William Thomas Medley was born on 19 September 1940, in Santa Ana, California USA, to Irma, a singer and musician, and Arnol Medley, also a musician. He is a singer and songwriter, best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers musical duo.
A respected singer, how wealthy is Bill Medley? According to sources, Medley has acquired a net worth of over $65 million as of late 2017, accumulated during his singing career now spanning well over 50 years.
Bill Medley Net Worth $65 Million
Medley attended Santa Ana High School, matriculating in 1958. He began singing as a young boy in a church choir, and during his high school days he started to write songs and record music at home, forming a singing duo called The Romancers with his friend Don Fiduccia. In the early ’60s the duo added new members, renaming the band The Paramours. Signing with Smash Records, the band went on to release several songs, including “That’s The Way We Love” and “Miss Social Climber”. Shortly after, Bobby Hatfield joined the Paramours, and as the band eventually broke up, Medley and Hatfield continued to perform together now as The Righteous Brothers, and building their net worth.
After several releases, the duo scored their first #1 hit in 1965, with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”, produced by Phil Spector under his Philles Records label. The following year they signed with Verve Records, releasing another hit single “Soul and Inspiration”; Medley’s career was boosted and his net worth started to rise.
In 1968 the duo parted ways, as Medley decided to pursue a solo career. He released a number of records in the late ‘60s, including the hit singles “Brown-Eyed Woman” and “Peace, Brother, Peace”, giving his career even more of a boost. However, in 1974 he reunited with Hatfield, but then two years later he took a five-year break from his singing career.
Medley largely focused on his solo career during the ‘80s, though he often performed with Hatfield as a duo as well. Switching from A&M to Planet Records, and later to RCA Records, he released several albums during this time, and scored his best known hit with the 1987 duet with Jennifer Warnes, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life”. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, earning Medley a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for the composers. The song reinforced Medley’s status among star performers, and significantly improved his net worth.
The singer went on to release a number of hits in the following years, including “Most of All You”, which became the closing theme to the movie “Major League”, “Friday Night’s A Great Night For Football” – a song from the movie “The Last Boy Scout” – and “Just The Ten of Us”, the theme song for the “Growing Pains” spin-off.
In the meantime, in 1986 the Righteous Brothers’ song “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” was included into the “Top Gun” film soundtrack, while in 1990 “Unchained Melody” became a soundtrack for “Ghost”, which boosted the duo’s popularity again. Hence, they reunited once again, performing and touring until Hatfield’s death in 2003 from coronary disease.
In the years since, Medley has given many live performances, and undertaken tours. In 2016 he announced that he would revive the Righteous Brothers with the singer Bucky Heard as Hatfield’s replacement.
When it comes to his personal life, in 1964 Medley married Karen O’Grady, with whom he had one child, but the couple divorced in 1970; six years later, O’Grady was raped and murdered by a stranger, who was much later identified by DNA, but had been killed by police in an unrelated incident in 1982. Medley had subsequently been married twice, first to Suzi Robertson and then to Janice Gorham, however, both marriages were soon annulled. In 1986 he married Paula, with whom he has a daughter McKenna, and who is also a singer. Medley and McKenna have performed on tours together. Bill continues to be based in Los Angeles.
