The song "Unchained Melody" was originally written for a scene in the 1955 movie "Unchained." Music by Alex North, lyrics by Hy Zaret, and performed and sung by opera singer Todd Duncan (above) for the 1955 film.
It has since become a standard and one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. The song's publisher reports over 1500 recordings by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages. “Unchained Melody” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1956 and was sung at the Oscars by Harry Belafonte. A decade later it was famously sung by Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers. Afterward it was forever associated with the 1960s. However, everything about the song and the way it was written and sung by a team was indicative of the 50s.
In recent years the song's beauty has been recognized by a younger generation and has been covered by Jonathan Antoine and Amira Willighagen, both opera singers. Amira sang it in Italian.
Todd Duncan was one of the first African-Americans to sing with a major opera company and played Porgy in the premier production of Porgy and Bess in 1935. In 1984 he was awarded the George Peabody Medal of Music from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University. Other awards he received include a medal of honor from Haiti, an NAACP award, the Donaldson Award, the New York Drama Critics' Award for Lost in the Stars, and honorary doctorates from Valparaiso University and Butler University.
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