Customer Reviews

Unchained Melody: Very Best Of The Righteous Brothers

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is true that these recordings do not sound the best but that is because of the way they were recorded and the CD does come from the stereo master tapes which are noisy. Those notes aside this contains their biggest hits for Philles and Verve, a few of their top 40 hits which didn't chart as high as the songs you hear the most on the radio, and the original version of "Little Latin Lupe Lu" which was a huge hit for Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. You do get the original versions on this 12 song disc with no liner notes obviously, there are no re-recordings on this disc at all, unlike the CDs on Curb which the bulk of the recordings on those discs are re-recordings. For Rock and Roll Heaven on a budget CD, try and find the now out of print CD "Rock and Roll Heaven" on CEMA Special Products, and for their earliest material, get the out of print CD entitled "The Moonglow Years," but for the songs that made Bill Medley and the late, great Bobby Hatfield the superstars they became as a duo, this is the disc to get.

Ok. If you like the Righteous Brothers, this is a very good collection of their works, but beware! The makers of this CD did not spend much money on making the sound work for modern stereo systems. The recordings have not been mixed to enhance their quality. There is hiss, and rather washed out bass and trebel. NO PUNCH! I know that these are old, analog recordings, but they can be cleaner. Also, I remember a more intense version of Unchained Melody, than the one that appears on this disc. Buy it for the songs, but not the quality.

This is a great collection of the Righteous Brothers biggest and best-known hits. They're all here including "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", "Unchained Melody" and "You're My Soul and Inspiration". The recording may seem primitive since the songs were not re-mastered, so they sound exactly like they did back then. But I think that just adds to the atmosphere. They are old songs after all, and they're still audible and you can make out the lyrics that are being sung. The music is wonderful and does create a nice soundscape reminiscent of Phil Spector's wall of sound (he did produce a number of their songs). This is a great album that will satisfy most fans and casual listeners. Die-hard fans might be disappointed though and might want to look at other Righteous Brothers releases for a more in depth collection of songs. But for most of us this wonderful little collection will suffice. Also includes some of their lesser known and somewhat forgotten songs including, "Ebb Tide", "Just Once In My Life" and "Go Ahead and Cry". This is also a good album to purchase if you're just discovering the talented Righteous Brothers. It's a classic example of white soul! Listening to this album, the listener almost feels like they're someplace else. Buy this album and let the Righteous Brothers take you someplace else!

There are two similarly titled single-disc greatest hits packages by the Righteous Brothers. I made the mistake a few weeks back of purchasing the Curb Records release, UNCHAINED MELODY: THE BEST OF THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS. That CD features remakes of their classic recordings. I threw that CD in the trash and purchased this CD, which contains the original Philles and Verve recordings.

While this collection is not as thorough as Rhino's two-disc set (currently out of print), it contains the duo's original recordings of their biggest hits. [The only major single missing is their 1974 reunion-era single "Rock And Roll Heaven."]

The CD begins with their signature song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," which is the epitome of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production. [Note: The Righteous Brothers were also the first white group signed by Spector's Philles label.] This 12-track collection includes all seven of their Top 40 hits from the sixties, as well as the minor hits "Hung on You" (#47, 1965; the b-side-"Unchained Melody"-became the hit), "On This Side of Goodbye" (#47, 1966) and "The White Cliffs of Dover" (#21 in the U.K., 1966). Also included is the Bill Medley-penned song "Little Latin Lupe Lu" (#49, 1963) from their tenure with the Moonglow label. [Note: Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels would have a No. 17 hit with this song in 1966.] The only song missing from this collection is their final Verve single "Stranded in the Middle of No Place" from 1967, the year the duo split up.

If you're looking for a reasonably priced collection of this duo's biggest blue-eyed sould classics, you can't go wrong here. My only complaint is that there are no liner notes. [In fact, there is no booklet-just a two-sided front cover card with song titles and composers on the back side.] VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Unchained Melody: The Very Best Of The Righteous Brothers gives us quite a few of their biggest hits. The sound quality is excellent and the artwork is rather good, too.

The CD track set opens with The Righteous Brothers performing one of their greatest hits ever, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." They harmonize to perfection and even the backup vocalists sound great! The melody is helped along with the percussion and The Righteous Brothers easily ace this fine tune. This is classic music for sure! There's also "Unchained Melody;" they own this tune because of their fine diction and excellent timing. The strings are used to great advantage and I love every minute of it! "(You're My) Soul And Inspiration" is yet another lush ballad that works very well; The Righteous Brothers sing this with all their hearts and souls; this impresses me greatly.

"Just Once In My Life" has a very pretty melody and The Righteous Brothers bat this one straight out of the ballpark! The background musical arrangement complements their singing perfectly. "The White Cliffs Of Dover" comes from an era long gone by; but The Righteous Brothers make this sound new and fresh when they sing this so sweetly.

"Hung On You" places The Righteous Brothers front and center-give those guys a spotlight! They sing so well and the background arrangement benefits from the percussion. "Little Latin Lupe Lu" changes the beat considerably to give us a more rockin' type of song with a `60s flavor to it that is absolutely infectious! I love "Little Latin Lupe Lu" and I predict that you will, too.

"See That Girl" shines like gold when these artists perform it; and the CD ends well with The Righteous Brothers performing "On This Side Of Goodbye." This torch song about a love gone wrong displays their fine vocal talents; this makes the perfect ending for this album.

Unchained Melody: The Very Best Of The Righteous Brothers doesn't miss a note--it's a very solid CD retrospective. Casual fans will love this; and diehard fans will want this in their collections, too.

The songs are superb, vintage sixties pop. Polygram/Verve should have taken the time to go back to the original masters, and restore and digitally process the sound. The Righteous Brothers had rich voices, which with Phil Spector's production, probably gave birth to the Power Ballad. But on this collection, you can still hear the pops, hiss, and scratches that sound like a cassette tape recording from my old vinyl collection. For a major recording company to produce something like this is embarrassing. If you like the Righteous Brothers, find another collection. You will be terribly disappointed with this CD.

Bill Medley with the baritone DEEP soulful , choir voice and Bobby singing tenor showed proof that when it comes to soul, you either got it, or you don't. Some of there less played songs are fabulous and would make ray charles proud. One is called "B side blues" which is a very deep , bluesy song by the righteous brothers and check out Bill Medley getting it on in the song "my darling clementine" yeah, you go Medley. I prefer bari voices over tenor so I favor Medley more. Saw the righteous brothers in concert 3 years ago, and they still sound great. The songs on here are the "best of" and proved it. Sounds alot better on cd than on those old scratchy 45s :)

Born almost one month apart and in two different states, Bill Medley and the late Bobby Hatfield nevertheless blended their voices so well that they might as well have been brothers. Whether covering material by other songwriters and the once-brilliant (and now tragic figure Phil Spector) or performing their own songs, the Righteous Brothers harmonized so well that for a while in the early 1960s they were among the hottest acts in the pop music world, earning the nickname of "the Blue-Eyed Soul Duo."

While tame in comparison to today's musical scene (ranging from Eminem's angry hip-hop to Britney Spears' descent into Madonna-smooching, quickie-marriage-then-annulment irrelevancy), the Righteous Brothers were very popular, and some of their songs broke into the coveted 1,000,000-single selling stratosphere, starting with their 1963 hit "Little Latin Lupe Lu," with its pulsing backbeat and catchy hooks and alliterative lyrics. Even after the British Invasion of the 1960s and the splintering of pop/rock into a kaleidoscope of styles (disco, punk, heavy metal, rap, and electronic), Medley and Hatfield's songs and bluesy harmonizations remained popular enough that at least two songs on this "Best of..." collection were featured in such popular films as Top Gun and Ghost.

"Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' " are the songs this reviewer is most familiar with for the simple reason that Hollywood directors and music supervisors chose them as part of those two films' scores. It's hard to imagine Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore at that pottery wheel without the first song's unforgettable melody, or to shake off memories of Tom Cruise as the cocky F-14 pilot wooing Kelly McGillis to the strains of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." Nevertheless, the other eight songs are worth a listen, including the Medley-Hatfield-written "My Babe" and the duo's warm and reflective cover of Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia On My Mind."

"Unchained Melody: The Best of Righteous Brothers" is a very pleasant album, even though its running time is not much over a half-hour. It is a musical time capsule to a seemingly more innocent musical (and historical) era -- check out that cover photo, featuring Bill and Bobby when they looked like members of a college glee club stopping by for a cup of coffee and a friendly chat. Nevertheless, many a young couple listened to these songs while making out...and making memories that this compilation might trigger off.

Nuthin' but the originals, and has the REAL unchained melody

Remastered in 1990, this isn't worth ($), but this is the price almost everywhere, even retail. It's too bad that this isn't better quality, perhaps the version of these songs are better in the Phil Spector box set, "Back to Mono".