Hy Zaret

Hy Zaret (August 21, 1907 – July 2, 2007) was an American lyricist and songwriter best known for penning the lyrics to the enduring standard "Unchained Melody" in 1955, which earned an Academy Award nomination and has been recorded by over 300 artists. Born Hyman Harry Zaritsky in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrant parents Max and Dora Zaritsky, he legally changed his name to Hy Zaret in 1934 while pursuing a dual path in law and music. Educated at the Bronx High School of Commerce, West Virginia University—where he was wrestling captain and an honor student—and Brooklyn Law School, Zaret briefly practiced law before dedicating himself to Tin Pan Alley songwriting, achieving early success with hits like "Dedicated to You" (1935) and "My Sister and I" (1941).

Throughout his career, Zaret contributed to a wide array of genres, including pop standards, wartime songs, advertising jingles, and educational music for children, such as science-themed albums in the 1950s and 1960s. Notable works include "One Meat Ball" (1944, popularized by the Andrews Sisters), "It All Comes Back to Me Now" (1941), and English lyrics for "The Partisan" (1960s); he also wrote the closing theme "So Long, for a While" for the radio and TV show Your Hit Parade. His collaboration with composer Alex North on "Unchained Melody"—originally for the prison film Unchained—became ASCAP's most-performed love song of the 1950s and ranked among the top 25 most-performed songs of the 20th century in 1999, with the 1965 Righteous Brothers version revived in the 1990 film Ghost. Zaret faced a royalties dispute over "Unchained Melody" authorship in the 1990s, which courts resolved in his favor before the challenger's death in 2004. Married to Shirley Goidel since 1940, he resided in Westport, Connecticut, at the time of his death from complications of Parkinson's disease, survived by one son, Robert.