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Don Everly
01.02.1937 - 21.08.2021
Don Everly, November 1985 (Charles Paul Harris/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) - Image courtesy of pitchfork.com
Phil Everly
19.01.1939 - 03.01.2014
Image courtesy of counterpunch
Phil Everly's Brother, Don, Mourns Loss of Singer
"Our love was and will always be deeper than any earthly differences we might have had," wrote Don of his brother.
Phil (left) and Don Everly in 1984 - image courtesy & © of the AP
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The infighting and hard feelings between the Everly Brothers were well-known, but surviving brother Don felt he had a special moment with his brother Phil before Phil's passing Friday — even if the two weren't together at the time.
"I was listening to one of my favorite songs that Phil wrote and had an extreme emotional moment just before I got the news of his passing," Don Everly wrote in a statement to The Associated Press on Saturday morning. "I took that as a special spiritual message from Phil saying goodbye. Our love was and will always be deeper than any earthly differences we might have had."
Phil Everly died Friday in California from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 74.
The Everly Brothers were arguably the most influential vocal duo in music history. They brought their love of country music to rock 'n' roll in the 1950s and 1960s, transforming the pop charts of the day and inspiring legions of young proto rockers like the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Byrds who would go on to change popular culture.
Songs like "Bye Bye Love" and "Wake Up Little Susie" remain a shared memory for generations of listeners who were hooked by their deceptively simple harmonies that hid greater meaning in songs that were dark and new compared with the pop music of the day.
The two broke up amid quarrelling in 1973 after 16 years of hits, then reunited in 1983, "sealing it with a hug," Phil Everly said.
There was a heavy outpouring on social media following Phil Everly's death, proving The Everly Brothers remain relevant a half-century after their first hits.
Don Everly said he didn't expect to see the day his brother would pass.
"I loved my brother very much," the 76-year-old wrote. "I always thought I'd be the one to go first. ... The world might be mourning an Everly Brother, but I'm mourning my brother Phil Everly." | Source : Hollywood Reporter
Half of the brilliant duo that transformed 1950s pop music
Phil Everly, left, with brother Don Photograph: ITV/REX ITV/REX/ITV/REX
With his older brother Don, Phil Everly, who has died of pulmonary disease aged 74, formed one of pop music's greatest vocal partnerships. If it was Elvis Presley who became the most spectacular icon of 1950s rock'n'roll, the Everly Brothers created a musical legacy which was every bit as influential. Their unique vocal harmonies, coupled with ingenious guitar arrangements and timeless material, had a revolutionary impact on the Beatles, the Hollies, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and Crosby Stills & Nash.
The Everly Brothers' breakthrough hit was Bye Bye Love (1957), still regarded as one of their most impressive creations. Up to that point, Don and Phil had been chipping away at the country music scene in Nashville, Tennessee, with limited success. Bye Bye Love topped the country charts, but more significantly soared to No 2 on the pop charts, just behind Elvis's Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear.
It was the Everlys' first million seller and it was the making of them. In his recent autobiography, Wild Tales, Graham Nash – of the Hollies and Crosby Stills & Nash – recalled the effect the song had on him when he heard it at a school dance in Salford: "It was like the opening of a giant door in my soul, the striking of a chord... from which I've never recovered … From the time when I first heard the Everly Brothers, I knew I wanted to make music that affected people the way the Everlys affected me." Nash would get to know the Everlys well, not least during the making of the 1966 album Two Yanks in England, on which the brothers recorded a batch of Hollies songs.
Bye Bye Love was written by the husband and wife team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who then penned a string of hits for the Everlys that lasted until the end of the 50s, and included Wake Up Little Susie and All I Have to Do Is Dream (which both topped the US pop chart) as well as Bird Dog and Problems. Meanwhile, Don Everly was exhibiting songwriting skills of his own, and wrote the top 10 hit (Till) I Kissed You.
They switched from the Cadence label to Warner Brothers in 1960, for a deal that gave them $50,000 a year over a 10-year term – supposedly the biggest-ever recording contract at that time. Their hot streak continued with Cathy's Clown, written by Don with some input from Phil and their biggest-ever hit, as well as the first single to top the US and UK charts simultaneously. But problems began when they suffered an ill-tempered split from their manager, Wesley Rose. This resulted in a lawsuit and the brothers being cut off from the stable of songwriters for his music publishing firm of Acuff-Rose, which included the Bryants.
In 1962, after a six-month stint in the marine corps, (as an alternative to being drafted separately for two-year periods in the army), Don and Phil found that their career in the US was on the wane. Their number nine placing on the US pop chart with That's Old Fashioned (1962) drew a line under their great hit-making streak, with subsequent releases rarely making the top 100 and never reaching the top 30. There were personal problems, too. Later that year Don had to return from a UK tour after overdosing on amphetamines, leaving Phil to complete the engagements alone. Don was also addicted to Ritalin, which had been prescribed for his nerves. This led to him being hospitalised after a nervous breakdown. Their chartbusting heyday had passed.
Phil was born in Chicago, the son of Ike and Margaret Everly; Don was two years his senior. Ike had grown up in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and was a gifted guitar-picker whose playing helped to shape the playing of such country greats as Merle Travis and Chet Atkins. Don and Phil cut their performing teeth alongside their parents in a band called the Everly Family, and the combo performed live on radio station KVA in Shenandoah, Iowa, while touring in the south and the midwest. It was here that the brothers began to develop their unmistakable harmonies, though they owed a debt to other notable sibling acts in country music such as the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and their contemporaries the Louvin Brothers. Linda Ronstadt, who had a hit with the Everlys' classic When Will I Be Loved in 1975, commented: "They had that sibling sound. The information of your DNA is carried in your voice, and you can get a sound that you never get with someone who's not blood-related to you."
The Everly Family's fortunes faded as the live radio market died, and the group dissolved in 1953. Encouraged by Atkins, to whom Ike had enthused about his two talented sons, Don and Phil branched out as a duo. Atkins had a music publishing company, Athens Music, to which he signed Don. He pitched Don's song Thou Shalt Not Steal to Kitty Wells, who had a country hit with it in December 1954. Through Atkins's connections the duo then cut four tracks for Columbia records. A single, The Sun Keeps Shining, was released in February 1956, but went nowhere. It was a meeting with Rose that pushed the Everlys towards their big break. He promised them a record deal if they signed their music publishing with him, which they duly did, and Rose (also their manager) lined them up with Cascade Records.
And then he brought them Bye Bye Love after it had been turned down by a list of other acts. The brothers applied their magic vocal blend to the song – Don took the baritone part while Phil sang tenor – and added a four-guitar arrangement featuring a variety of subtle tuning tricks that left many seasoned guitar players dumbfounded when they heard it. The record's success changed everything, earning the brothers slots on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Grand Ole Opry, plus a tour with Johnny Cash. In 1957-58 they toured regularly with Buddy Holly.
The Everlys' early-60s career slump, inevitable after they had enjoyed such an incandescent run of success, coincided with the arrival of the raunchier, rockier Beatles and the Rolling Stones, with the British invasion of the US coming along in 1964. Suddenly the brothers' mix of pop and country was outmoded, even if their influence would be glaringly obvious in a Beatles song such as Please Please Me, closely modelled on Cathy's Clown.
However, although their stateside appeal declined they retained a faithful following in countries including Canada, Australia and Britain. They scored nine top 40 hits in the UK between 1963 and 1965, including The Price of Love and Love I Strange. Their affinity for Britain, and an eagerly reciprocated fondness for the harmony-pop of the Hollies, prompted the Two Yanks in England album, and it was at the urging of Warner Bros records in London that they cut their classic country album Roots in 1968.
By the early 70s, Don and Phil were touring with a band that featured star-in-the-making Wrren Zevon and ace guitarist Waddy Wachtel, and their albums, Stories We Could Tell and Pass the Chicken and Listen (both 1972, on RCA), contain some excellent material, albeit marred by over-slick production.
However, the pair had always been very different personalities, and the years of close proximity on the road and in the studio had taken their toll. Don's composition I'm Tired of Singing My Song in Las Vegas (from Stories We Could Tell) spoke volumes about their state of mind, and the Everly Brothers abruptly ended their partnership in 1973 after a gig in Buena Park, California, at which Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off the stage.
They would not reunite until 1983, when they appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The resulting live album, The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert, entered the UK top 50 chart. In the interim, Phil cut the solo albums Star Spangled Springer (1973), Phil's Diner (1974) and Mystic Line (1975), and appeared on Roy Wood's album Mustard and on Zevon's debut album in 1976. He wrote Don't Say You Don't Love Me No More for Clint Eastwood's 1978 film Every Which Way But Loose (and also performed it on screen with the actor Sondra Locke). Eastwood invited him back for the sequel, Any Which Way You Can (1980), for which he wrote One Too Many Women in Your Life and was seen playing in Locke's backing band. His 1983 solo album Phil Everly, mostly recorded in London and featuring British musicians including Mark Knopfler, gave him a UK top 10 hit with She Means Nothing to Me, on which Cliff Richard shared lead vocals.
In 1984 the re-formed Everly Brothers released the album EB 84, and had a minor US and UK hit single with On the Wings of a Nightingale, written by Paul McCartney. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year that they scored a top 20 country hit with the title track from the album Born Yesterday. Both brothers sang on the title track of Graceland, at the invitation of their long-time admirer Paul Simon. Simon & Garfunkel had recorded the Everlys' Bye Bye Love and Little Susie, and they invited the brothers on their Old Friends reunion tour in 2003-04.
Phil set up his own Everly Music Company, which sold musical instrument accessories designed by Phil and his eldest son, Jason. In November 2013, Norah Jones and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong released Foreverly, a track-by-track recreation of the Everlys' 1958 album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. Phil Everly died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, apparently caused by decades of smoking. Phil is survived by his wife, Patti, sons, Jason and Chris, Don, his mother and two granddaughters.
Phil (Philip) Everly, singer and songwriter, born 19 January 1939; died 3 January 2014 | Source : The Guardian
Phil Everly was one half of the singing duo which transformed pop music but behind the scenes bubbled with sibling rivalry
Phil Everly, who has died aged 74, was the younger half of The Everly Brothers, the duo which helped to transform pop music in the 1960s before being eclipsed by the very bands that they had influenced.
The Everlys sprang from the traditional country music with which they had grown up, but in the late 1950s they took up the themes of teenage love and disappointment that became the staple diet of the emerging pop stars of the period. They never fully embraced rock and roll, but their breezy harmonies influenced many of the stars who followed them, including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, and The Byrds — groups whose popularity started to take off as that of the Everlys waned. As they were overtaken by new musical fashions from the early 1960s onwards, The Everly Brothers continued to perform and record until 1973, when their relationship fractured publicly during a concert in California.
Phillip Everly was born in Chicago on January 19 1939, the son of Ike and Margaret Everly, who had a popular country singing act in the 1940s. He was almost exactly two years younger than his brother Don, but the boys’ parents brought them up as though they were twins. They shared birthday parties, and were dressed in the same clothes — Don was not allowed to have a sports jacket until Phil was old enough to have one too. Both boys attended high school at Shenandoah, Iowa, where their parents had a radio breakfast show, on which Don and Phil sang from childhood. After the family had moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, the brothers met the guitarist and producer Chet Atkins and other figures on the local music scene. They were briefly signed up to Columbia, for which they made their first record, Keep a-Lovin’ Me, which was released in February 1956 but made little impact.
It was when The Everly Brothers were taken up by the Cadence record label that their careers began to take off. In 1957 they recorded Felice and Boudleaux Bryant’s Bye Bye Love, on which Phil and Don played guitars alongside Chet Atkins and the Nashville session musician Ray Edenton. The song was an immediate hit, and established the brothers as the first successful pop act to come out of Nashville. Don and Phil bought a new Oldsmobile on the proceeds and embarked on a tour with Johnny Cash. They began sporting matching suits, and their growing army of fans had difficulty telling them apart (Don’s hair was darker, and his the deeper voice). They followed this success in the same year with Wake Up Little Susie; This Little Girl of Mine; All I Have to Do Is Dream; and Claudette. Bird Dog and Devoted to You were released in 1958, and by now they were one of the most famous pop acts in the United States, as well known as Elvis Presley, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson. They became close to Buddy Holly, who originally wrote his song Not Fade Away for The Everly Brothers — they suggested that he record it himself. After the release of Let It Be Me in 1959, the Everlys moved to Warner Bros Records. Cathy’s Clown, written by Don, remained at No 1 in America for five weeks in 1959 and topped the British charts for seven, selling more than eight million copies worldwide. On the back of its success Cadence delved into its archive to release When Will I Be Loved, which reached No 8 in the US and No 4 in Britain.
If the Everlys’ star burned bright, it also burned quickly, thanks to rapidly changing musical tastes in the Sixties. Indeed, by 1960 their best days were already behind them — although in Britain that year they achieved three No 1s, with Walk Right Back, Ebony Eyes and Temptation.
Images sourced from Pininterest and everlyfans.org
In 1961 Phil and Don joined the Marines, serving for about six months, and then embarked on a European tour. It was while they were performing in London that Don’s addiction to amphetamines first began seriously to affect his career. Twice in 12 hours he was carted off to hospital, unconscious, and he was flown back to the United States, amid stories in the press that he had been struck down by food poisoning or a nervous breakdown. Phil had to finish the tour alone.
For three years the Everlys performed together only occasionally, although they continued to record, and their singles The Price of Love and Love Is Strange were successful in Britain. In 1968, with young music fans listening to bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and the West Coast acid rock fraternity, the Everlys came up with a concept album in which their own country music would be intercut with excerpts from old Everly Family radio shows from the early Fifties. The album, Roots, was a flop. Their deal with Warner Bros came to an end, and they signed with RCA, recording the albums Stories We Could Tell (1972) and Pass the Chicken and Listen (1973). By now their relationship had become increasingly difficult, and on July 14 1973, when in concert at the John Wayne Theatre in Buena Park, California, Phil smashed his guitar and left the stage, leaving Don to announce the duo’s evident break-up. It was the start of a long estrangement. In 1981 Phil Everly said: “Although people looked at us like twins, we weren’t alike. Musically we were very closely educated, but we had different values. Everyone has the feeling that all you have to do is to achieve stardom and once you are there you can relax. It’s just the opposite. Once you get there, then the war really starts [and] the larger the odds are against you. We always had that feeling, will the next song be a success?” At the same time he conceded that Don had been the more talented of the two: “His hands and ear for music are faster.”
For a decade they worked apart, making solo recordings. Phil released his first solo record, Star Spangled Banner, in 1973, to modest acclaim, and followed up with Phil’s Diner (1974) and Mystic Line (1975). He wrote Don’t Say You Don’t Love Me No More for the hit Clint Eastwood film Every Which Way But Loose (1978), performing it in duet with Eastwood’s co-star, Sondra Locke. He also wrote One Too Many Women In Your Life for the sequel, Any Which Way You Can (1980), in which he also made a cameo appearance. In 1983 he released the solo album Phil Everly. The track She Means Nothing To Me, on which Cliff Richard was co-lead vocalist, reached the Top 10 in Britain. In June of the same year The Everly Brothers were reunited on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London. They recorded for Mercury in Nashville, and continued to perform well into the new millennium. They were admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and in 1997 received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. They were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
Phil Everly was thrice married and had two sons, Jason and Chris, both singers and songwriters. He married his third wife, Patti Arnold, in 1999. After his death, a statement was released to a newspaper by Don Everly, claiming that he had received a “special spiritual message from Phil saying goodbye”.
Phil Everly, born January 19 1939, died January 3 2014 Source : The Daily Telegraph
Singer Phil Everly -- half of legendary Everly Brothers -- dies
By Greg Botelho and Todd Leopold CNN
Singer Phil Everly -- one half of the groundbreaking, smooth-sounding, record-setting duo, the Everly Brothers -- has died, a hospital spokeswoman said. He was 74. Patricia Aidem, a spokeswoman at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, confirmed Everly's death on Friday, but could not provide additional details, citing the family's request.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Phil Everly and his brother, Don (now 76), ranked among the elite in the music world by virtue of their pitch-perfect harmonies and emotive lyrics.Rolling Stone labeled the Everly Brothers "the most important vocal duo in rock," having influenced the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel and many other acts. Along the way, they notched 35 Top 100 songs -- more than any other vocal pair.
The Everly Brothers' sound -- with Don's lower register generally complementing Phil's higher voice -- was the backbone of dozens of hits.The two began as songwriters before signing a deal in 1957 with Cadence Records. They became international sensations over the next five years with tunes such as "Bye Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Susie," "When Will I Be Loved" and "All I Have to Do Is Dream." In terms of record sales, their chief rivals during this stretch were Elvis Presley and Pat Boone.Their style -- a product of their blend of rock 'n' roll with Appalachian folk, bluegrass and other genres more closely aligned to their Kentucky roots -- helped them earn inductions in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
"The amount of music that can be directly traced to the Everly Brothers is incredible," wrote one admirer on Twitter. "Thanks, Phil...and 'Bye Bye.'"
Phil and Don were born in the business, the offspring of country and western singers Margaret and Ike Everly.The Everlys sang with their parents in live shows and on the radio. In the mid-'50s, while still teenagers, they moved to Nashville to be songwriters. In 1957, they found a Felice and Boudleaux Bryant song, "Bye Bye Love."According to "The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll," 30 acts had rejected the song, but the Everlys -- with the key guitar contributions of Chet Atkins, who played on many of their hits -- took the song to No. 2 on the pop charts."They added Bo Diddley riffs, teenage anxieties and sharkskin suits but -- for all that -- the core of their sound remained country brother harmony," read their bio on the Country Music Hall of Fame's website.
After averaging a Top 10 hit every four months over the next few years, the Everly Brothers inked a 10-year pact with Warner Brothers Records (formerly part of CNN's parent company, Time Warner, though now owned by Access Industries) in 1960. More success followed -- including "Cathy's Clown," which the duo wrote -- and they stayed particularly popular in Britain.
"Bye Bye Love" was "the first thing that really killed me," Paul Simon once recalled. He called Art Garfunkel immediately upon hearing the song, according to a Simon biography, and the two set to work on their own act. The Everlys also served to bond the nascent Beatles.Upon hearing "All I Have to Do Is Dream" in 1958, the young group -- which had just added George Harrison to a lineup that included John Lennon and Paul McCartney -- couldn't wait to cover it."When we first heard it, it blew us away," McCartney said in Mark Lewisohn's new Beatles biography, "Tune In."
By the 1970s, the pair was performing in a band that also included legends Warren Zevon and Waddy Wachtel. But their time together came to a sudden end in 1973, when Phil stormed off the stage during a show in California.The brothers reunited on stage and in the studio 10 years later, leading to more albums, including "EB 84" (including the McCartney-written "On the Wings of a Nightingale") and "Born Yesterday." Their remaining years were highlights by occasional shows, hall of fame inductions and various other honors, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Source : CNN
Read More : Independent tribute here |Daily Mail Tribute here |A Life In Pictures here | Don's biography here | Don at 84 here | LA Times here
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