Thursday, April 28, 2011

Forgotten Music -- The Everly Brothers

Certain families just seem to have a knack for harmonizing, and brothers and sisters have played a big part on the pop and country charts for many years. One of the biggest duos during my formative years was the Everly Brothers, Don and Phil. They hit it big in 1957, scoring first with "Bye Bye Love."


After that, they hit again with "Wake Up, Little Susie."

And then they hit again with "All I Have to Do is Dream."

Three gold records in your first year ain't bad. Even their other release that year, which didn't go gold, was a fine two-sided hit. Here's one side:

They went on to become the most popular duo in chart history, with Don singing the low harmony parts almost exclusively and also singing most of the solo lines. According to the Wikipedia entry, they had 35 Top 100 singles in the Billboard charts, 26 of which reached the Top 40. They eventually had an acrimonious split and went on to solo careers, reuniting in the 1980s for some very nice albums, my favorite of which is Born Yesterday.

7 comments:

Jerry House said...

Thanks for this, Bill.

I remember the excitement generated by their reunion at the Albert.

My sister always favored the B-side of their hits. I doubt if she was alone.


WV: calmlips

Perplexio said...

Didn't they also do When Will I Be Loved?? They had some solid vocal harmonies.

If you listen to some of the more harmonic material from the 70s, Little River Band, Poco, & The Eagles modeled their vocal harmonies after the Everly Brothers (in some cases intentionally, in other cases subconciously).

Terrie Farley Moran said...

I remember getting Everly Brothers 45s for my 12th birthday!

MP said...

Great stuff. I hate to admit that I'm not familiar with the fourth song.

VP81955 said...

Their best album may have been their first for Warners in 1960 (after leaving Cadence), "It's Everly Time," featuring the brilliant "Sleepless Nights" (a later Gram Parsons favorite), the soulful "Nashville Blues" and solid covers of Ray Charles ("What Kind Of Girl Are You"), Fats Domino ("I Want You To Know") and, of all people, Dean Martin ("Memories Are Made Of This").

Cap'n Bob said...

Always been a big fan. Their versions of "Love Hurts" and "So Sad to Watch Good Love Go Bad" are personal favorites.

Deb said...

Late to the party (thanks, Blogger), but my favorite EB song is "Devoted to You." I also like "Take A Message to Mary" in spite (or perhaps because) of its somewhat hokey lyrics.

Fun fact: Simon & Garfunkel started out as an Everly Brothers-wannabe duo called Tom & Jerry. They lated paid hommage on the "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album by doing a cover of "Bye Bye Love."