:19 min ) sung quite the end in a short version. From Duncan's film recording of the song, there is no apparent pressure plate. In the published in April 1955 film soundtrack of the song by the blind African American Al Hibbler is perpetuated. In the text of Hy Zaret the singer admits that he misses his mistress eagerly, which can also be transferred to a prisoner. However, the film did not was quickly forgotten, the song.
First recordings
Two days before the film premiere of Les Baxter recorded the song on 17 January 1955, his orchestra, hereby stayed for three weeks to rank one of the U.S. top ten and sold over 1 million copies. Its inclusion is therefore considered first commercial disc recording of the song. Al Hibbler was on February 4, 1955 by Jack Pleis orchestra in the studio and passed after the publication in March 1955 also the one million mark, on April 9, 1955 Baxter and Hibblers versions were published simultaneously. Roy Hamilton took the title in April 1955 and was ranked 6 out of pop and rank 1 of the rhythm and blues charts, June Valli recorded the song on March 15, 1955, and came down to rank 29 All four versions were at 14. May 1955 simultaneously placed in the Top40. Yet in April 1955 Jimmy Young brought a produced by Dick Rowe version out for the UK market, which remained there for three weeks on the first rank. Dick James, later Beatles music publisher brought, coinciding with Liberace in June 1955 another version on the market.
The Righteous Brothers took one of Jack Nitzsche highly consistent arranged version on March 2, 1965 for Phil Spector's Philles record label at Radio Recorders in Hollywood with the participation of Larry Levine ( sound engineer ) for their LP Just Once in My Life on. The following decoupled in June 1965 Single considered the song first as a B-side of Gerry Goffin / Carole King composition Hung on You, but the airplay preferred Unchained Melody. Spector, who usually took care of as a producer for singles, did not produce the B-side, but Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers. The board came down to rank 4 on the charts. This version was 1990, the theme song of the movie Ghost - Message from Sam starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg in the lead roles ( Premiere on July 13, 1990). On April 24, 1977 Elvis Presley took his live version of the album Moody Blue on, which was released in July 1977.
Millions Sellers
The British duo Robson & Jerome presented on 8 May 1995 with his version of the best selling single of the year in the UK with 1.844 million records sold and rank one for seven weeks, with Gareth Gates sold his published in March 2002 Europop version total of 1.4 million copies and also won first place for 2 weeks. Thus Unchained Melody is the only single with 4 different versions and also number 1 4 million different sellers.
Statistics
According to ASCAP 215 versions are registered, so the title is among the most covered songs. For Alex North 493 titles are registered copyright, Hy Zaret for 235; therefore they belong to the professional song writers. The title is also the Musical Ghost: The Musical, which premiered on May 14, 2011 at the Manchester Opera House in Manchester, before.