By David DeRocco dave@gobeweekly.com  https://twitter.com/?lang=en

What’s the greatest pop song ever recorded? That’s a tough question given the subjective nature of what defines “good pop.” But if you were looking for criteria for use in judging, here’s a few things you might look for: a song with lyrics that speak to the universal angst associated with lost love, produced by a psychotic genius revered for his signature “wall of sound,” played and sang by a collection of artists that included Bill Medley, Bobby Hatfield, Sonny and Cher, Glen Campbell, and Leon Russell, and spun over 15 million times and counting on radio. All that, and it has to wind up being filed in the Library of Congress for its “cultural importance” while topping the charts in multiple decades. In truth, there’s only one song that matches that description, and it’s called “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” a song sung by the original purveyors of “blue-eyed soul” – The Righteous Brothers.

When Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield stepped into the studio in 1964 with producer Phil Spector, they had no idea they were about to record their first #1 hit – and deliver a song that, nearly 50 years later, is still considered one of the greatest examples of pure American pop perfection ever recorded. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” remains one of Spector’s most inspired productions, and a classic example of the songs that came to define the work of The Righteous Brothers. While hits like “Unchained Melody” and “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” have had similar staying power, it’s “Lovin’ Feeling” that continues to resonate with audiences around the world, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted the duo back in 2003. Hatfield passed that same year, replaced by Bucky Heard, and together with Medley the Righteous Brothers continue to perform and tour. Both Medley and Heard took time to chat with GoBeWeekly about touring with the Beatles, the lure of baloney sandwiches and the genius of Phil Spector.

GoBe: When talking to artists with such long and storied careers, it’s hard to know where to start. So let’s begin at a seminal moment – 1964. The Righteous Brothers leave the Beatles first U.S. tour to go shoot the pilot for Shindig, only to wind up closing off the year touring with the Rolling Stones. Do you think either of those bands knew how lucky they were to be closing for you?

BILL: (Laughing) Well, I don’t know. I tell you it was great fun. It was wonderful. The Beatles were great guys, wonderful guys. When we opened for the Stones they hadn’t become real big yet. I think we worked with them and the next weekend they were the biggest thing in the world.

GoBe: Have you chatted since?

BILL: I saw the Stones not long ago and had a long conversation with Keith about it. It was a great year for the Righteous Brothers. We also did Shindig, which was a big American TV show. And we recorded “Lovin’ Feeling” at the end of ’64. So, a pretty good year for us.

GoBe: When you consider the half century of music and memories you both have to look back on, what do you hold most dear to your heart – the music you’ve made, or the memories and moments you’ve lived as a result of that music.

BILL: That’s a great question. I think it’s certainly a combination of all it. By having the hits with these wonderful records, it just gave Bobby and I a long, long career, and now an extended career with Bucky Heard. It’s just phenomenal. I don’t know man, it’s all good.

BUCKY: I feel the exact same way, and on a different level for me. I’ve been in the business a long time myself. Bill and I have been friends for about 15 years, we just didn’t know we could sing together. We both believe God’s timing is impeccable. I’m just happy to be picking up the torch and helping to keep this music out there and alive.

GoBe: Bucky, you’ve managed to fill some pretty big shoes. There are other singers out there who’ve had to step in to replace an iconic vocalist – Adam Lambert stepping in to replace Freddie Mercury is a pretty big example. What were the first few live gigs like for you when you because one of the Righteous Brothers.

BUCKY: It’s probably over-exaggerated in my mind. I was obviously nervous and wanting to be accepted by the Righteous Brothers fans who followed Bill and Bobby all these years. Of course, Bill waited 13 years after Bobby’s passing which I think is just very respectful of Bobby. When you talk to Bill about this, he wasn’t sure he wanted to revive the Righteous Brothers. I’m thankful he did. The first show we did together I felt like all eyes were on me. I just felt I needed to be the best wing man for Bill Medley that I could possibly be and so far it’s turned out pretty good.

GoBe: There’s a huge catalogue of recordings that the Righteous Brothers could choose to sing each night. Of course, there’s one song in particular that stands out. “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” has been played over 15 million times. It’s been deemed “culturally significant” by the Library of Congress. Rolling Stone includes it on their list of the Top 100 pop songs of all time. Those are accolades that “Little Latin Luppee Lu” never earned. As singers, how do you approach that song each night? It must be like picking up fine crystal, something to handle delicately each time.

BILL: Doing “Lovin’ Feeling,” people say ‘how do you sing that every night for over 50 years?’ It’s really the audience. The minute they hear ‘you never close your eyes,’ they just light up. They send all that love to you. They start hugging each other. Listen, if I had to do it in the shower every night I’d probably kill myself.

GoBe: Well I’m such a music fan, you just sang three notes of that song and I got goosebumps, so I totally understand the impact.

BILL: Hopefully that happens with the audience. It certainly is what happens with us. It’s all about the audience. We’ve said it a million times. We’re only as good as they are. We have such a wonderful time, listening to stories about how the music moved them and the role it played in their life.

GoBe: Your songs are so timeless, I assume there’s a broad cross section of ages in your audience each night. That must be rewarding at this stage of your career.

BILL: We had a huge resurgence at the end of the 80s with the movies. “Loving Feeling” was in Top Gun. I did the song “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” for Dirty Dancing and “Unchained Melody” in Ghost. We’re getting all the people that were raised with the original music and the folks that were raised at the end of the 80s on those songs. You couldn’t write it any better. God has his hands on this. We’re very relaxed giving God the credit.

GoBe: I know it’s probably not an easy comparison because it’s not really an apples to apples thing, but when you were recording in the heyday of the 60s and 70s it was very competitive. When you look at the music industry today, given the opportunity, would you rather be recording now or back then?

BILL: I think the era we came up in, the 60s, was absolutely the greatest time in the world to record because we started out on 2-track machines, then 4-track, then 16 then 24. It was really creative back then. We had to create sounds. It was incredibly creative.

GoBe: Touring these days I’m assuming is a little more comfortable than it may have been back in the early days. What are some of the luxuries you afford yourself on the road or ask for in your rider.

BUCKY: You know, really most of the things Bill and I enjoy when we come into these towns and cities are things like visiting restaurants. We’re out here to work, so we just have to take care of ourselves, get some rest. I always have a work out before the show. Bill takes good care of himself. After the show we’ll have a glass of wine back stage and a few laughs. We’re out here to perform and give the best possible show we can, so we just try to take care of ourselves.

BILL: The real luxury is our audience.

BUCKY: I will say Bill does have something that requires a little more attention in the rider each night, and it’s tough to find in some of these cities. Bill likes to have a baloney sandwich after the show with extra raw onions and yellow mustard. That’s the luxury.

GoBe: Well, when you come to Niagara Falls you’ll only be 20 miles from Buffalo, and they have the best baloney sandwiches.

BILL: I’m in.

GoBe: The Righteous Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, validation for a great career. What did that mean to you to be inducted into the Hall?

BILL: It’s kind of hard to explain. Going into the Hall of Fame is just a stamp of approval. It means you were here, you made a difference in music, you moved a lot of people. It’s kind of a thank you for being in the industry. But it’s just a wonderful honour. There’s some incredible people in there, they all belong, but it’s just kind of a stamp of approval.

GoBe: You’ve both been performing together for a few years now. Do you ever try to throw each other off when performing, just to see if the other guy is paying attention?

BILL: (laughing) When people come to the show, they’ll know that Bucky and I have an enormous amount of fun on the stage. We keep it very relaxed, certainly try not to be corny. We have a great time, because we want the audience to have a great time. A lot of our songs are so heavy, and we approach them very seriously, but we have a lot of fun doing the show. We don’t try to punk each other, other than I try to make Bucky seem as tall as I am.

BUCKY: I’ve been to shows before where the guys up front are turning around making comments to the band. You don’t want to do things that don’t include the audience. It’s all about them. We just try to keep it real. We want them to feel like they’re in their living room, so it has an intimate feel to it.

GoBe: There’s so much emotion in the songs you’re singing, and the songs mean so much to people, you must see a lot of tears every night. How do you deal with that.

BILL: That’s just part of them giving you the love. With the age of a lot of the audience, they’ve lost a loved one. “Unchained Melody,” it’s very near and dear to a lot of these people. It’s kind of an honour that we can be a part of that. We always tell them, your husband was here tonight. Thank God we can’t see a lot of it, we’d be a wreck.

BUCKY: We go out after every show and meet and greet the people. We sit in the lobby of the theatres until the last person leaves. What I’ve noticed and what moves me most is when I see military – army, navy – these are tough guys, they have tears in their eyes. They come up to Bill and say ‘you have no idea what your music meant to us over there. It was our connection to home.’ I have to walk away some times. It moves me beyond belief. We do “Bridge Over Troubled Water” as a tribute to military at our show.

GoBe: Final question. You worked with Phil Spector, and Cher was one of the back-up singers on “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” What’s your recollection of working with those two icons.

BILL: Everybody expects a horror story when I talk about Phil. Phil was great with Bobby and I. He was a real pro. I know the word genius is thrown around a lot. I’ve been around music a long time and I’ve never seen anybody be able to do what Phil Spector did in the early 60s. He worked us real hard, and it always got better. We loved it, and we loved working with Phil. Cher sang vocal background on “Lovin’ Feeling.” I think Sonny played tambourine, Glen Campbell played guitar, Leon Russell played piano. I could go on and on. It was a star-studded little deal. It just happened to be one of those songs produced by Phil Spector. It seems like a really good hit record has to be a great song first off, it has to have a great producer and the artists have to be able to deliver that song. We were fortunate to have all that.

See the Righteous Brothers at Fallsview Casino August 16^th and 17^th.

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