{"id":5361,"date":"2013-10-25T05:05:55","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T13:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/?p=5361"},"modified":"2015-07-16T22:19:47","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T06:19:47","slug":"was-unchained-melody-actually-the-melody-to-the-film-unchained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/10\/25\/was-unchained-melody-actually-the-melody-to-the-film-unchained\/","title":{"rendered":"Was &#8220;Unchained Melody&#8221; Actually the Melody to the Film Unchained?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/movie-legends-revealed-history\/\">here<\/a> to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far.<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">MUSIC URBAN LEGEND<\/span><\/u>: &#8220;Unchained Melody&#8221; was actually the melody to the film Unchained!<\/p>\n<p>We as a music-listening audience are so used to song titles that don&#8217;t seem to make any sense (&#8220;Rainy Day Women #12 and #35,&#8221; as a for instance) that a song like &#8220;Unchained Melody&#8221; by the Righteous Brothers has been accepted pretty easily, despite the fact that there is no mention of the word &#8220;unchained,&#8221; or heck, &#8220;chains&#8221; even, anywhere in the song.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/album-unchained-melody-very-best-of-the-righteous-brothers.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B001NSP4TK&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, that is because the song actually came out years before the Righteous Brothers got a hold of it, when it was the title track of the 1955 prison film, Unchained!!<\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/unchained-movie-poster.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/center><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nAs I discussed <a href=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/10\/08\/how-did-high-noon-change-the-movie-soundtrack-business-for-good\/\">in a recent Movie Urban Legends Revealed<\/a>, during the 1950s, buoyed by the success of the main song from High Noon, movie studios began to demand that songwriters come up with a &#8220;hit&#8221; song that they could get played on the radio before a film&#8217;s release to hype the upcoming movie.<\/p>\n<p>It was with this in mind that the good folks at Warner Brothers approached songwriters Alex North and Hy Zaret to come up with a main song for the film Unchained. Trying to come up with a romantic song for a prison movie was difficult, but they eventually decided on the idea of a man trapped in prison dreaming of his love, separated from him by bars. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/north.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/03zaret190.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/cm?t=legenrevea-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=B000QWSAO0&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And when you look at the song in that context, it totally works&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Oh, my love<br \/>\nmy darling<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve hungered for your touch<br \/>\na long lonely time<\/p>\n<p>And time goes by so slowly<br \/>\nand time can do so much<br \/>\nare you still mine?<\/p>\n<p>I need your love<br \/>\nI need your love<br \/>\nGodspeed your love to me<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The film was a total bomb at the box office, but the song was big enough to spring a number of minor hits by a few different artists, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song (it lost to a similarly mercenary composition, the title track to Love Is a Many Splendored Thing).<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few years, the song would pop up on various albums by various artists, but it wasn&#8217;t until a decade later that the Righteous Brothers had their classic version. <\/p>\n<p>So there you go! Now you know what the title of &#8220;Unchained Melody&#8221; means!<\/p>\n<p>The legend is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">STATUS<\/span><\/u>: True<\/p>\n<p>Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcro&#110;&#105;&#x6e;&#x40;&#x6c;&#x65;&#x67;ends&#114;&#101;&#x76;&#x65;&#x61;&#x6c;&#x65;d.co&#109;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: &#8220;Unchained Melody&#8221; was actually the melody to the film Unchained! We as a music-listening audience are so [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MjBq-1ot","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4576,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/03\/29\/did-the-star-spangled-banner-have-an-extra-verse-added-during-the-civil-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":5361,"position":0},"title":"Did the Star-Spangled Banner Have An Extra Verse Added During the Civil War?","date":"March 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about music and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the music urban legends featured so far. MUSIC URBAN LEGEND: During the Civil War, the Star-Spangled Banner had an extra verse written\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5947,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2014\/07\/31\/did-richard-rodgers-keep-the-melody-for-edelweiss-from-being-used-for-a-hymn\/","url_meta":{"origin":5361,"position":1},"title":"Did Richard Rodgers Keep The Melody for &#8220;Edelweiss&#8221; From Being Used for a Hymn?","date":"July 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about musicals and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the musical urban legends featured so far. MUSICAL URBAN LEGEND: Richard Rodgers would not let the melody of \"Edelweiss\" be used for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Grab Bag Legends&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5288,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2013\/10\/10\/was-the-hit-song-laura-from-the-soundtrack-to-the-film-laura\/","url_meta":{"origin":5361,"position":2},"title":"Was the Hit Song &#8220;Laura&#8221; From the Soundtrack to the Film Laura?","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about movies and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the movie urban legends featured so far. MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: The song \"Laura\" is from the soundtrack of the film \"Laura.\" Like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6488,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/musical-urban-legends-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":5361,"position":3},"title":"Musical Urban Legends History","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of Musical Urban Legends Revealed. To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link! 1. The Kennedys being referred to as \"Camelot\" came about directly because of the musical Camelot. 2. Rodgers and Hammerstein's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Archives&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":359,"url":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/2009\/04\/19\/music-legends-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":5361,"position":4},"title":"Music Urban Legends History","date":"April 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are quick descriptions of each of the previous editions of Music Urban Legends Revealed. To see if they are true or false, you have to click on the link! 1. - Harry Nillson\u2019s coffin was lost during an earthquake 2. 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MUSIC LEGEND: Lorenz Hart wrote new lyrics to the same melody for three different songs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Music Legends Revealed&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/manhattan-melodrama.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5361"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6878,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5361\/revisions\/6878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legendsrevealed.com\/entertainment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}