May 21, 1955: Roy Hamilton hits #1 on the R&B chart and #6 on the pop chart with "Unchained Melody"—Bobby Hatfield also scored big with the tune in July of 1965 (credited to The Righteous Brothers) and then again in 1990 when it appeared in the movie Ghost: BUT…

In 1955:

Alex North, who actually wrote "Unchained Melody," used the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained, Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack…

That same year Les Baxter released an instrumental version on Capitol Records which reached #2

and Al Hibbler released a version that reached #3 on the Billboard charts…

…

He was followed soon after by Jimmy Young, whose version hit #1 on  the British charts in June 1955. Liberace even scored a #20 hit with the tune...

On May 21, 1955, Roy Hamilton's version (Epic Records catalog number 9102)

reached number one on the R&B Best Sellers list and #6 on the pop chart.

ROY HAMILTON

The 1965 Juke Box classic by Bobby Hatfield (was credited to The Righteous Brothers) 

This version was a Phil Spector production which really only reached #4 on the charts at the time…

Phil Spector in His Hayday

Phil Today

Elvis Presley

performed
"Unchained Melody" on April 24, 1977 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the recording of which was included on the Moody Blue album (the last released while he was alive)…

 

A 1990 version of the tune by Vito & The Salutations was on the soundtrack of the 1990 movie Goodfellas…

In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the song at #365 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time…

By some estimates there have been  over 500 versions of “Unchained Melody” released in hundreds of different languages!

A sampling  of some of the hundreds of other artists who have covered “Unchained Melody”:  

Gene Vincent, Ricky Nelson, Cliff Richard, Brenda Lee, Al Green, Harry Belafonte, Vito & the Salutations, The Fleetwoods, Dionne Warwick, The Supremes, Roy Orbison, Leo Sayer, U2, Neil Diamond, Cyndi Lauper, Barry Manilow, The Smashing Pumpkins, King Curtis, Conway Twitty, Johnny Maestro, Clay Aiken, Joe Stampley, Willie Nelson, and a “few hundred” others…

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