Background and career
Robert Lee Hatfield (August 10, 1940 – November 5, 2003) was an American singer. He and Bill Medley performed together as the Righteous Brothers. He sang the tenor part for the duo and sang solo on the group's 1965 recording of "Unchained Melody".
Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Hatfield moved with his family to Anaheim, California, when he was four. He attended Anaheim High School, where he played football and baseball and was co-captain of the basketball team. He was student body president in the 1957–1958 school year, graduating in 1958.
Hatfield was scouted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He briefly considered signing as a professional ballplayer, but his passion for music led him to pursue a singing career while still attending high school. He attended Fullerton College. He eventually encountered his singing partner, Bill Medley, while attending California State University, Long Beach. Hatfield was an alumnus of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Bobby Hatfield initially was in a group from Anaheim called the Variations.
In 1962, Hatfield joined with Medley, who was in a group called the Paramours, and formed a five-member group using the same name: Paramours. They first performed at a club called John's Black Derby in Santa Ana. They were signed to a small record label Moonglow in 1962. They released a single "There She Goes (She's Walking Away)" in December 1962. However, the Paramours did not have much success and soon broke up, leaving Hatfield and Medley to perform as a duo in 1963.
Later, Hatfield and Medley performed as a duo and named their singing act The Righteous Brothers. They were often told they sounded like African-American gospel singers and chose the name after Black Marines remarked of their singing, "that's righteous, brothers" and called them "righteous brothers". Their first charted single as the Righteous Brothers was "Little Latin Lupe Lu" released under the label Moonglow Records, and they appeared regularly on the television show Shindig! In 1964, they appeared in a show at the Cow Palace near San Francisco and met the music producer Phil Spector, whose group The Ronettes was also in the show. Spector was impressed and signed them to his own label Philles Records. Their first No. 1 was "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," produced by Phil Spector in 1964. Follow-up hits included "Unchained Melody," which was actually a Hatfield solo performance. After the success of "Unchained Melody", Spector then started recording older standards with the Righteous Brothers such as "Ebb Tide", which Hatfield also performed solo, and it reached the Top 5. Both "Unchained Melody" and "Ebb Tide" were songs he had performed with his first group, the Variations. Another two of the last songs the duo recorded with Philles Records, "The White Cliffs of Dover" and "For Sentimental Reasons", were performed solo by Hatfield. In 1966, the Righteous Brothers left Spector and signed with Verve/MGM Records, and had a hit with "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration". However the duo broke up in 1968, and Hatfield teamed with singer Jimmy Walker (from The Knickerbockers) using the Righteous Brothers name on the MGM label. The new partnership released an album but did not have much success.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
