[PhilipFreneau]

>>I just presumed that the Righteous Brothers had first shot at it because I remember that Phil Spector had a writing credit for the song.

I found this brief history of Unchained Melody on the web:

http://www.oracleband.net/Lyrics/unchained_melody.htm

[Lancey Howard]

Thanks for that link - - very interesting!
What's funny, is that the last time I saw the song's lyrics I beleieve it was in a newspaper) it gave a writing credit to Phil Spector, AND there was an additional entire stanza of lyrics in the middle that the Righteous Brothers never sang in their recording. (That link doesn't show this extra stanza, either.)

In any event, I have enjoyed the song since 1965.

Regards,
LH