Gone, Gone, Gone...

The Righteous Brothers You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling 1964

Written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill and produced by Phil Spector, which anyone would know because no other producer could layer sound like that on the four tape-tracks available in 1964.

It’s been reported that Bobby Hatfield hated how he was relegated to a chorus position while Bill Medley did most of the lead vocal. During the recording sessions, Hatfield supposedly asked Spector what he was supposed to do while Medley was singing and Spector replied, “You can go straight to the fucking bank.” Phil was the only person who felt so confident about the song. Being released, as it was, in the first flush of the British Invasion, the other writers thought the song was too slow and too long. At over four minutes, it was way longer than was usually allowed on AM radio in the early 60s. In fact, Spector, who refused to cut the song, had a time of 3.05 put on the single, thus tricking AM DJs about its length and enabling it to be played. As for the slowness of the vocal, when Spector initially played the finished recording to Barry Mann over the telephone, Mann said to him, “Phil, you have it on the wrong speed!”