The world lost another musical legend when Phil Everly died at age 74 on Friday, January 3, 2014. The moment I heard the news, two thoughts occurred to me. First, my dad played The Everly Brothers’ albums when I was growing up, even telling me that “Bye, Bye Love” was the very first song he learned on the guitar. Second, I used “All I Have To Do Is Dream” to catapult the love story in the novel I’m writing.
I spent an hour that night listening to my favorite songs by the duo and shedding a few tears. I continued to listen to their albums the next day while I cooked breakfast. As I listened, I was flooded with memories: listening to my dad’s albums like Herman and the Hermits Greatest Hits or Buck Owens’ album with special guest Susan Raye The Great White Horse. From a young age, I loved singing the harmonies. The songs of The Everly Brothers instilled this love in me.
Throughout the 80s, radio stations played many Everly covers, most notably Linda Ronstadt’s 1975 pop cover of “When Will I Be Loved,” Reba McEntire’s country cover of “Cathy’s Clown, and Nazareth’s 1976 rock cover of “Love Hurts.”
I’ve spent the past 18 months reading rock memoirs, doing research for my aforementioned novel. I was surprised at how far the Everly influence reached the souls of the rockers I admired. For instance, Steven Tyler described their bluegrass-influenced harmonies as “heartrending.” Keith Richards sang Everly harmonies with his Aunt Joanna. In 1963, the Stones had the incredible opportunity to share the bills with the duo.
Where would any of us be without the sibling melodies that permeated the music industry in the 1950s and 1960s?
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