he Everly Brothers were true imocents・

From their first hit, 'くBye Bye Love,, in 1957,

to their last,くくThat・s Old Fashioned’’five

years later, the Everly Brothers sang aboutTlove, always Iove, and always with ingenuous PaSSion and con-viction. They never hungered after sex and never sought re-venge. Instead they were dreamers・ Seeking not the ideal

woman, but the ideal-Or Perhaps more aCCurately・ the ideal-

ized-relationship. And it was in their wonde血I harmonies,

which glistened with such delicacy and moved with such buoy-ancy, that they found the perfect metaphor for that relation-Ship.

藷護憲護諾窯業蕊霊詰講読霊溜霊country and western team・ Phil and Don’born in 1939 and

1937, reSpeCtively, had been weaned on r祖ntry music・ tOuring

with their parents and appearing on their radio show from thetime they were nine and seven yearS Old・ In fact’it was their

potential as a country aCt Which originally brought them to theattention of Cadence Records in 1957・

Archie Bleyer, PreSident of Cadence・ had come to Nashville

to work with Wesley Rose in establishing a country and west-em division to boしster Cadence’s flagglng Sales at a time when

the sma11 independent label featured pop singer Andy Williamsas its only big name. Rose・ With country star Roy Acuff・ OWned

and ran the most prestigious publishing house/managementcompany in the industry・ Among the many songWriters Rose

had under contract Were the Everly Brothers・ With the excep・

tion ofくくThou Shalt Not Steal・,・ a song written by Don and

transfomed into a hit by vocalist Kitty Wells・ the Everly

Brothers had little to show for their two yearS in Nashvi11e"Their one experience in a studio had produced a single forcolumbia Records,くくThe Sun Keeps Shining・,, which hadn’t

even reached the lower depths of the C&W charts・ Despite

their meager reCOrd’Bleyer’at Rose・s urglng, Signed the

Everly Brothers to a recording contraCt.Rose言n tum, introduced Bleyer and the Everly Brothers to

Boudleaux Bryant, a highly successful C&W songwriter in theAcuff-Rose stable. One of the tunes Bryant showed them wasくくBye Bye Love,,・ a song already rejected by 30 acts・ The Everly

Brothers, however, 1iked it and persuaded Bleyer・ Who (accord-

ing to Bryant) had expressed some reserVations・ that they

should record the song at their first session. Ten days after itsrelease, l・Bye Bye Love・・ exploded onto the charts・ eVentually

reaching the Number Two spot on the pop listings and NumberOne on the country charts・くくBye Bye Love・, established the model which the Everly

Brothers would follow for the rest of their stay on Cadence.with a pair of acoustic guitars leading the way, the rhythm

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section of bass, drums, and piano firmly yet unaggressively

propelled the song along・ The harmonies floated above it all・1ightly charting the melody line. It was an almost seamless

gown of sound・ The Everly Brothers didn’t shout or scream.The echo was almost nonexistent. A Ione electric guitar pro-vided the ornamental cross-Stitching with brief single_nOteruns. simultaneously precise, COhesive and effervescent,く●Bye

Bye Love・・ had fused country music,s obsession for order with

the boundless energy of rock and ro11・

It’s d縄cult to ascertain who was responsible for the Everly

Brothers・ sound because their recording sessions were remark-

ably collective efforts, With the Everlys, Bryant’Rose・ Bleyer

and the sessionmen all contributing suggestions・ What is

known, though, is that the sessions were methodica11y and me-ticulously run. The Everly Brothers, PraCticing with a tapemachine, WOuld rehearse their vocals two or three days in ad-vance. All arrangements were carefu11y worked out before en-tering the studio. The sessionmen, uSually induding Chet

They brought Appalachian harmony to rock ’n,roll: the Everly Brothers show their guitarist how

to play tくCathy’s CIown.”

彊琵琶墓園琵琶監語琵琶圏any performer without sacri丘cing their individuality・

For as Iong as they remained on Cadence・ the Everly

Brothers adhered to that sound with relatively few modifica-tions. As they became more comfortable as rock and rollers・

they placed greater emphasis on the drums and electric guitar・

Both Chet Atkins and Don Everly, Who usually played rhythmguitar, admired Bo Diddley, and increasingly they attempted toincorporate his choppy guitar style into their playing・ They

experimented by adding strings toくくLet It Be Me’’and the

sound of a screwdriver tapped against a Coke bottle to "Take aMessage to Mary:, Although they made few radical departures・

for al=ts restrictions the Everly Brothers’formula was re-

markably flexible. They rushed headlong into Little Richard’sくくRip It Up,, with the same ease as they crooned the mawkish

sentiments of "Love of My Life.’’Crucial to their success was

an abundance of good songs with strong hooks and catchymelodies-always Bleyer,s first priorities・ And in Boudleaux

Bryant, Who wrote many of the Everly Brothers’early hits・

Bleyer had a songwriter perfectly suited to the Everlys’ski11s・

Following the success of 'くBye Bye Love,,’Bryant began tai-

1oring songs specifically to the Everly Brothers’range’har-

monies and audience-and what that audience wanted, Bryant

presumed, Were SOngS about love. He then proceeded to writesome of the most elegantly concise encomiums to romance thatrock has ever produced: tender and sensitive・ yet rarely yield-

ing to either self-Pity or sentimentality・ Taken as a whole the

songs created an almost hermetically sealed world where onlylove mattered and only parents (くくWake Up Little Susie’’andくくPoor Jemy”) and school (く’Problems’’) interfered. Unquestion-

ably a simplistic and adolescent world・ it assumed that love

cured all ills and exorcised all devils. But what saved the EverlyBrothers from becoming mere purveyors of Tin Pan Alley pab-

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lum was not the dream itself, but their faith in its possibility.Even on songs ostensibly about despair-くくBye Bye Love’’and“When Will I Be Loved’’-they expressed their etemal resil-

ience and optimism by singing with unabashed exuberance.For three years on Cadence, the Everly Brothers averaged a

Top Ten hit every four months. During the same period (withmany of the same songs) they amassed four Number One sin-gles on the country charts. As they progressed, the brothersbegan to achieve Top Ten success with songs of their own(Don’sくく[’Til] I Kissed You’’in 1959 and Phil’sくくWhen Will I BeLoved’’in 1960). Like their parents, they were troupers and

they crisscrossed the country in a continual series of one-nightStands. But in 1960 the team that had constructed the EverlyBrothers’sound began to fall apart. A bitter fight broke out

between the Everly Brothers and Bleyer during negotiationsOVer a neW COntraCt-the Everlys were unhappy with their lowroyalty rate. As a result they left Cadence for Wamer Bros.Records. A year later they fired Wesley Rose-Who had beenacting as both their manager and producer-in a dispute overthe arrangement of ’くTemptation,’’a single released in 1961.

The commercial effects of the switch were, if anything, POSi-tive. ‘’Cathy’s CIown,’’the pair’s first single for Wamers, SOld

OVer 2 million copleS and stands as their all-time best seller.Musically, however, the change in labels and the breakup oftheir production team marked their dedine. Under the stew-ardship of various producers, their sound became increasingly

grandiose, aS if to mask their growing lack of assurance. Themuted mix and insouciant precision of the Cadence productionhad always contained the Everly Brothers’maudlin impulses.

The hard-edge darity of their new approach-With homs, PlanOand backup vocals all competing for attention-magnified theirSentimentality, distorted their romanticism. For the first time,their voices began to whine and strain. Without access toBryant’s material (he still worked for Wesley Rose), they re-

SOrted to tearjerkers like ”Ebony Eyes.’’

Despite such material, the Everly Brothers continued to pro-duce hits-until the release, in April 1962, Of ”That’s Old Fash-

ioned,’’which signaled the end. Its very title implied that the

Everly Brothers had become an anachronism. Whereas theirearlier songs simply assumed their romanticism,くくThat’s Old

Fashioned’’justified it as if under attack.

They never reached the Top Ten again.The Sixties were not kind to Fifties rock stars, and the

Everly Brothers were no exceptions. Don, thanks to “vitamin’’

treatments from a New York doctor, became hooked on speed,and for the next few years was in and out of sanitariums; beforehe fina11y cured himself in 1966, he had attempted suicide. Philalso received the treatments but the effects weren’t as serious.

During this period, both Don and Phil were divorced from their

They continued, however, tO Chum out record after record: aC&W album (7V2e戌/eγb′ Bタの脇e7:S Sing Gタ珍at (カuntタツHiお); a

COuPle of R&B albums (Roc居73 St)e/l and Beat男Soul); an

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Di scography1957-1鎌)7

’’Bye Bye Love‘’(Cadence 1315. ☆2. c☆1. r☆5. 1957) ’’Wake Up Llttle Susle’’(Cadence

1337. ☆1. c☆l. r☆2. 1957) ’’ThiS Llttle GIrI of Mme’’(Cadence 1342. ☆28. c☆4. 1958)’(A11 I Have to Do Is Dream’’b/W ’’Ciaudette‘’(Cadence 1348. ☆1. c☆l, r☆l. 1958)’’Blrd Dog’’b/W ’’Devoted to You’’(Cadence 135O. ☆2. c☆1, 「☆3. 1958) ’’P「obiems’

(Cadence 1355, ☆2, C☆17. 1958)∴●Take a Message to Mary‘’b/W ’’Poor Jenny’‘ (Ca・dence 1364; ☆16, 1959)∴’(’Tll) I KISSed You‘‘ (Cadence 1369. ☆4, C☆8. 「☆22. 1959) ‘’Letlt Be Me’’(Cadence 1376. ☆7, 1960) ’’Cathy’s CIown‘‘ (Wamer Bros 515l. ☆1, r☆l.1960) ’’When Wl旧Be Loved’● (Cadence 1380. ☆8、 196()) ‘’So Sad” b/W ’’Luc用e’’(Wamer Bros 5163. ☆7:r☆16, 1960)-..WaIk Rlght Back’’b/W ’’Ebony Eyes’’(WamerBros. 5199: ☆7. c☆25. r☆25, 19C周’’TemptatlOn’’(Wamer Bros　5220. ☆27. 1961)’’Don‘t Blame Me’’(Wame「 Bros. 5sol. ☆20. 19(周’’Crying ln the Ram’’(Wamer Bros

5250. ☆6. 1962) ‘’That’s Old FashlOned’’(Wame「 B「os 5273. ☆9. 1962) ’’Don’t Ask Meto Be Friendsii (Wamer Bros 5297, ☆48, 1962) ’’Gone. Gone. Gone’’(Wamer Bros5478, ☆3l, 19(弘) ’’Bowling Green” (Wamer Brce 7020. ☆40, 1967)

(Chart posltlOn COmPlled f「om Joel Whltbum’s RecoId Reseo融, based on 6誰側rdPop chart. r*=PesltlOn On B誰めa舟Rhythm and Blues chart. c☆=POS一[lOn On B’//-魔調カCountry and Westem charり

Tbp, Je魚The cast of the Everly family radioShow of the late Fo巾ies-from left, Don, Ike,Phil; Seated, Margaret.均y γ幻hむOnstage inthe Fifties. Belou: Less than dean cut in theFifties; and gone mod in the Sixties. Bo#om:

With Johnny Otis.

English album (T紗o I句n鳥sわEng/and)・ Each one was meant to

regain the audience they had lost. Each one failed. They hadbecome prlSOnerS Of their past, OutStripped by the Beach Boys,the Beatles and the Byrds, all of whom had acknowledged theirdebt to the Everly Brothers. For reasons that remain undear,the Everlys never actively pursued a country and westem ca-reer. Instead they played in Las Vegas and became encrustedyouthful oldies, biding their time for a possible revival. As theircareers floundered, the relationship between the two becameincreasingly tense.But the Everly Brothers were not through. In 1968 they re-

1eased an album called B00is, their last magnificent hurrah.Reminiscent of Songs OuγDad少7tzught Us, an album of tradi-

tional songs they had recorded while with Cadence, B00is was aself-COnSCious attempt to retrieve their past. Interjected be-tween the traditional tunes ({(Shady Grove,’’くくT for Texas’’)

were snippets of recordings they had made as children on their

parents, radio show. Though the album is framed as a docu-mentary, it also revives their Cadence sound and recasts it incontemporary rock and roll terms. One can hear simulta-neously how the Everly Brothers influenced such groups as theByrds, and how, in turn, the Byrds were now affecting theEverly Brothers.The album’s centerpiece is their reworking of H Wonder if I

Care as Much:’the second song they recorded on Cadence. The

original version is too jaunty. Their harmonies gloss over thelyrics, Which seem beyond their capabilities. On B00tS theirvoices display a new maturity, an added edge and weight. TheysIow the song down-Changing the tempo several times-andbreak it down into pieces, aS if they were rolling it around intheir hands and carefully examining it. As they sing it now, theSOng queStions their whole career.

Tbars !hat I hac/eめshed砂dのGiz/e nliefand “,aSh au,の

772e memOa理声he "蜜ht b〆e彬・I “mdeγゲI7l s24解γ mO7tLI uondeγグIcaγe aS muCh czs I did b〆o肱

It is perhaps the Everly Brothers, greatest moment-butBoois was no more successful in rekindling their career thanany of its immediate predecessors・ Not long afterward the

Everly Brothers left Wamers to record for RCA, Where theyfared no better. Tired, their relationship becommg mOre aCri-monious, they gave their last concert together in July 1973, atthe John Wayne Theater in Buena Park, Califomia. Before theconcert was over, Phil smashed his guitar on the floor andwalked off the stage. Don finished the last two shows by him-self.くくThe Everly Brothers,,, he said,くくdied ten years ago.’’

The ending, Of course, WaS inevitable-few groups surviveintact forever. But it is not without irony that violent divorcewas the final image left by the two men who, Perhaps morethan anybody else, had so well defined what love and affectionmeant in rock and roll.

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