LOST RIGHTEOUS BROTHER

[Steve Sidoruk]

Hatfield of Righteous Brothers Dies at 63

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) -- Bobby Hatfield, who with partner Bill Medley pioneered "blue-eyed soul" as the Righteous Brothers with hits like "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," died Wednesday night of undetermined causes at a hotel, his manager said. He was 63.

 

[Harry]

Wow. Sad news.

Coincidence: One of the Clear Channel stations in Philly has been experimenting with a system called RDS (Radio Data System). It's what enables ststions to send call letter information to digital radio displays. One of the other features is that they can scroll text information about song titles and artists as well, which is what this Clear Channel station in Philly has been doing. Yesterday on my way to work, I was observing the eight-character display changing on my radio. As they played the Righteous Brothers, I'd get a display saying:

RIGHTEOU

then

S BROTHE

then

RS - YOU

then

'VE LOST

etc.

Harry
...saddened by the news, online...

 

[Brasil_Nut]

Sad to hear it. Although I was less-than-familiar with the majority of their work, I know they were a dynamic musical force. Good thoughts and Prayers go out to the family and friends of Mr. Hartfield.

Jon

 

[LPJim]

Sad news indeed. The Brothers left a huge music legacy.
The other member of the duo, Bill Medley, was an A&M solo artist in the early '70s, with LPs A SONG FOR YOU (SP 3505) and SMILE (SP 3517).
JB

 

[Dave]

Oh No! I saw the Righteous Brothers in concert a few years ago. I wonder if Bill Medley will go at it alone? I'm very saddened to hear this. I hope the cause of his death is soon determined. My thoughts, prayers and best wishes to Bobby's family, friends, and of course, "Brother Bill".

Dave

 

[W.B.]

The other member of the duo, Bill Medley, was an A&M solo artist in the early '70s, with LPs A SONG FOR YOU (SP 3505) and SMILE (SP 3517).

Prior to being assigned to the first of those Medley LP titles, SP-3505 was originally allocated for Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass's Summertime album before that was released as SP-4314 (per initial pressings of the "Summertime"/"Hurt So Bad" single, AM-1261-S). Given the $1.00 price difference between the 3500 and 4100 series, it was probably thought that since Alpert's offering was so short (per the AOTW thread thereof), $5.98 would probably have been too much to ask fans to pay for it. But while the Alpert LP did manage to make it to the lower half of Billboard's Top 200, Medley's effort didn't chart at all - perhaps the once-and-future Righteous Brother was more out of the loop, public consciousness-wise, than even Alpert himself at the time?