Certain Songs #1923: The Righteous Brothers – “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”

Album: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’
Year: 1964

. . .

How do you even approach such a towering landmark in popular culture?

“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” is one of those songs that is so ubiquitous — it’s literally one of the most-played songs of all-time — its nearly impossible to come up with any fresh spin on it.

For 55 years, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” has been inescapable, and for good reason: it’s the absolutely perfect collision of song, producer, band, lyrics and singing. Written by Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and, yeah fucking Phil Spector, the lyrics are frank and direct: “you never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips” is fucking devastating on every level, and will be until the end of time.

And fucking Phil Spector, he brought his A game for sure, using The Wrecking Crew — who else? — to navigate through a tidalwave of an arrangement that absolutely defines the quiet/loud/quiet aesthetic for all-time, juxtaposing near silence, with massive choruses and strings, randomly tossing a “Louie Louie” piano break in the middle for the bridge because why not. And it’s all just spectacular: somehow sounding amazing on tinny-ass AM radio speakers from 1964 while battling the Beatles while retaining all of it’s power while I’m writing these words.

And then there’s the Brothers Righteous themselves. For all of the power of the melody and the lyrics and the arrangement, none of it would matter without their vocals. From the opening featuring Bill Medley’s impossibly low baritone — Bobby Hatfield famously asked fucking Phil Spector what he was supposed to do during it and fucking Phil Spector replied: “You can go directly to the bank” — to the oneupmanship of the duel at the end where Hatfield is singing his outerspace falsetto “bay-beeeee!” it’s utterly and gorgeously insane.

Which makes sense, because apparently fucking Phil Spector made them do 39 takes, which would be enough to drive anyone insane. And that’s actually the quality I appreciate the most about “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling:” it’s so fucking desperate. This is the end of the world as they know it, and they feel like shit.

Anyways, this is normally where I talk about how “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” topped the charts and has never really left the culture, but you already know that.

“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”

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