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William Albert Stirrat (November 5, 1919 – July 2, 2004) was an imposter who claimed to use a pen name, "Hy Zaret," as the lyricist of the hit "Unchained Melody"." However, Unchained Melody was written by a man really named Hy Zaret, who was born in 1907 and published about 180 songs.〔(Ascap Listing for Hy Zaret ), ''ASCAP''〕 ==The story== Stirrat made his claim to authoring "Unchained Melody" in a 2003 article in his hometown newspaper.〔LINDA DeNICOLA, (Writer forever linked to ‘Unchained Melody’ ), ''News Transcript'', December 3, 2003〕 He was the only source for this unchecked article. The inconsistencies of Stirrat's story were never noted or investigated by reporters, and like many internet hoaxes the claims were just repeated without verification. Stirrat's fabrications were picked up by reputable Internet sites such as (AMG ),(IMDB ), (Wikipedia ), and others. It was even picked up by a ''The New York Times'' reporter who attributed the real Zaret's 6-album set "Ballads for the Age of Science" as well as "Unchained Melody" to Stirrat writing under the Zaret ''nom de plume.''〔Michael Erard,(When You Wish Upon an Atom: The Songs of Science ), ''NY Times'', May 17, 2005〕 According to Stirrat, he wrote "Unchained Melody" in 1936, when he would have been 16, while at a Yaddo summer camp where he claims Alex North was on the staff〔 (note that neither Stirrat nor North are listed as having been guests at Yaddo's〔(Yaddo Artist List )〕). Stirrat also claimed to have "spoken to Bing Crosby’s wife" about recording the song, "since he was a neighbor", and "I styled it for him, you know, his songs had a dip at the end.".〔 It is not obvious how Bing Crosby could have ever been a neighbor of Stirrat or even a resident of Upstate New York, since he was born and raised in Washington State and moved to Los Angeles in 1925. He also states "In 1979, I joined the Song Writers Guild, then I collected royalties. I joined them to collect royalties".〔 However, one does not collect royalties from the Songwriters Guild. The Songwriters Guild is a trade association, not a licensing organization like ASCAP or BMI. ASCAP recognizes the real Hy Zaret as author of "Unchained Melody".〔〔(ASCAP Foundation Living Video Archive interview of the real Hy Zaret ), ''ASCAP''〕 Parenthetically, George David Weiss, the president of the Songwriters Guild awarded the real Hy Zaret a song citation for Unchained Melody at the 1993 annual song writers hall of fame awards dinner.〔(1993 Award and Induction Ceremony ), ''Songwriters Hall of Fame〕 The most revealing statement Stirrat makes involves (MPL communications ), the owners of the copyright until 2010. In his claimed battle for royalties to the song, he said, "I’m doing very well with MPL. They do everything for me." 〔 However, as recently as 2006, MPL's website describes the real Hy Zaret as the author of "Unchained Melody."〔, ''MPL Communications''〕 They make no mention of William Stirrat there or in their biography of Zaret,〔, ''MPL Communications''〕 which matches the background of the real Hy Zaret. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Stirrat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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