10 Songs That Became More Famous Than Their Movies

5. Unchained Melody - Unchained

Another Simon Cowell favourite, Unchained Melody is the only song to have sold over a million copies in the UK for three separate acts, most successfully the somewhat surprising duo of extreme fisherman Robson Green and "Bronn from Game Of Thrones" Jerome Flynn. The 1965 Phil Spector produced Righteous Brothers version is much the best known recording of this repeatedly covered song and part of its enduing popularity lies in its use on film, in particular soundtracking Patrick Swayze's incorporeal pottery moulding in 1990's Ghost. The song itself, however, long predates even the Righteous Brothers recording, having been written by Alex North and Hy Zaret as the theme for the film Unchained, logically enough. A cheap throwaway 50s prison movie, Unchained starred American football player Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch as a prisoner missing his wife and family and considering escape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JckrStimeDQ While Zaret's lyrics were designed to reflect this quite specific loneliness and longing, they ended up being generic enough to be transposed into plenty of other situations, hence the song's enduring success.