Bill Medley

Bill Medley, 2012

Bill Medley (born September 19, 1940 in Santa Ana , California ; actually William Thomas Medley ) is an American singer and former member of the soul duo Righteous Brothers , which was successful from 1963 to 1968 and after a brief reunion from 1974 to 1976 could celebrate. With his duet partner Jennifer Warnes he finally achieved a worldwide hit in 1987 with (I've Had) The Time of My Life as a soloist.

Career

The Righteous Brothers had some big hits, including You've Lost That Lovin 'Feelin' (1964), Unchained Melody (1965, 1990), Ebb Tide (1965), (You're My) Soul and Inspiration (1966), and Rock and Roll Heaven (1974). After the first separation, Medley released his first solo LP in 1968. This was followed by several albums for labels such as MGM , A&M , Liberty and Planet Records, which, however, were hardly successful. With Brown Eyed Woman , Peace Brother Peace (1968), Statue of a Fool (1979), Don't Know Much (1981) and Right Here and Now (1982), he had smaller single hits in the US charts. Little known: Between 1979 and 1985 Medley had six also smaller hits in the American country charts. Here I Still Do was his most successful title, placed in 17th place.

As a singer of movie songs, he was finally able to draw attention to himself again in the second half of the 1980s and celebrate at least one world hit: with Jennifer Warnes he sang The Time of My Life in 1987 (I've Had) , a worldwide number one success . The song could be heard in the final scene of the dance film Dirty Dancing , which was shaping the zeitgeist . The success was so enormous that in 1988 Medley went on a Dirty Dancing live in concert tour with Eric Carmen , Merry Clayton and The Contours , who also contributed to the film's soundtrack . A year later, an album was released with a live recording.

In 1986, Medley sang the love theme Loving on Borrowed Time from the action film Die City-Cobra , a duet with Gladys Knight , and a remake of the classic He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother for Rambo III (1988). This was followed by Most of All You for The Indians of Cleveland (1989) and the song Friday Night's a Great Time for Football , which can be heard in the opening credits of Last Boy Scout (1991).

Since 2003 Medley has been a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Righteous Brothers .

Medley still performs live. In 2009 the CD Live was released . In 2011 he toured the USA with his daughter McKenna Medley, among others.

Private

His first wife, Karen Klaas (sometimes O'Grady), who Medley had been married to since 1964, was raped and murdered in 1976. At this point, however, the two were already divorced. The murder case reopened in 2009, which Medley welcomed. In 2017 the police announced that the case had been resolved by examining and comparing DNA traces. The killer was apparently a sex offender who had been convicted of many convictions and was shot by the police back in 1982 while on the run. The connection with Klaas resulted in the son Darrin, who is the lead singer of the group Paul Revere & the Raiders and also works as an actor under the stage name Darren Dowler .

Two short marriages medleys in the 1970s were later canceled. Bill Medley has been married for a second time since 1986 and has a daughter with his wife.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		US
1968	100%	US188 (4 weeks) US
1969	Soft and Soulful	US152 (4 weeks) US

More albums

• 1969: Someone Is Standing Outside
• 1970: Nobody Knows
• 1970: Gone
• 1971: A Song for You
• 1973: Smile
• 1978: Lay a Little Lovin 'on Me
• 1981: Sweet Thunder
• 1982: Right Here and Now
• 1984: I Still Do
• 1985: Still Hung Up on You
• 1988: The Best of Billy Medley (compilation)
• 1991: Blue Eyed Singer
• 1992: Going Home
• 1997: Almost Home
• 2004: Your Heart to Mine - Dedicated to the Blues
• 2007: Damn Near Righteous
• 2009: Live

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1968	I can't make it alone	-	-	-	-	US95 (2 weeks) US
	Brown eyed woman	-	-	-	-	US43 (11 weeks) US
	Peace Brother Peace	-	-	-	-	US48 (7 weeks) US
1981	Don't know much	-	-	-	-	US88 (4 weeks) US
1982	Right Here and Now	-	-	-	-	US58 (8 weeks) US
1987	(I've Had) The Time of My Life	DE5 (22 weeks) DE	AT3 (14 weeks) AT	CH5 (15 weeks) CH	UK6th platinum (23 weeks)UK	US1 gold (21 weeks)US	with Jennifer Warnes from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack
1988	He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother	-	-	-	UK25 (6 weeks) UK	-	Original 1969 by The Hollies

More singles

• 1965: Leavin 'Town-I Surrender (To Your Touch)
• 1967: That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)
• 1969: This Is a Love Song
• 1969: Someone Is Standing Outside
• 1970: Wasn't it Easy
• 1970: Makin 'My Way
• 1970: Nobody Knows
• 1970: Gone
• 1971: Help Me Make It Through the Night
• 1978: Statue of a Fool
• 1978: Lay a Little Lovin 'on Me
• 1980: Still a Fool
• 1981: Hey girl
• 1982: For You
• 1983: Till Your Memories Gone
• 1984: I've Always Got the Heart to Sing the Blues
• 1985: Is There Anything I Can Do
• 1986: Loving on Borrowed Time (with Gladys Knight )
• 1988: You've Lost That Lovin 'Feelin'
• 1988: I'm Gonna Be Strong
• 1989: Most of All You
• 1991: Friday Night's a Great Time for Football

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Australia 1988: for the single (I've Had) The Time of My Life  Denmark 2018: for the single (I've Had) The Time of My Life  Italy 2018: for the single (I've Had) The Time of My Life  United States 1966: for the production (You're My) Soul and Inspiration ( The Righteous Brothers )

Platinum record  Netherlands 1988: for the single (I've Had) The Time of My Life

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	gold1	-	35,000	ariacharts.com.au
Denmark (IFPI)	gold1	-	45,000	ifpi.dk
Italy (FIMI)	gold1	-	25,000	fimi.it
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	platinum1	100,000	nvpi.nl
United States (RIAA)	2 × gold2	-	1,500,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	-	platinum1	600,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	5 × gold5	2 × platinum2

literature

• Julia Edenhofer : The great Pop-Lexikon, Weltbild-Verlag 1993, ISBN 3-89350-720-5 .
• Frank Laufenberg : Hit-Lexikon des Rock und Pop, Volume 2, Ullstein Taschenbuchverlag 2002, ISBN 3-548-36372-5 .
• Stambler, Irwin: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd Revised Edition, New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, pp. 574-576 - ISBN 0-312-02573-4 .

swell

1. ^ Biography , Taurus Press Verlag, accessed August 20, 2011
2. ^ Hits Single, Billboard , Allmusic.com, accessed August 20, 2011
3. ^ Joel Whitburn: Top Country Songs 1944-2005 , 2005, p. 249, ISBN 0-89820-165-9
4. ^ Dirty Dancing - Live in Concert , Discogs.com, accessed August 20, 2011
5. ↑ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , Rockhall.com, accessed August 20, 2011
6. ↑ Tour dates 2011 ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ Biography , IMDB, accessed August 20, 2011
8. ↑ Dafydd Rees & Luke Crampton: The Guinness Book of Rock Stars , Guinness 1994, page 485, ISBN 0-85112-722-3
9. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2629388/The-Righteous-Brothers-That-Lovin-Feelin-Ill-never-stop-hunting-man-murdered-wife.html
10. ↑ 1976 murder of Righteous Brothers singer's ex-wife in Hermosa Beach solved. January 31, 2017, accessed January 28, 2020 . 
11. ^ Official website of Darren Dowler , accessed March 8, 2014
12. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Singles albums
13. ↑ US albums: Joel Whitburn : Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006 . Billboard Books, New York 2006, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 .

Web links

• official homepage
• Bill Medley at Allmusic (English)
• Bill Medley at Discogs (English)
• Bill Medley in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Author participations and productions at austriancharts.at