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The Everly Brothers

Don (February 1, 1937 – †  August 21, 2021) 
Phil (January 19, 1939 – † January 3, 2014 ) 

DON EVERLY OBITUARY

The ethereally beautiful harmonic blend of The Everly Brothers was deeply rooted in the rural country sibling duos that were so prevalent during the ‘30s and ‘40s. In turn, the Everlys were tremendously influential to the more melodic British Invasion aggregations—The Beatles, who seldom failed to cite them as musical heroes, as well as The Hollies, Peter and Gordon, and Chad and Jeremy. Phil Everly’s majestic tenor was permanently stilled in 2014; now his older brother Don is gone too. He died August 21. 2021 in Nashville at age 84.

Don was the older of the two, born February 1, 1937 in Brownie, Kentucky. His father, Ike Everly, holds his own exalted place in musical history; his thumb-picked guitar technique was a primary influence on Merle Travis, though Ike couldn’t parlay his fret mastery into stardom the way Travis did. Phil came along in 1939, after Ike had departed the coal mines of Kentucky to play his guitar on the radio in Chicago (that’s where Phil was born). Another move to Shenandoah, Iowa in 1944, where Ike broadcast over KMA-AM, gave the brothers plenty of local radio exposure after they joined their dad’s program full-time in 1949. They developed into competent rhythm guitarists along the way.

Another relocation to Knoxville with their family in 1953 got the Everlys closer to Nashville. Another of Ike’s admirers was fellow guitar wizard Chet Atkins; he steered one of Don’s early compositions to Kitty Wells in 1954, and it hit. As soon as Don graduated from high school in ’55, he and Phil set out for Nashville. They cut a single for Columbia, Keep A’Lovin’ Me, that stiffed, and the label promptly dropped the young pair. Things got pretty lean until Wesley Rose, head of Acuff-Rose Publishing, took an interest in the Everlys’ songs. He recommended them to Archie Bleyer, the owner of New York-based Cadence Records, who had already turned the Everlys down previously. This time Bleyer brought them aboard.

Rose sent Bleyer a song by married writing duo Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, Bye Bye Love, that had been bouncing around Nashville. Bleyer decided to cut it on the Everlys in March of ’57 with Atkins joining the boys on guitar. Enriched with the Everlys’ high, keening harmonies and a choppy acoustic guitar introduction that Don cadged from his own Give Me A Future, Bye Bye Love topped the C&W hit parade and barely missed doing the same thing on the pop side of the tracks. Atkins’ faith in the duo had been fulfilled, albeit for another label rather than RCA Victor, where he was an A&R director.

The Bryants became the Everlys’ primary source for smashes at Cadence. They came up next with the playful Wake Up Little Susie, which did top both hit lists that autumn despite a bit of blowback regarding the teenaged couple in the song staying out all night. Although it charted, the Everlys’ third Cadence offering, a remake of Ray Charles’ This Little Girl Of Mine, was a relative disappointment commercially. Not so the breathtaking ballad All I Have To Do Is Dream, a blockbuster from Boudleaux that again paced the pop and country charts during the summer of 1958 with Roy Orbison’s Claudette proving a very strong flip.

Boudleaux came right back with both sides of the Everlys’ next pairing, the novelty rocker Bird Dog and a gorgeous Devoted To You, and they were both smashes. The Bryants collaborated on Problems, the Everlys’ next hit that fall, but Don was a talented songscribe in his own right, bringing in the rumbling (‘Til) I Kissed You, their biggest seller of 1959. Rose was appalled that the Everlys tackled something outside the Acuff-Rose catalog, but their instincts proved correct when the strings-enriched ballad Let It Be Me was a 1960 smash. The pair left a few winners in the Cadence vaults when they defected to Warner Bros. in ‘60, notably the Phil-penned When Will I Be Loved, which hit in direct competition with their WB sides.

The duo came up with a juggernaut their first time out for their new label with the self-generated Cathy’s Clown, a #1 pop smash on both sides of the Atlantic. The hits continued in abundance at WB initially with a Don-scribed So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad) and its flip, a remake of Little Richard’s Lucille, as well as another two-sider in ’61 pairing Sonny Curtis’ pounding Walk Right Back and John D. Loudermilk’s tragedy opus Ebony Eyes. Then Don got the idea to update the Tin Pan Alley artifact Temptation. That was more than Rose could bear. When it came out as a single, Rose retaliated by shutting off the duo’s access to the Bryants and the other writer in his stable.

Compounding their problems, the Everlys had to fulfill their military obligations during this turbulent period. But they persevered, looking to New York for fresh material and scoring big with Carole King and Howard Greenfield’s lovely Crying In The Rain and then That’s Old Fashioned (That’s The Way Love Should Be) by a trio of Brill Building stalwarts. Then the British Invasion hit. Instead of boosting the Everlys’ fortunes, it largely wiped them from the charts aside from the throbbing self-penned rocker Gone, Gone, Gone in 1964.

Making a slew of contrasting albums and promising 45s for WB that never quite ignited commercially, the Everlys soldiered along until imploding at a 1973 concert at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. Each tried to mount a solo career, Don posting three country chart records on Hickory in 1976-77 with Yesterday Just Passed This Way Again, Since You Broke My Heart and Brother Juke-Box. But two separate Everlys just didn’t have the appeal of the brothers as a unit, and they reunited in 1983. On The Wings Of A Nightingale, the pair’s first single together in over a decade, came out the next year and was an all-star affair, written by Paul McCartney and produced by Dave Edmunds. Surprisingly, it was only a mild hit.

Although they toured widely with another celebrated duo, Simon and Garfunkel, in 2003-2004, the brothers were reportedly estranged again in later years. Don took Phil’s death hard, going so far as to say good morning to his ashes every day some two years after his passing. Now they’re together again.

The Everly Brothers

Born into music, Don and Phil began performing as children in the mid-40s. Their father Ike Everly, an accomplished guitarist, hosted a variety of rural radio programs which eventually incorporated his whole family. Wife Margaret and sons Don (born February 1, 1937) and Phil (born January 9, 1939) all took their turns at the mic in varying combinations as they honed their harmony skills. However, by 1953 the family's format had reached its end. As recorded music overtook the need for live performers, Don and Phil became infatuated with introducing rock and rhythm and blues flavors to their standard folk and country repertoire.

The mid-'50s found the family struggling to survive. Ike and Margaret worked odd jobs to support their sons' burgeoning musical career, while Don and Phil focused on songwriting and knocking on doors near Nashville. Their first recording deal with Columbia was a fleeting failure and it was not until the duo met up with Wesley Rose that they were truly on the path to success. Being one of the most powerful music magnates in Nashville (and the owner of the colossal Acuff Rose publishing company), Wesley Rose found the brothers a home with East Coast indie label Cadence Records. Rose further coupled Don and Phil with the husband and wife writing team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, and the rest is, as they say, history.

The Everly Brothers' first Cadence release, 1957's Bye Bye Love, began a solid string of thirteen Top 40 hits for the label. But by 1964, the Everlys and many of their label mates had departed from Cadence (and the charts). Resultantly, founder Archie Bleyer sold his musical assets to former signee, singer Andy Williams. Although Williams held back the Everly masters for six years, 1970 saw the first in a flood of nostalgic reissues of the duo's Cadence recordings (a trend which continues to this day). Nevertheless, these collections are simply a shuffling of the same forty songs the brothers cut for the label.

March 1985 saw the first compilation that deviated from this format, Rhino Records' 'All They Had To Do Was Dream'. Compiled entirely from outtakes and demos, this set lifted the lid on what still remained within the Cadence archive. Bear Family's 'Classic Everly Brothers' (BCD 15618) box set further collected these outtakes with a few added obscurities, giving enthusiasts and historians a more complete picture of what occurred during those times.

Now, some twenty years later, Everly fans are once again allowed back into the archive to hear a newly unearthed set of working versions and musical sketches from that magical era. A compelling study of the creative process behind the legendary Cadence masters, this set gives one a fresh perspective on these, the Everlys' most popular sides. You won't hear perfection at every turn. Yet, nearly every track exhibits a talented team on the verge of a musical breakthrough. So, pull up a chair and join us at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville, as we join the Everly Brothers in session.

The Everly Brothers The Outtakes
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