You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

[mjzee]

Forty-eight years ago this summer, songwriting spouses Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann wrote "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" with Phil Spector. Today, the song is No. 1 on BMI's list of most-played songs on radio and TV since the royalty-collection agency's founding in 1939. (Ascap, the other major royalty organization, doesn't track such data.)

In the years since the Righteous Brothers' "Wall of Sound" hit, dozens of artists have covered the slow-burn ballad about lost love and the near-tears wish for its return.

Veterans of pop-rock's golden age, Ms. Weil, 71, and Mr. Mann, 73, have won two Grammys and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Last week, they and surviving Righteous Brother Bill Medley, 71, talked about the song's evolution and how Mr. Spector (currently serving a sentence in California for second-degree murder) summoned them to Los Angeles in 1964 to write a song for the Righteous Brothers, whom he had just signed.

More here:

WSJ

[Dave James]

I read Marc's column on his JazzWax blog earlier today. I'm sure I'm in the minority, but The Righteous Brothers never did a thing for me. And, of all their songs, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' is the one that grates on me the most. I can't begin to tell you why...some things you like and some things you don't. It has nothing to do with Phil Spector and the "Wall Of Sound". I'm generally a big fan of his and, without him, The Beach Boys might never have risen to the heights they did. That's not the problem. I'll just have to live with my shame.

[Dan Gould]

[JSngry]

Great song, even greater record, but....I burnt out on it a couple of decades ago. Overexposure as a party-band player & as a listener. But the original, listened to with as fresh ears as possible is a pretyy stone cold landmark.

But having said that...the Righteous Brothers/Spector things that I still dig deep down in the bowels of my Spectorphillia are "Hung On You" and "Just Once In My Life", both of which are darker songs and darker records that "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"...it's here where Spector starts to push the angst level up to the uncomfortable zone, and...I love the hell of it, although the real life that went into it was probably not so pretty.

"Hung On You" is a tender Goffin/King guilty-about-cheating-but gonna-do-it-anyway-because MY SOUL IS DAMNED song that just bangs and booms and howls its way deeper and deeper into exactly what it knows it should be trying to get out of.

"Just Once In My Life" is another Goffin-King angst anthem, this one like "The Poor Side Of Town" with all hope removed, because...that old pot of gold ain't so easy to find...no, it's just not there, never was, never will be, I'll bust ass for you, but it ain't gonna happen, but just let me get it with you,,,,and you KNOW that's gonna end up a maximized negatory...defeatism without guilt. Or illusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHqPWQuhyyM

Of course, all this stuff sounds its bestest realest best real on Philles 45s (Philles LPs are a distant runner up but will do), and none of what you hear anywhere else, especially today. is telling the truth of what these records were and how they really sounded and waht taht sound FELT like coming out of the types of speakers they came out of. If it gets too clean, it's just passionate teen drama. But you get that shit in a dirty-grooved 45 that, been mastered and ubermax volume, and, yeah, you can hear some REALITY out of that noise, some adult reality.

And let's not ever go to "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine". Sum y'all just not ready for that one just yet.

Before he became a bad man (or even while he was a bad man, Phil Spector had a window there where he was a BAAAAAADDDDD Man.

[fasstrack]

I read Marc's column on his JazzWax blog earlier today. I'm sure I'm in the minority, but The Righteous Brothers never did a thing for me. And, of all their songs, You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' is the one that grates on me the most. I can't begin to tell you why...some things you like and some things you don't. It has nothing to do with Phil Spector and the "Wall Of Sound". I'm generally a big fan of his and, without him, The Beach Boys might never have risen to the heights they did. That's not the problem. I'll just have to live with my shame.

Ha! It doesn't grate ME! I play it as a guitar solo and have w/organ trio. It's made to order when you want something slow and sexy and that 3 chord bit at the end is good to blow on. Plus it's looong-and Phil Spector has lots of time to kill...

[Teasing the Korean]

It's a great production but I never liked the Righteous Brothers. I can imagine a similar arrangement with someone like Dusty Springfield singing it.

Funny story:

Bobby Hatfield was irked that Bill Medley sang the entire first stanza solo, and that Hatfield came in only at the chorus.

Hatfield said to Spector, "and what am I supposed to be doing while he's singing?"

Spector snapped back, "You can deposit the check."

[medjuck]

In the TNT Show, an AIP knock-off of The TAMI Show, Joan Baez sits on a piano stool with Phil and sings You've Got That Lovin Feeling. It's great. I was surprised when I saw this because I think it was from the period when she was still making fun of Rock n Roll by singing Little Darling.

[Rooster_Ties]

Doubt anybody here will like this, but I'm posting it anyway. I'm not much of a big BadCo fan, but I'm totally down for Free, and have a soft spot for The Firm.

The Firm, with Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page...