One of the great musical duos of all time. Very influential (mainly due to the exceptional use of their vocal harmonies) in the development of rock’n’roll, country, and pop, the Everly Brothers are a key and essential piece in the historical landscape of melomania.
Don Everly (born February 1, 1937, in Brownie, Kentucky) and Phil Everly (born January 19, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois) grew up in a musical environment as their parents, Ike & Margaret, were country, style musical that they began to practice with their parents from an early age.
In the 1950s Don and Phil Everly moved to Nashville, where they achieved stardom thanks to their great single “Bye Bye Love” (1957), composed by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and released on the Cadence Records label.
“Bye Bye Love” was the start of a blazing career that continued for years to come.
The great melodies, harmonies, and the amalgamation of rock, country, folk, and pop elements, made the music of The Everly Brothers a delicious sonic sensation that was sweeping the charts around the world.
Groups like the Beatles or the Hollies, or the duos Peter & Gordon or Simon & Garfunkel were influenced by the style of the famous brothers.
This idolatry caused the physical and mental exhaustion of the brothers, who became drug users, especially their main composer, Don Everly, who nearly died of an overdose in the early 1960s (a time in which they also had to go to army).
The arrival of the British Invasion and the loss of quality in their compositions meant a serious commercial decline for the Everly Brothers, especially in their native country, since paradoxically, in England they achieved great successes with songs like “Love is Strange” and “The Price Of Love “.
LPs such as “Roots” (1968), country rock work, or “Stories We Could Tell” (1972), an album produced by Paul Rothchild that had the collaboration of people like Ry Cooder, Clarence White, Graham Nash, David Crosby, John Sebastian, Warren Zevon or John Barbata, did not achieve the deserved success and the Everly Brothers, which accumulated internal tensions, decided to separate in an unfriendly way in 1973.
Phil Everly died in Burbank, Los Angeles (California) on January 3, 2014, after suffering from lung disease. He was 74 years old.