February 6, 2020
Volume 50 - No. 05
By lyle e davis
"You never close your eyes…"
How many times has Bill Medly sung that six-note opening line from You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ . . .in the almost 60 year career of being a singer, songwriter and actor? Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield, the original Righteous Brothers, began their career in 1962 when they were simply singing at local night clubs and hoping to put The Paper - 760.747.7119
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together a group that would make pop musical history.
Originally, they would have been content to play Las Vegas Lounges.
They met that goal and then exceeded it . . . by a great deal. Bill Medley: William Thomas Medley, whose heritage is 1/2 English, 1/2 Dutch, was born on September 19, 1940, in Los Angeles, he grew up and went to school in nearby Santa Ana. For as long as he can remember his objec-
tive in life has been music. He sang in Presbyterian choirs and high school glee clubs and entered amateur contests. Bills influence came from his father who led a band and played sax and his mother played piano and sang. (His father was with the sheriff’s department for many years before retiring). "When we were both 13 we didn't know each other,'' Medley says, "but our musical college was the same. Rock 'n' Roll caught us right at puberty. First time I heard Little Richard, my life changed. I would
That Lovin Feeling . . . See Page 2
buy all these records by Fats Domino, B.B. King, Bobby Bland and Ray Charles and listen to them all day long. When it came time for me to sing onstage, I was trying to be like them.....''
"...now the minute we hit the stage it feels like we're 26 again..... and we hope the audience feels the same way" Bill Medly and Bobby Hatfield sang together for the first time in 1962 at a small club in Orange County.Their voices blended so