Unchained Melody

Unchained Melody is nearly 70 years old. It was initially written (by Alex North and Hy Zaret) as a theme for a prison film entitled, Unchained (1955).  The song was popularized by The Righteous Brothers a decade later in 1965. My favorite is the 1977 Elvis version from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The performance is so good, it’s up there with Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah.

I totally poached this idea from composer, Gustavo Santaolalla’s Instagram. He was demoing guitars and played a short fingerstyle version of Unchained Melody with the Elvis vocal phrasing. I took what he was doing —…