Bobby Hatfield, half of the “blue-eyed soul” duo the Righteous Brothers, which made Unchained Melody and You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ enduring favorites for slow dances and romantic glances, was found dead Wednesday at a hotel room in Kalamazoo, Mich., shortly before a musical date that night. He was 63.
A Kalamazoo Public Safety Department spokesman said the cause of death is under investigation.
The “brothers” — Mr. Hatfield doing gospel-tinged tenor and Bill Medley singing bass — forged a career together in the late 1950s.
Under producer Phil “Wall of Sound” Spector in the mid-1960s, they created consummate pop-soul numbers that became their signature sound: slow rhythm-and-blues melodies with lush arrangements and melismatic vocal stylings.
What brought more attention was that they were white men entering terrain dominated by black musicians. Mr. Hatfield’s nickname was “the Blonde Bomber.”
Their best-known recordings had a popular revival a generation later when You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ was used in the hit movie Top Gun (1986), when Tom Cruise crooned it to Kelly McGillis, and Unchained Melody became the love anthem in Ghost (1990), starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.
Robert Lee Hatfield was born in Beaver Dam, Wis., and raised in Anaheim, Calif. He told a reporter last year that, in his youth, he drew upon black singers as his chief musical influence.
Mr. Hatfield once said he and his vocal partner, then performing as the Paramours, got the idea for their new name at a club near a Marine Corps base in Southern California. After a song, he said, a Marine in the audience called out, “That was righteous, brothers.”
They came to Spector’s attention in 1964 and recorded You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’, which Spector wrote with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. They followed that with Just Once in My Life, Unchained Melody and Ebb Tide.
Moving on to Verve records, the duo had hits with [You’re My] Soul and Inspiration and He. They broke up in 1968 when Medley, also a songwriter, wanted to pursue a solo career. Changing musical tastes also figured in their breakup.
They reunited briefly in 1974 to record the album Give It to the People, yielding the hit Rock and Roll Heaven. In the 1980s, they teamed up again and were together at the time of Mr. Hatfield’s death.
Survivors include his wife, Linda Hatfield, and two children. After his wife was diagnosed with lupus, Mr. Hatfield raised money for the Lupus Foundation.
