“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” became the most played song of the century on American radio, with over eight million spins. It’s one of those classic starting lines: “You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips.” That statement alluded to rising darkness and impending disaster. And throughout the course of the song’s nearly four minutes, the whisper grows into a storm. Bill Medley’s voice fills the room with its perpetually deep baritone.
It’s an incredible piece of music, a widescreen ballad that treats teenage feelings with all of the operatic folly they require at the time.Before collaborating, Medley and his Righteous Brother Bobby Hatfield were Southern Californian youths performing blue-eyed soul in separate bands.
They had a couple of minor singles on a smaller label before Phil Spector discovered them opening for the Ronettes at San Francisco’s Cow Palace and signed them to his Phillies label. Songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil attempted to write a ballad similar to the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving.”
And then Spector poured everything he had into recording it, turning it into one of his definitive statements. Spector, along with the Righteous Brothers and the legendary session musicians in the Wrecking Crew, spent days on the song in the studio, recording it over and over. Spector made the musicians wear headphones — a new thing at the time — so that they could hear how much echo he was putting on them. (A young Cher was one of the backing singers.)
