Unchained Melody Lyrics and Video

Oh, my love, my darling
I’ve hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time
And 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, hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time
And 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.

“Unchained Melody” is a 1955 song with music composed by Alex North and lyrics written by Hy Zaret. North used the music as a theme for the little-known prison film “Unchained” – hence the name. It has since become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers.

The song eventually became known as the “Unchained Melody” even though the song does not actually include the word “unchained”. Instead, Zaret chose to focus on someone who pines for a lover he has not seen in a “long, lonely time”. The 1955 film centered around a man who contemplates either escaping from prison to live life on the run or completing his sentence and returning to his wife and family.

The best-known version of “Unchained Melody” was recorded by the duo The Righteous Brothers for Philles Records in 1965. The lead vocal was performed solo by Bobby Hatfield, who later recorded other versions of the song credited solely to him.

The Righteous Brothers’ cover of “Unchained Melody” is now widely considered the definitive version of the song. Hatfield’s vocal, in particular, is highly praised; it has been described as “powerful, full of romantic hunger, yet ethereal,” and a “vocal tour de force”. The production of their original recording has been described as “epic”, and with “Hatfield’s emotion-packed tenor soaring to stratospheric heights, it’s a record designed to reduce anyone separated from the one they loved to a “pile of mush”.”

The use of the Righteous Brothers’ cover of “Unchained Melody” in the film “Ghost” resurrected the song’s popularity, and the scene where the song was played also became widely recreated or parodied in popular culture, in films such as “The Naked Gun”,  “The Smell of Fear”, and numerous television shows including Glee, Family Guy, Community, Saturday Night Live, Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock and Wallace and Gromit’s A Matter of Loaf and Death.

The song was nominated in 1955 for an Oscar for the best original song from the film Unchained. The re-recorded version by The Righteous Brothers was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1991 in the best pop performance by a duo or group category, and their original version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.