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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
The Everly Brothers invented a style of vocal harmonies that bridged
rock and roll and country/folk music.
In their songs the youth of the early 1960s found sympathy and
excitatement, a lesson that would have tremendous influence on
Beach Boys, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and many others.
Full bio.
(Translated from
my original Italian text by Ornella C. Grannis)
The Everly Brothers discovered what the vocal harmonies of country
and the rhythm of rock and roll had in common. With them was born
an art of compromise, that expressed the domesticity of the
middle-class, as well as the restlessness of rebels. Their songs
were both comforting and exciting. Theirs was a lesson The Beatles,
The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel among many others, learned well.
Children of Kentucky country artists, Phil and Don Everly worked in
Nashville as songwriters beginning in 1955. By 1957 they had the
opportunity to record a melancholy, nostalgic tune that no one else
liked enough to sing. Bye Bye Love became a national hit. For the
first three years they had a hit at the top of the charts every four
months. Four of those were no. 1 hits: Bye Bye Love, the lively Wake
Up Little Susie, the dreamy All I Have To Do Is Dream, the dynamic
Bird Dog. The last three songs were written by Felice and Boudleaux
Bryant. The first two are the tours de force of Everly Brothers (1958).
The other two are in The Fabulous Style of The Everly Brothers (1960),
one of the best albums of the time. It's Everly Time (Warner, 1960) is
an LP without hits, and yet is the album that better represents them.
The Everly Brothers presented the humble, pure, elegant, innocent
style of optimistic dreamers, accompanied by a small amount of
percussion, produced by Chet Atkins. They sang in the tradition of
The Delmore Brothers, two tenors singing harmonic thirds, alternating
with the twin riffs of their acoustic guitars, accompanied by a modest
rhythm section. The songs of The Everly Brothers had none of rock rebel
energy, rather, they were in keeping with the orderly country ideology:
never a solo, never a note out of tune, never an electric arrangement.
Concise and elegant, simple and refreshing, the brothers represented the
familiar romanticism of the average good American boy, neither idol nor
rebel. In this sense they marked the passage from great country to emphatic
rock, onto realistic folk-rock.
After Cathy's Clown, from the album A Date With The Everly Brothers
(1961), which appeared at the start of the Merseybeat and surf music
era, their success ended abruptly and the brothers split. They tried
solo projects without conquering the affection of the public. Roots
(Warner, 1968), one of the first country rock albums, contains only
covers.
Phil Everly died in 2014 at the age of 74.
Don Everly died in 2021 at the age of 84.
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