Righteous Brothers’ Hatfield dies at 63

Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003 | 11:47 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

The Righteous Brothers performed long enough in Las Vegas showrooms to see great changes in the audience -- from the 1960s when people dressed to the nines to go to shows to the modern-day T-shirt and jeans crowd.

"Some of our audience look like they have just come off the beach and dropped in to see our show," Bobby Hatfield told the Sun in 1991.

His partner Bill Medley, who maintains a part-time residency in Las Vegas, agreed with how things had changed since the duo first performed at the old Sands in 1962: "Once people dressed up when they went to the showrooms. Now it's come as you are, but bring money."

Hatfield, whose soaring tenor blended with Medley's silken baritone to create "blue-eyed soul," died Wednesday in a Kalamazoo, Mich., hotel. He was 63.

Hatfield's body was discovered in his bed 30 minutes before the duo was to perform at Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus, his manager David Cohen said.

The duo, whose 42-year career featured pop standards such as "Unchained Melody," "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," were in Kalamazoo to kick off a four-day series of performances in Michigan and Ohio.

Their other Las Vegas performances were at the Frontier in the early 1980s, Bally's and the MGM Grand for five years in the mid-1990s, The Orleans from 1998 to 2001, the Las Vegas Hilton in 2001 and the Orleans the last two years.

The Righteous Brothers were next scheduled to perform at the Orleans Nov. 18-30.

"They were one of our main headliners, and everyone here had the greatest respect for them as performers," Orleans spokesman Ron Bell said. "They are legends of show business who fit like a glove in our showroom. I was absolutely shocked when I heard about Bobby dying last night."

Bell said it is too early to make a determination whether Medley will go on by himself or if a replacement act will be signed.

Medley, according to Hatfield's manager David Cohen, was "broken up. He's not even coherent."

"It's a shock, a real shock," Cohen said.

The cause of death was unknown. Hatfield's body was taken to Lansing, where an autopsy was to be performed, Joe Hakim, an executive with the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo, told the Kalamazoo Gazette.

The duo's signature 1965 single, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," has been cited by numerous sources as the most-programmed song in American radio history. The inclusion of their songs in films such as "Top Gun," "Ghost" and "Dirty Dancing" repeatedly re-established the Righteous brand.

Earlier this year, singer Billy Joel spoke as Hatfield and Medley were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Sometimes people with blue eyes transcended the limitations of what their color and culture can actually be," Joel said. "Sometimes white people can actually be soulful. This was a life-changing idea. It changed my life."

Robert Lee Hatfield was born Aug. 10, 1940, in Beaver Dam, Wis. His family moved to Anaheim, Calif., when he was 4. Hatfield organized singing and instrumental groups in high school while helping his parents with their dry cleaning business.

An avid athlete, Hatfield considered a career in professional baseball, but found his true calling in music -- a love he pursued while attending Long Beach State University, where he formed a band and performed at bars and proms.

Hatfield teamed up with Medley in 1962 as part of a five-piece group called The Paramours. According to the Righteous Brothers website, a black Marine called out during one of their performances, "That was righteous, brothers!"

They renamed themselves the Righteous Brothers before the release of their first album in 1963.

"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," produced by Phil Spector, was released months after British rock 'n' roll was beginning to dominate U.S. record charts and airwaves.

"We had no idea if it would be a hit," Medley once said. "It was too slow, too long and right in the middle of the Beatles and the British Invasion."

The performing rights organization BMI, however, has tallied about 8 million radio plays of the song.

After splitting up in 1968, the duo reunited in 1974 and returned to the top of the charts with "Rock and Roll Heaven." They performed sporadically, then went through another career revival in 1982.

Hatfield and Medley in later years routinely went on the road for 60 to 80 shows a year in addition to 12-week stints in Las Vegas, where they had found work as a lounge act during the dawn of their careers in 1962.

In the early 1960s Frank Sinatra was headlining the Sands showroom and the hotel operators asked him if they could sign the Righteous Brothers to perform in the lounge where Sinatra regularly held his parties.

"Thank God his daughters Tina and Nancy were sitting there when they asked, because they said, 'Oh yeah, yeah, Daddy, please?' Because I'm sure he didn't know who the Righteous Brothers were," Medley told the Sun in February.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the duo's songs were again on the charts, including Medley's "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from the 1987 film "Dirty Dancing," which won the Academy Award for best song, and Hatfield's "Unchained Melody" theme from the 1990 motion picture "Ghost."

It was the second time "Unchained Melody" had charted for the duo. The first time was in August 1965 when it reached No. 4 on the U.S. charts and No. 14 in Great Britain.

Between 1965 and 1969 the duo had seven Top 20 songs, one of which reached No. 1 on both the American and British charts ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling) and another that was No. 1 in the United States. ("Soul and Inspiration").

Hatfield and Medley long lived with their respective families in Newport Beach, Calif., but spent much of the year on the road, often playing one-night stands or other brief engagements.

The Righteous Brothers said they loved to play Las Vegas for a number of reasons, including that it meant staying in one place long enough to unpack their bags.

"As long as we can do this and be us, we'll continue," Hatfield told the Sun in 1991. "We don't want to wait until we just go out on stage and not do us (The Righteous Brothers) anymore."

Sun reporter

Ed Koch and the Associated Press contributed to this story.