The moniker, the Righteous Brothers, is only half accurate. The iconic pop duo may not have been siblings, but they sure made a stir with their righteous sound. Made up of Bill Medley, with his rumbling baritone, and Bobby Hatfield, with his chest-rattling falsetto, the pairing helped to define mid-century blue-eyed soul, quickly becoming two of the most recognizable voices of the 1960s once they joined forces.
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“That was righteous, brothers!…”
Medley and Hatfield met while in their own Orange County, California-based musical groups, the Paramours and the Variations respectively. Barry Rillera, a member of both bands at the time, played matchmaker to the two vocalists in a way.
“He’d always tell me, ‘You’ve got to hear this guy Bobby sing,'” Medley recalled in his 2014 memoir, The Time of My Life: A Righteous Brother’s Memoir. “He’d say the same thing to Bobby about me. I went to see Bobby perform, and we became fans of each other.”
According to the memoir, Medley and Hatfield eventually formed their own 5-piece group in 1962, keeping the name the Paramours and playing the local club scene. The pair’s captivating harmonies were an immediate draw. Medley and Hatfield were soon signed to the label Moonglow Records when their original tune “Little Latin Lupe Lu” attracted the label’s owner Ray Maxwell.
As a duet, they kept the name the Paramours for a brief time, recording under the moniker for their first single before becoming the Righteous Brothers. The name came from a performance at Southern California’s El Toro Marine base, Medley detailed in his memoir, when after a song an audience member supposedly shouted, “That was righteous, brothers!”
The Rise of The Righteous
When their song “Little Latin Lupe Lu” was recorded and released, it initially saw little success, but the Righteous Brothers continued to dominate as a live act and the song caught on. However, the duo would not see their breakout until famed record producer Phil Spector entered the picture in 1964.
Under his tutelage, the pair scored a hit with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” Other chart-toppers, like “Just Once in My Life” and “Unchained Melody,” soon followed. They would leave Spector’s label in 1966 for a deal with Verve Records where they would release even more Top 40 hits, such as “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.”
The Fall of The Righteous
By 1968, Medley and Hatfield had parted ways, the former in pursuit of a solo career. The Righteous Brothers’ name, however, lived on with Hatfield recruiting The Knickerbockers vocalist Jimmy Walker to take Medley’s place.
In the end, Medley and Hatfield realized they were better together and regrouped in 1974. With their reunion, they add a handful more hits to their repertoire, including the tune “Rock and Roll Heaven.” The next few decades saw the duo tour off and on, but the end of the original Righteous Brothers came with Hatfield’s untimely death on November 5, 2003.
Medley would eventually revive the Righteous Brothers name, bringing singer Bucky Heard into the fold in the 2010s.
Photo by Denise Truscello/WireImage
