Various music writers have described the Righteous Brothers version as "one of the best records ever made" and "the ultimate pop record".[1] In 1999 the performing-rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) ranked the song as the most-played song on American radio and television in the 20th century, having accumulated more than 8 million airplays by 1999,[4] and nearly 15 million by 2011.[5] It held the distinction of being the most-played song for 22 years until 2019, when it was overtaken by "Every Breath You Take".[6] In 2001 the song was chosen as one of the Songs of the Century by RIAA, and in 2003 the track ranked No. 34 on the list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone. In 2015 the single was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[7] .mw-parser-output .toclimit-2 .toclevel-1 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-3 .toclevel-2 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-4 .toclevel-3 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-5 .toclevel-4 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-6 .toclevel-5 ul,.mw-parser-output .toclimit-7 .toclevel-6 ul{display:none}
In 1964, music producer Phil Spector conducted the band at a show in San Francisco where the Righteous Brothers was also appearing, and he was impressed enough with the duo to want them to record for his own label, Philles Records.[8] All the songs previously produced by Spector for Philles Records featured African-American singers, and the Righteous Brothers would be his first white vocal act. However, they had a vocal style, termed blue-eyed soul, that suited Spector.[9]
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Bobby Hatfield reportedly expressed his annoyance to Spector when he learned that Medley would start the first verse alone and that he had to wait until the chorus before joining in. Prior to this, they would have been given equal prominence in a song. When Hatfield asked Spector just what he was supposed to do during Medley's solo, Spector replied, "You can go directly to the bank!"[15][20]
The song would become one of the foremost examples of Spector's "Wall of Sound" technique. It features the studio musicians the Wrecking Crew; playing on this recording were Don Randi on piano, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Carol Kaye and Ray Pohlman on bass, and Steve Douglas on sax.[22] They were also joined by Barney Kessel on guitar and Earl Palmer on drums. Jack Nitzsche usually arranged the songs for Spector, but he was absent, and the arrangement was done by Gene Page.[9][23] As with his other songs, Spector started by cutting the instrumental track first, building up layers of sound to create the Wall of Sound effect. The recording was done mono so Spector could fix the sound exactly as he wanted it.[21] According to sound engineer Larry Levine, they started recording four acoustic guitars; when that was ready, they added the pianos, of which there were three; followed by three basses; the horns (two trumpets, two trombones, and three saxophones); then finally the drums.[21] The vocals by Hatfield and Medley were then recorded and the strings overdubbed.[1] The background singers were mainly the vocal group The Blossoms, joined in the song's crescendo by a young Cher.[24] Reverb was applied in the recording, and more was added on the lead vocals during the mix.[21] According to music writer Robert Palmer, the effect of the technique used was to create a sound that was "deliberately blurry, atmospheric, and of course huge; Wagnerian rock 'n' roll with all the trimmings."[1]
The song started slowly in the recording, with Medley singing in a low baritone voice.[17] Right before the second verse started, Spector wanted the tempo to stay the same, but the beat to be just a little behind where they are supposed to land to give the impression of the song slowing down.[25] The recorded song was three ticks slower and a tone and a half lower than what Mann and Weil had written.[12] When Mann heard the finished record over the phone, he thought that it had been mistakenly played at 33 1/3 instead of 45 rpm and told Spector, "Phil, you have it on the wrong speed!"[15][18]
Even with his interest in the song, Medley had his doubts because it was unusually long for a pop song at the time. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he recalled, "We had no idea if it would be a hit. It was too slow, too long, and right in the middle of The Beatles and the British Invasion." The song ran for nearly four minutes when released. This was too long by contemporary AM radio standards; radio stations at that time rarely played songs longer than three minutes because longer songs meant that fewer ads could be placed between song sets.[22] Spector, however, refused to shorten it. Following a suggestion by Larry Levine,[21] Spector had "3:05" printed on the label, instead of the track's actual running time of 3:45. He also added a false ending which made the recording more dramatic, and also tricked radio DJs into thinking it was a shorter song.[15][26]
Andrew Loog Oldham, who was then the manager of the Rolling Stones and a fan and friend of Spector, chanced upon Spector listening to a test pressing of the song that had just been delivered. Loog Oldham later wrote, "The room was filled with this amazing sound, I had no idea what it was, but it was the most incredible thing I'd ever heard."[30] He added, "I'd never heard a recorded track so emotionally giving or empowering."[31] Later, when Cilla Black recorded a rival version of the same song and it was racing up the British charts ahead of The Righteous Brothers' version, Loog Oldham was appalled, and took it upon himself to run a full-page ad in Melody Maker:
There were initially reservations about the song from the radio industry; a common complaint was that it was too long, and others also questioned the speed of the song, and thought that the singer "keeps yelling".[37] Some stations refused to play the song after checking its length, or after it had caused them to miss the news.[26] The radio industry trade publication Gavin Report offered the opinion that "blue-eyed soul has gone too far".[37] In Britain, Sam Costa, a DJ on the BBC Light Programme, said that The Righteous Brothers' record was a dirge, adding, "I wouldn't even play it in my toilet."[38] However, despite the initial reservations, the song would become highly popular on radio.[39]
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys heard the song and rang Mann and Weil in January 1965 to say: "Your song is the greatest record ever. I was ready to quit the music business, but this has inspired me to write again."[12] Wilson later referred to the Beach Boys' 1966 song "Good Vibrations" as his attempt to surpass "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".[40] Over the subsequent decades, he recorded numerous unreleased renditions of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". One of them, recorded during the sessions for the 1977 album The Beach Boys Love You, was released on the 2013 compilation Made in California.[41]
In Ireland, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" charted twice, first in January 1965, when it peaked at No. 2,[48] and again in December 1990, following its reissue as a double A-sided single with "Ebb Tide", when it climbed to No. 2 again. The original Righteous Brothers recording remains the only version of the song to chart in Ireland.[49] In the Netherlands "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin" reached No. 8 in March 1965, with three versions ranked together as one entry: those of the Righteous Brothers, Cilla Black (a UK No. 2) and Dutch singer Trea Dobbs (nl).[50]
In 2001, this recording was ranked at No. 9 in the list of Songs of the Century released by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts.[53] In 2004, the same recording was ranked at No. 34 by Rolling Stone magazine in their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[54] In 2005, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" was awarded the Songwriters Hall of Fame's Towering Song Award presented to "the creators of an individual song that has influenced the culture in a unique way over many years".[55]
Both Cilla Black's and the Righteous Brothers versions of the song debuted on the UK chart in the same week in January 1965, with Black debuting higher at No. 28.[73] According to Tony Hall of Decca Records who was responsible for promoting the Righteous Brothers record in the UK, Black's version was preferred by BBC radio where one of its DJs[who?] disparaged the Righteous Brothers' version as a "dirge" and refused to play it. Hall therefore requested that Spector send the Righteous Brothers over to Britain to promote the song so it might have a chance on the chart.[38][42]
The following week Black remained in ascendancy at No. 12 with the Righteous Brothers at No. 20. The Righteous Brothers came over to Britain, spent a week promoting the song and performed for television shows in Manchester and Birmingham.[38] At the same time, Andrew Loog Oldham placed a full-page ad in Melody Maker promoting the Righteous Brothers version at his own initiative and expense, and urged the readers to watch the Righteous Brothers appearance on the ITV television show Ready Steady Go![42] In its third week on the February 3, 1965, chart, Black jumped to No. 2, while the Righteous Brothers made an even larger jump to No. 3. Hall recalled meeting at a party Brian Epstein, the manager of Black, who said that Black's version would be number one and told Hall, "You haven't a hope in hell."[42]
In 1969, American singer Dionne Warwick recorded a cover version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" for her studio album Soulful. Her version was the only single released from the album and it was aimed to showcase Warwick as more of an R&B singer than was evidenced by her work with Burt Bacharach. Co-produced by Warwick and Chips Moman and recorded at American Sound Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, Soulful was one of Warwick's most successful albums peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The single "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and charted at No. 13 on the Billboard R&B singles chart.[77] In Australia the Go-Set Top 40 chart ranked Warwick's version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" with a No. 34 peak in January 1970.[74] In Warwick's version of the song, she spells the last word of the title out fully as "feeling" rather than the usual "feelin'". 006ab0faaa