Artist:The Righteous Brothers
Song:(You're My) Soul and Inspiration
Album:Retrospective 1963-1974
The 1966 single Soul and Inspiration topped the charts. It was The Righteous Brothers' second of two number one hits. The most interesting thing about this record is it was a hit after The Righteous Brothers split with producer Phil Spector and left his Philles label for MGM/Verve. Look, there's no question that Spector was a musical genius. But now we know that he is insane and his weird behavior eventually landed him in prison for murder. But he was exhibiting odd behavior back then. Plus he was a notorious control freak. The relationship between The Righteous Brothers and Spector seemed to unravel after the success of the 1965 single Unchained Melody. For one thing, Spector seemed to prefer Bill Medley as lead singer to Bobby Hatfield. That not only caused friction between the two. But Medley addressed it with Spector. When that didn't help, The Righteous Brothers signed with MGM/Verve in 1966. Spector sued MGM and they settled with Spector for $600,000. Soul and Inspiration was their first single for MGM and it topped the Billboard Hot 100. I know what you're thinking. It sure sounds like a Phil Spector production. But it was actually produced by Bill Medley. In fact, he produced the entire album Soul and Inspiration. The song was written by husband and wife Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. It was arranged by Jack Nitzsche to sound like a Spector record using some of The Wrecking Crew musicians like Don Randi on keyboards and Jimmy Bond on bass. They played on the Spector records. Nitzsche was a great producer known for his work with The Beach Boys. Of course the success didn't last and The Righteous Brothers split up in 1968. They returned in 1974 to score a top five hit with the 1974 single Rock and Roll Heaven. This comp has all their hits including Rock and Roll Heaven. A lot of the Universal comps don't have that song because Capitol owns it. There are also 2CD comps that have too much on it. Retrospective is an hour long. It seems about right and it contains Rock and Roll Heaven. Bobby Hatfield died in 2003. Of course Bill Medley had success with 1987 single Time of My Life from the film Dirty Dancing. He recently released what seems to be a country album and he appeared on The Grand Ole Opry. The lead single from the album is a duet with country singer Vince Gill. Here's The Righteous Brothers performing (You're My) Soul and Inspiration 1966.
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