Rhythm Plus Emotion Equals ‘Blue-Eyed Soul’

I recall seeing the Righteous Brothers perform in an Atlantic City club several years before the casinos came to town.
The club was sparsely filled, and I was seated so close that I could see the razor-sharp creases in the brilliant white bell-bottom slacks they wore. They sang powerfully and flawlessly, and I could not believe that so few were in the audience to see and hear one of the best singing duos in pop music.
But this was at the height of the so-called ‘British Invasion’, when rhythm & blues, classic rock ‘n roll, doo-wop, and all other forms of uniquely American music were waning. The Beatles were leading the charts, and if a song didn’t have “yeah…yeah…yeah…” somewhere in the chorus or background, well, it just wasn’t played on present-day Top-40 stations.
Trends, however, come and go, but as Bobbie Smith of the Spinners recently told me, “Good music is everlasting,” so acts like the Righteous Brothers — Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield — would not be playing to empty tables very long.
Their style, self-described as, “…raw emotional rhythm and blues…essentially creating the genre ‘blue-eyed soul.’”
During the mid-1960s, their unmistakable voices provided such hits as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin,” “Just Once in My Life,” “Unchained Melody,” and “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration.
In the 70s, their live shows started to attract a new generation of listeners. In 1987, Medley scored a monumental hit with another duettist, Jennifer Warnes, on “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” for the film Dirty Dancing. The Oscar-winning song sold a staggering 14 million copies.
In 2003, Hatfield died unexpectedly, but Bill Medley will appear at the Greater Wildwood Chamber of Commerce Sensational 60s Concert May 14, and you can expect to hear all the Righteous Brothers’ hits.
“We’ll do everything,” Medley assured me in a recent telephone interview. “We have several really good singers in our band, and I’ll do a duet of ‘The Time of My Life’ with my 24-year-old daughter who will do the Jennifer Warnes part.”
Medley remembers the days of the British Invasion.
“You have to take the good with the bad in this business,” he said. “You just have to keep walking forward; things will turn around. You have to be of that mind.”
Medley, 70, enjoyed R&B artists when he was a teen.
“I grew up listening to Rhythm and Blues,” he explained. His favorites were Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and B.B. King.
Hailing from California, he may not have sung on the street corners like we did as teenagers in Philadelphia, but he certainly understands the era.
“I’ll tell you this,” he said, “if Bobby Hatfield had been raised in Philly, he’d have been one of those guys harmonizing on the street corner with you. I used to do a doo-wop segment in my show, now, after talking to you, I think it may be a good idea to put it back in.”
Wildwood audiences, I assured him, would be pleased. Both doo-wop and the Righteous Brothers are sounds that Jersey Shore listeners can appreciate.
“On paper,” he said, “the Righteous Brothers look like a mistake — Hatfield a first tenor and me a baritone. But (producer) Phil Spector opened it up for us.”
The first half of Medley’s show in Wildwood will consist of all the Righteous Brothers’ hits.
“In the second half, I’ll sit down at the piano and the band and I will do some ‘unplugged’ story-telling,” he said.
That should make for a perfectly smooth, blue-eyed soul transition.