A-to-Z Challenge 2023 – U is for Righteous Brothers – Resilience in Songs #atozchallenge #songs

The 2023 A-to-Z blogging challenge theme is resilience. Resilience is the ability to get back on our feet and keep going after life knocks us down and kicks sand in our faces. Resilience is how the psyche survives and copes, but resilience doesn’t necessarily wear a cape of positivity.

The 26 songs I’ve chosen show us, musically, what resilience looks (sounds?) like. I’ll offer a reflection of the resilience in each song. The songs are alphabetical by the artist’s first name or the group’s name, except for M, O, U, and X.

U is for Righteous brothers and Unchained Melody.

The Righteous Brothers were the singing duo of Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley. Hatfield sings Unchained Melody solo. Unchained Melody music was written in 1955 by Alex North with lyrics by Hy Zaret. The title came about because North wrote the music as a theme for the prison film Unchained (1955). The song has been recorded hundreds of times since. The Righteous Brothers’/Bobby Hatfield’s version (1965) is often cited as the definitive rendition to which all others are compared.

Unchained Melody is such a beautiful song in lyrics and music that I didn’t want to leave it out. Since I’d decided R would be for Roy Clark, it seemed reasonable to use it as the U resilience song.

I included this song for the narrator’s perspective of longing, yearning, hope, a hint of desperation, and vulnerability. The song has been described as full of romantic hunger.

For whatever reason(s), we get the impression the singer has been gone from his love for a long time, and he’s now on his way back home. But he’s on uncertain ground. He doesn’t know how this person feels about him anymore. He’s hopeful, but also realistic that the person he loves may have moved on without him.

I think of the lyrics as a letter written to the man’s sweetheart or wife whom he hasn’t seen in a really long time. He’s sending this letter in advance of his return to find out what kind of reception awaits him. This implies he’s hoping for a letter back from her.

This song is about baring your soul about your feelings for someone. It’s about revealing your vulnerability. It’s about taking a chance while knowing total rejection is a possibility. All of that takes emotional courage.

Emotional courage is part of our resilience. The need to feel loved, the need to give love, and the hope that the person we love will continue to love us, are all parts of our resilience package.

This man is in an all-or-nothing situation, and he’s going for broke. He’s laying his heart wide open for rejection, but his love for her is so strong…his need for her is so deep… that he’s holding nothing back.

I’ve hungered for your touch
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I’ll be coming home,
Wait for me, wait for me
I need your love

I need your love

*Image of man gazing toward the cloudy horizon via Fotolia

Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
writing through history one romance upon a time