The lyric “A long, lonely...” is completed by “time” in “Unchained Melody.”
“Unchained Melody” was written by Alex North, with lyrics by Hy Zaret, for the 1955 prison film Unchained. The original film performance was by Todd Duncan, but the song has been recorded hundreds of times. The Righteous Brothers’ 1965 version, led by Bobby Hatfield, became the best-known popular recording.
The song gained another major revival after appearing in the 1990 film Ghost, where it accompanies the famous pottery scene with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. The film placement helped the Righteous Brothers’ recording return to charts in several countries.
The lyric describes longing during prolonged separation. “Time” is especially easy to confuse with “night” because both fit the meter, but the canonical line uses the broader measure of waiting.