Righteous Brothers ( The ) - Unchained Melody

First performance: 13/11/2005


Coverinfo

Bruce used the song 2 times:
 
Bruce hums a snippet of "Unchained Melody" in the introduction to "Santa Ana".
Not confirmed by Brucebase. 
 
 
 
 
2001-05-27 Stone Pony (The), Asbury Park, NJ
Bruce joins Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes onstage for an hour. Graham Parker also takes part in this show. "I've Been Working Too Hard" features a lengthy snippet of Parker's "The New York Shuffle" in the intro. Southside and Bobby Bandiera sing a snippet of "Unchained Melody" before the closing "Having A Party". The event is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Southside's legendary radio broadcast from the Stone Pony. 
 

Songinfo

"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North used the music as a theme for the little-known prison film Unchained (1955), hence the song title. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. It has since become a standard and one of the most often recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. Of the hundreds of recordings made, it was the July 1965 version by the Righteous Brothers, performed as a solo by Bobby Hatfield, that became a jukebox standard for the late 20th century. Hatfield made a change to the melody and many subsequent covers of the song would be based on his version. The recording by Righteous Brothers achieved a second round of great popularity when it was featured in the film Ghost (1990). 
 
 
 
 

Bruce on the artist

funny intro to the song : 
 
The Inspiration for all Rock Music 
 
" That´s right….thank you, love songs….there´s kind of only two kinds of love songs, really, there´s love ´we´re getting together´ songs and ´we´re infatuated,´ then there´s break-up songs….then, uh, I guess there´s ´fuck you´ songs but they´re usually in country music actually…and ´I´m gonna kill you´-songs….that´s usually in, uh, folk music and rap music…. so everybody takes their own approach to the whole thing but I, I kind of grew up, my mother grew up playing all the romantic songs on the radio and, uh, that´s what I heard every morning, in the 50´s was this whole generation of young men who were trying to sing like beautiful women and that was smart, that was very smart ´cause, you know, they´d, they´d sing like way, way up here, would be like, uh (sings the melody of ´Unchained Melody´ - without the words) I always thought that was, that was crafty because what they were, the seduction was ´I´m gonna come up and I´m gonna speak in your voice to you, uh, beautiful lady and I´m gonna be talking in your language, I´m coming up where you live and I´m a sensitive, understanding man and will you pull your pants down?´….that was, uh, that was that whole thing, you see, that is the subtext of all rock and roll music and, uh, I believe actually was the subtext of all classical music also but uh (chuckles) it is the great motivator for people to write music and, and you can tell because it works, it works well at the end of almost any, any rock song, it can be the last line also like, you know, ´It´s a town full of losers, we´re pulling out of here to win and will you pull your pants down?´…that works, ´Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run so will you pull your pants down?´….it works even like in the most kind of hardcore, sort of protest music, you know, that seems to be kind of aiming for something higher, it´s like ´It´s a hard rain gonna fall so you might as well pull your pants down´….so, uh, it is the motivation behind all, all great rock music is my, my humble opinion, one of the, one of the motivations, that´s why, I guess I didn´t write love songs for a long time, my father believed that they were all government, he was a post-pants down-guy (chuckles) he believed that you´re gonna get married, you´re gonna pay your taxes and work 9-to-5 and it was all government propaganda, uh, so I´ll leave it to the individual listener to decide but it explains why I wrote songs kind of like this next one, uh, of which I´m sure that line would fit in here somewhere but uh, uh, this is kind of, this is, I´ve only played this once before, this is kind of something, I don´t know, I suppose it was written for ´The Wild and the Innocent´ maybe but, uh….little on the obscure side, might be a love song but I´m not sure, you know….oh, let me see, I use….it´s this one, I think, well, I broke it, hold on, hold on, hold on a second, it´s almost there, yes, oh, hah, there goes Kevin´s job security (chuckles) alright, here we go…"
 

Lyrics

Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time
Time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me
Lonely rivers flow
To the sea, to the sea
To the open arms of the sea
Lonely rivers sigh
"Wait for me, wait for me"
I'll be coming home, wait for me
Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered, for your touch
A long, lonely time
Time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me