William Stirrat

William Albert Stirrat (November 5, 1919 - July 2, 2004) is 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 over 178 songs. Stirrat made his claim to authoring "Unchained Melody" in an article in his hometown newspaper. 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 hoax 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 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. According to Stirrat, he wrote "Unchained Melody" in 1936, when he would have been 16, while at a... full article at wikipedia