Righteous Brothers' Bobby Hatfield dies

Bobby Hatfield, who with partner Bill Medley pioneered “blue-eyed soul” as the Righteous Brothers with hits like Unchained Melody and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, has died of undetermined causes at a hotel, his manager said. He was 63.

Hatfield's body was discovered in his bed at 7pm EDT (midnight Irish time), half an hour before he and Medley were to perform at Miller Auditorium on the Western Michigan University campus, manager David Cohen said.

“It’s a shock, a real shock,” Cohen said.

Medley, who teamed with Hatfield 42 years ago, was “broken up. He’s not even coherent”, Cohen said.

Hatfield’s body was taken from the hotel about 10pm to Lansing, where an autopsy was to be performed, Joe Hakim, an executive with the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Kalamazoo, said.

Miller Auditorium executive director Bill Biddle told the audience at 7.05pm that the 7.30pm show had been cancelled because of ``a personal emergency of an unspecified nature''.

Hatfield had been sleeping most of the day in his room, Hakim said. When he did not answer a wake-up call about 6pm, hotel staff and authorities entered the room and found Hatfield’s body.

The Righteous Brothers were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Their signature 1964 single, You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling, has been cited by numerous sources as the most-programmed song in radio history. Later 1960s hits included Soul and Inspiration and Unchained Melody.

After splitting up in 1968, they reunited in 1974 and returned to the top of the charts with Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven.