Posted on 01/03/2014 7:11:35 PM PST by Carriage Hill
Phil Everly, half of one of the most popular and influential music duos of the 1950s and '60s, the Everly Brothers, died Friday at age 74, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Times quoted Everly's wife, Patti, as saying Everly died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease after decades of smoking.
NBC News couldn't immediately reach Patti Everly to confirm the Times report, which quoted her as saying, “We are absolutely heartbroken.”
At their peak, the Everly Brothers — Phil, who was born in 1939, and Don, who was born in 1937 and survives his younger brother — hit it big in 1957 with "Bye Bye Love."
With its soaring, tight harmonies expressing dejection at lost love in an anomalously chirpy manner, the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts. It has been covered by dozens of other prominent artists as wide-ranging as Ray Charles, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Trini Lopez and Simon & Garfunkel.
That was quickly followed by two more monster hits, "Wake Up Little Susie" and "All I Have to Do Is Dream."
Hits in the 1960s included "Carly's Clown," "When Will I Be Loved" and "Cryin' in the Rain."
(Excerpt) Read more at today.com ...
Good catch!
Thanks, I forgot about that song.
urwc
And the late teen years of those of us even older. :-) I think I was working at Knight Campbell’s sheet music/records store in Denver when “Dream” came out - I was newly married, but still a kid. Innocent, memorable, well performed songs with real words by nice people - those were the days, my friend, as another song goes.
You left out grammatically correct! Remember “It was I??”
Whole other world we grew up in. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way (not that any of us has a choice that way).
their version in the 80s of Mark Knopflers “why Worry” is one of my favorites,
Not only is a music legend gone, but so is the great music of that era. I loved every one of their songs. RIP Phil.
Sad news. I always loved listening to the Everlys. Saw them live around he late 80s. They still sounded great then and had produced a couple of great albums in the 80s as well.
I went to Christchurch, NZ, US Navy base in 1963, and the enlisted men’s club was called the “Bird Dog.” Was said to be because Kiwi girls often came to the club with one sailor, then left with another. About the year 2000, I met a girl from Christchurch who told me the “Bird Dog” club was still operational.
I have been a huge Everly fan since I was 12. My first real teenage crush was on Phil Everly and later, before they retired, I worked for them for several years. This is a huge part of my teen and early adult years gone.
Before I became a Christian, Rock and Roll was my god and Phil Everly was my messiah. May God grant him rest.
They bring up the smoking but not the fact he was also an alcoholic.
Erin is Don’s daughter, not Phil’s. But you are correct on the rest.
It’s truly bye, bye love. It was 1958. I was 7 and my brother was 12. Someone had gotten my sisters a record player that included one 45 rpm record. It was WAKE UP, LITTLE SUZY. My brother and I learned to harmonize listening to that record over and over until we wore it out. We really could harmonize just like them. And we did until the day my brother died.
As the great ones die, they’ll never be replaced.
I had no idea they did LOVE HURTS first. It was a big hit by Nazareth in 1976.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXkXY_BEd4Y
Their reunion concert...some of the songs I’m reminded just how great they were. Their harmonies created a “third” voice....the voice all of us would sing along with them. We weren’t singing lead. And we weren’t singing harmony. We were singing what they sounded like together. God, thank You for sharing them with us.
Those lyrics, slightly adapted, were my marriage vows.
The echo-effect of the Cathy’s Clown vocals always had a spooky sound to me, made me nervous just hearing it on the radio back then. Bye Phil, and thank you for the (other) music.
Amen and bigtime dittos to that sentiment.
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