Recognized primarily for his resonant baritone as one member of the Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley was immersed in music from childhood onward. His father directed his own ensemble while performing on saxophone, and his mother contributed vocals at the piano. As a youngster Medley participated in his local church choir, continued singing with the high-school glee club, and by the early sixties was performing with his group the Paramours. Shortly thereafter he teamed with Bobby Hatfield to form the Righteous Brothers, a collaboration that produced the enduring successes “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and “Unchained Melody.” After the pair separated in 1968 Medley launched a solo path that yielded the single “Brown-Eyed Woman” along with the albums Soft and Soulful, Nobody Knows, and A Song for You. He rejoined Hatfield in 1974 yet stepped away from the stage for five years beginning in 1976.
Throughout the eighties he maintained a recording schedule, achieving his most prominent success with the Grammy-winning chart-topping duet “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” recorded with Jennifer Warnes for the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Renewed exposure for the Righteous Brothers arrived when “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” appeared on the Top Gun soundtrack and “Unchained Melody” featured on the Ghost soundtrack; Medley and Hatfield accordingly resumed performing and spent the nineties on the oldies circuit. Medley also continued issuing solo projects, among them Christmas Memories in 1996 and Almost Home the following year, all while residing with his family in Newport Beach. Roughly ten years later, and four years after Hatfield’s passing, he delivered Damn Near Righteous, an album that included guest appearances by Brian Wilson, Phil Everly, and his daughter McKenna. A live recording captured in Branson appeared in 2009.
In early 2014 Medley issued Your Heart to Mine: Dedicated to the Blues, a lean, deeply felt homage to the R&B and blues performers who had shaped both his and Hatfield’s early work; throughout the collection his trademark baritone, now textured and weathered by time, functions as an even richer instrument of soulful expression.
