It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” by the Righteous Brothers
February 10, 2015
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin” by the Righteous Brothers
#1 on the Billboard Hot 100, February 6-19, 1965
#1 on the Record Retailer Singles Chart (UK), February 4-17, 1965
Perhaps no other figure defines early ‘60s American pop as much as Phil Spector. His famed Wall of Sound, a production technique involving dense layers of orchestral instruments, granted even lightweight pop songs an intensity matching the hormone-addled heights of teenage emotion. Spector earned his first number-one single while still a teenager, writing, producing, arranging, singing, and playing guitar on 1958’s “To Know Him is to Love Him” by the Teddy Bears. But Spector’s reputation would be defined by his work with two quintessential girl groups: the Crystals (“He’s a Rebel,” “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Then He Kissed Me”) and the Ronettes (“Be My Baby,” “Baby, I Love You,” “Walking in the Rain”).
One exception among Spector’s predominantly female roster was the Righteous Brothers, a duo consisting of baritone Bill Medley and tenor Bobby Hatfield. Unlike many of Spector’s artists, whom he had either discovered or created in the studio, the Brothers had already scored a few hits on their own before being adopted by the producer. The duo’s debut single, the Medley-penned “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” had just missed the Top 40 in 1963. (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels would cover it with more chart success three years later.)
But while the duo performed fairly standard light R&B, Spector heard potential hidden in their vocals for something far grander and more exquisite. (Perhaps the striking contrast in the pitches of their voices reminded him of the drama of his own production technique.) His first single for the group, 1964’s “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” remade the Brothers’ style into soaring orchestral pop, with the help of husband-and-wife songwriters Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann (whose previous successes included the Crystals’ “Uptown” and Eydie Gormé’s “Blame It on the Bossa Nova”).
Spector described his discography as “little symphonies for the kiddies,” but his work with the Righteous Brothers was more operatic than anything he had produced yet. While it’s common for pop songs to build up to an explosive chorus, or to a dramatic key change in the third act, every chorus — every verse, even — of “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” tries to top the one before it, upping the stakes for each subsequent segment, till at last it threatens to snap beneath the weight of all that drama. Spector’s talent, however, lay in being able to balance the elements of the production to create intensity without bombast. Despite its continual snowballing, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” never feels overblown; despite the kitchen-sink arrangement, it never feels excessive.
In an era dominated by teen idol tenors, doo-wop falsettos, and young female singers, Bill Medley’s rich, cavernous baritone stands out. His lead vocal — solo, unlike most of the Brothers’ previous material — augments the deeply anguished sound of the record, like a rumbling from deep within the earth before it collapses. While Hatfield may play the supporting role for most of the song, he makes his mark in the bridge, as he and Medley trade escalating cries of “baby!” and “bring it on back!” as if competing in an angst-off. In consolation for yielding the spotlight on “Lovin’ Feelin’,” Hatfield got to take the lead on two of the Brothers’ other big with Spector, “Unchained Melody” and “Ebb Tide.”
Those two singles, however, proved to be Spector’s last US Top 10 hits for the rest of the ’60s. Girl group mania had begun to wane, while the British Invasion provided a leaner, harder model for pop. After Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep – Mountain High,” which he considered his best release, flopped in 1966, Spector retreated into from the record studio into his own eccentricities. The Righteous Brothers managed one more #1 hit after leaving Spector, 1966’s “Lovin’ Feelin’” soundalike “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration,” produced by Medley and written by Mann and Weil. It too would be their final hit in the decade.
Both Spector and the Righteous Brothers, however, would successfully mount comebacks in the ’70s: Spector producing the Beatles’ Let It Be, as well as solo material by John Lennon and George Harrison, and the Brothers with the #3 hit “Rock and Roll Heaven” in 1974. In terms of popularity, however, nothing either the producer nor the duo would do could ever match the success of their first collaboration. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” topped both the US and UK pop charts for a respectable two weeks in 1965, but its impact proved to endure far beyond even that substantial degree of success. By the end of the 20th Century, it would become the most-played song on American radio and television — a testament to Spector’s and the Brothers’ vivid evocation of the staggering, core-shattering intensity of heartbreak.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
