American duo · Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield · recording issued 1965
Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield recorded “Unchained Melody” at Radio Recorders in Hollywood on 2 March 1965, with Hatfield taking the lead entirely alone — one of the great solo vocals in pop, and the reason the record still stops rooms. Phil Spector treated it as filler; early pressings of the Philles single carried no producer credit for it at all, and by Medley’s account he handled the session himself. Hatfield reshaped the melody in the closing verse, and a great many of the covers recorded since follow his line rather than the one written for the film. Nothing about their claim on the song is dishonest — it is simply not the first recording.
Who recorded it
Songs credited to The Righteous Brothers that are covers