Monday May 2, 2022 “Rock & Roll Heaven” Righteous Brothers
So I was listening to the radio the other day and “Rock & Roll Heaven” by the Righteous Brothers came on and I thought, you know for all of their foolish musical fantasy they might be right, if there's a rock & roll heaven then you know they could have one hell of a band. So I thought let’s do it this week, let's put that band together: drums, bass, guitars and vocals.
As for the Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield weren't related but were most definitely righteous, defining and perhaps even inspiring the term "blue-eyed soul" in the mid-'60s. Club journeymen Medley and Hatfield had their first minor hit with “Little Latin Lupe Lu” which wasn’t a great song but you have to love its alliteration.
The ‘brothers’ would hit paydirt however when they teamed up with Phil Spector to record the Cynthia Weil/Barry Mann written ballad “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” which would be an international number one upon its release and then enjoy a chart comeback when it appeared in the movie Top Gun.
Today’s 1973 song “Rock & Roll Heaven” was co-written by John Stevenon who was the keyboard player in the band Climax and he wrote the song for the band. Climax was fronted by Sonny Geraci who also was the lead singer for the 60s group The Outsiders (“Time Won’t Let Me”). ”Rock & Roll Heaven” went nowhere for Climax but they did OK with their earlier effort, the number one hit “Precious and Few”.
The Righteous Brothers’ version of “Rock & Roll Heaven” would be a top five hit for them and a line from the lyrics of the song was used as the title for Stephen King's short story "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", set in a town called Rock and Roll Heaven. Stephen King has his own rock band The Rock Bottom Remainders composed of himself and several other authors...everybody wants to be a rock star.
Stay safe and well…and since there are some hard choices for the band ahead absolutely send me any suggestions that you might have.