Dave over at Pomoxian reports about the death of Hy Zaret, the author of Unchained Melody. In honor of Hy's passing I am asking you to vote for either the Righteous Brothers rendition, the Elvis one or another of your choice. The following videos are provided to help you in your voting.
Just leave a comment, with your vote for the Righteous Brothers, Elvis or the singer of your choosing, and I'll publish the results in a few days.
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Wow, KB. It's the weirdest thing listening to Elvis. He's all over the board. He burlesques the song so powerfully, but but his voice and timing are too far off to support the the richness of his emotion.
ReplyDeleteThe Righteous Brother guy is so clean, so controlled. It's from a day before passion was really expected in singing.
I'd love to hear young Elvis attack this song. I bet he'd kick butt, but this one goes to the Righteous Brothers.
The Elvis video wins as far as pathos is concerned - given that it was recorded so late in his career and the back story to the performance is so much more compelling... but the Righteous Brothers' version is clearly definitive - all later renditions of the song either use their arrangement as the model or make self-conscious variations from it. Of the alternatives I have, Al Green does a nice, slowed down soul version, and Englebert Humperdink provides a clean, straightforward but emotive rendition. Sarah McLachlan's take is one of those intentional divergences that some may like and others will hate. I was disappointed with U2's version - sadly, Bono wimps out on the "Are you still mine?" line, taking the note down rather than up on "mine," which really ought to soar and which I thought he would be capable of pulling off, at least in the studio. Neil Diamond and LeAnne Rimes both offer pretty credible performances in their own distinctive styles, still following the RB's template. Of course, the Al Hibbler and Les Baxter originals from 1955 deserve mention. And if one really wants to stretch the limits, there's a techno dance mix by DJ Mystic and a reggae cover by Sanchez that both work out well in my opinion!
ReplyDeleteAnother ironic note... In searching for various versions of Unchained Melody, I found one by Boots Randolph, the famous Nashville-based sax player (who happened to be a favorite of my grandfather's.) Boots died the day after Hy Zaret.
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