The Everly Brothers: Harmonies From Heaven
>> What is your name?
>> Don Everly, age 20.
>> Only a 20-year-old would say his age in the first place.
How about you?
What's your name?
>> Phil Everly, and I'm 18 years old.
>> ♪ Bye bye, love ♪ Hello, loneliness ♪ I think I'm gonna cry >> Any musician with a set of ears was influenced by the Everly Brothers.
>> "Well, this is the best harmony I've ever heard in my life."
And from that moment, I was on the train called the Everly Brothers.
>> I don't think you'll ever find another pair that can match them.
>> ♪ Here he comes ♪ That's Cathy's clown >> There's that thing about being brothers that their voices were so similar, that that's also why the harmonies just sounded so great in unison.
>> ♪ Wake up, little Susie ♪ We got to go home >> They had a very different sound.
They were fusing new elements into what had been up until then, an easy-listening format.
♪ Been mistreated ♪ When will I be loved?
>> Some people are lucky enough to live in the time of a new form.
Others are not.
The Everly Brothers were, that moment when rock 'n' roll was just starting, and their gifts were perfect for it.
Young at the right time, two people singing as if one head with two voices.
>> ♪ I will make you mine ♪ Taste your lips of wine ♪ Only trouble is, gee whiz ♪ I'm dreaming my life away >> For a period of five years, from 1957 to 1962, the Everly Brothers were this amazing vocal duo who just completely dominated the pop charts, and they influenced a raft of musicians and bands who came in their wake.
>> And the reason we all do what we do is because we heard that and wanted to do it.
>> ♪ Walk right back to me this minute ♪ ♪ Bring your love to me, don't send it ♪ ♪ I'm so lonesome every day ♪ I'm so lonesome every day [ Cheers and applause ] >> So, it's 1957.
>> I went bowling in Jamaica with Paul.
>> I was on a school coach trip to the Lake District.
>> You had to take a transfer and change buses.
>> And on the jukebox was this wonderful sound.
>> And there the bus driver's radio had... [ Humming "Bye Bye Love" ] >> Which was "Bye Bye Love," and I didn't know who was singing it or, indeed, what the song was.
about nine times on the trip.
I think the jukebox was stuck.
>> My best friend, Alan Clark, and I are attending a Catholic school girls' dance on a Saturday night.
"Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers came on the big speakers, and it changed me and Alan's life completely.
>> ♪ Bye bye, love ♪ Bye bye, happiness >> And both Paul and I went, "These guys are the greatest.
How do they harmonize, who are these people?"
>> I'd seen that it was by some act called the Everly Brothers.
>> "They're brothers.
Oh, no wonder -- the DNA gives them a huge leg up."
>> I didn't know how many there were, whether they were a 10-piece band or what, but it made an enormous impact on me.
>> ♪ There goes my baby with someone new ♪ ♪ She sure looks happy ♪ I sure am blue ♪ She was my baby till he stepped in ♪ ♪ Goodbye to romance >> It was the first time I ever heard music that I loved.
And I thought "Wow, if this is what music is like, I can't wait to find out more."
And then I spent the last 30 years looking for anything that's as good as the Everly Brothers, and there isn't anything.
I assumed that was the tip of the iceberg.
I thought all music was going to be that good.
No.
>> You bet music was changing.
tame.
Patti Page and Perry Como.
>> Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and the Beverley Sisters.
>> The crooners came out of the war and the war era when everybody needed to be on message, if you like, and together.
And now you were starting to get the age of teenage rebellion.
And younger people wanting music that they could identify with which was much more their own.
>> This stirring things up was much more...subversive is the word I would use.
>> I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.
The beginning for Phil and I is just a small dot on the map >> I was born in Brownie, Kentucky.
It was the Brownie Coal Mines that named it Brownie, Kentucky, and my father worked at the coal mines then.
>> These coal miners, you know, they worked 5 or 6 days a week, and on the weekends they'd get together and have their little parties and play music and that kind of thing.
>> And my father, he came out of there playing a guitar.
>> Our father was a thumb-picker out of Kentucky.
>> But Mom and Dad moved to the move because I was very young.
>> And their father was a great musician, and somebody whose knowledge of music, and folk music in particular, was encyclopedic.
>> He was a unique guitar player when he was up in Chicago in the area, playing the honky tonks.
>> He actually influenced Merle Travis.
Merle was the guy that went to Hollywood and made good and influenced a lot of people.
Ike Everly and Merle Travis are the people that we feel is really responsible or thumb style of guitar playing.
>> Chet Atkins is considered one of the greatest guitar players in American history and certainly one of the most influential, because he took a style which is sort of playing the rhythm with your thumb and using your fingers to sort of pick out the melody, and so you have sort of a double guitar sound going on at once.
♪♪ ♪♪ >> The interesting thing about the fingerpicking styles were handed from musician to musician.
>> Ike Everly was a tremendous influence on his sons, and of course, made sure that even though they were both left-handed, they played the correct way around.
Because he said, "You'll have trouble for the rest of your life if you don't do that."
>> I'm left-handed.
I'm completely left-handed in everything.
And he taught me right-handed.
He wouldn't let me learn left-handed.
>> Don was probably 6 years old, Phil 4 years old.
They decided they did not want them to grow up in a big town like Chicago.
They wanted to grow up kind of like they did.
So they moved off to western >> Back then, radio had artists that put their own shows on.
>> This is in the days, of course, when America had thousands and thousands of very localized radio stations.
out that they could go get us on there as The Everly Family.
>> 54 degrees in Shenandoah, 6:16 is the time.
Now into Part 2 with The Everly Family.
>> It was every morning, early morning radio show >> And they appeared as Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil.
>> ♪ She was crying ♪ Totally crying ♪ Here I'm falling, endless love ♪ >> This is Daddy Everly, speaking for Mom, Don, Baby Boy Phil, saying so long!
>> Dad was teaching Phil and I to sing, you know, together.
>> They grew up with harmony.
It was like a language, and thus they could speak it when they got older.
>> If you grew up in Louisville or you grew up in Kentucky, you were used to hearing bluegrass singing.
You were used to hearing that kind of two-part harmony.
>> That was just part of their lives, because their mom and dad were doing that for years.
That was how they were brought up.
It was probably nothing strange for them.
We think it's strange, you know, but I guess for them it wasn't strange, because they were brought up that way.
>> I went back to Tennessee.
And then I started writing, and it just came out of the clear Chet Atkins had a lot to do with it.
We went to a concert that he was at down in Knoxville, Tennessee, and my father called him over and they got to talking, and he introduced Phil and I to him, to Chet, and told him that I was writing songs.
>> He was, you know, enamored with Ike Everly and his sons he finds out are these talented singers, so he encourages them to come to Nashville and introduces them to Wesley Rose who was running Acuff-Rose which was the biggest music publishing organization in town.
>> We drove over from Knoxville and we went to Chet Atkins' house.
He lived in Belle Meade at the time.
>> And we recorded some things on Chet's tape at his house, and he said, "I'll publish them, if I get them recorded."
And I said, "Fine."
>> The Everlys were very fortunate to have him as their mentor in the early days.
early on that there was a special talent there.
>> He was really instinctive in the way he brought musicians and songs together.
So that was a very inspired move to give Kitty Wells Don Everly's song, "Thou Shalt Not Steal."
>> It sort of startled me that one of them was recorded already.
>> Kitty Wells, she was the first female country music star and was beginning to bring in real-life concerns, real-life issues, singing about, you know, the double standards for men and women.
>> It was a Bible song, >> ♪ But I can't trade my love for pride ♪ ♪ My conscience just can't be my guide ♪ ♪ Too late to heed the warning the law thou shalt not steal ♪ >> She sold quite a few records.
I got my check.
That money got Phil and I to Nashville when I graduated high school.
We're now living in Nashville, Tennessee.
>> This is our town of Nashville.
>> Nashville as a music town, you know, goes back to the start of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s, which is pretty much the commercial records, or commercial music at all.
>> The Grand Ole Opry was the nucleus of that, and people came here by the droves to be on that show, which was broadcast on WSM which was a 50,000-watt clear channel.
>> And as the Opry grew, they had more reach than other radio stations.
So you could hear them in Texas, you could hear them in Michigan.
You know, you could hear them in Florida.
>> They were so paranoid that they thought at some point they might have to make announcements over the radio nationally, if there was a threat from the Soviet Union.
>> We interrupt our normal program to cooperate in security and civil defense measures.
>> In the end, the technology was used in a more positive way in terms of the music industry.
>> You had millions of people sitting by their radio on those Saturday nights, from the farms to the cities, falling in love with artists that they'd never seen, had never heard of, but were all of a sudden becoming their best friends.
>> The Grand Ole Opry, you know, which was on the radio, was a radio show, and radio shows really meant something.
Really helped win a national audience for country music among young people.
>> It was crucial that the kids listened to radio.
And here, hardware becomes The invention of the transistor radio.
>> Most houses had a radio or a radiogram, and that was in the sitting room.
And that was your parents' territory, and that's what they controlled.
So the transistor radio suddenly allowed young people to take their music to their rooms, listen to what they wanted to listen to.
>> As regional as America was still at that point, you know, I think certain people in country music realized that this didn't have to be just a regional music.
>> Nashville was buzzing, and a lot of things going on.
If you were interested in music, this was a place to go and see what was going on.
At that point in time, we had RCA, we had Decca, we had Capital, and Columbia.
Those were the record companies in Nashville.
>> There's a great story about Chet Atkins.
You know somebody asked him, "You know, Chet, like, what is the Nashville sound?"
And he shakes his pocket and the "That's the Nashville sound.
That's the sound of money."
>> My parents, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, were the first songwriting duo and team of professional writers in Nashville.
So by 1957, when the Everlys had arrived, my parents had had many hits.
It was their job, and they would wake up every morning and write.
And it was, you know, come rain or come shine, or colds or sickness.
It didn't matter.
This was their job.
>> They show that you can make a living as songwriters.
And they also show that you had to go to work at it, and be a professional at it.
>> My brother and I were in the backseat one day driving to a home site where we were building a new home, and there was a light drizzle and the windshield wipers were going.
And Dad started "Bye Bye Love" to the rhythm of the windshield >> He said, "Listen to this."
So it was -- ♪ Bye bye, love ♪ Bye bye, happiness ♪ Hello, something else ♪ I think I'm gonna Die, cry, or whatever the heck that was.
And I said, "Oh, yeah."
I was really impressed.
>> Dad started showing it around, and a lot of people liked it, but turned it down.
>> I listened to it and I said, "We could do it."
And it was as simple as that.
>> I would have sung anything.
The idea that we were going to get a chance to record, and you were going to make $64.
And $64 sounded real important to me at the time.
>> The real seismic change which had taken place in the '50s, in American music, was this coming together of black and white styles.
>> I think the change, to be perfectly honest, was to do with black influence going mainstream.
Because all the way through the Big Band era, it had been the black musicians that were kind of driving it, and then into jazz.
A lot of the black musicians went into the jazz area and sort of drove that.
And I think probably for the first time, the younger people were -- They actually didn't really care where the music came from.
They cared about the music.
>> There was a lot of Gospel music, black Gospel music on the radio back then.
And that was wonderful music.
>> So you have the blues with black people, you have country and western with white people, but equally sincere.
And then comes this moment in the mid-50s, when the two were fused, and the living synthesis is Elvis Presley.
>> I think what was so shocking about it was that, for the first time, you know, a white artist was doing what black people have been doing for years and years and years, and people were anxious about that.
>> I was very interested in black music and in country The two together made rock 'n' roll, I believe.
>> I think Don had mentioned to Chet that he really loved Bo Diddley, and he said, "How does he get that sound on his guitar?"
♪♪ >> I fell for Bo Diddley's sound and the rhythm that he got.
And I just loved it.
Loved it.
♪♪ >> The drive that Bo Diddley had in his music is this incredible kind of rumble.
That's there in the Everly Brothers songs.
>> I followed him, you know, his music, and I was trying to get it involved in my music.
>> And Archie Bleyer, the head of Cadence Records, said, "Well, why don't you take that arrangement and put it on 'Bye Bye Love'?"
"I never thought of that."
♪♪ >> You see, there are some things you can't do in classical regular tuning.
You can only do it when you've got these weird little country tuning stuff.
♪♪ And I guess that rubbed off Don's acoustic guitar, that rhythm guitar is rocking, man.
>> And now eight seconds later, the intro is over.
The song begins.
>> ♪ Bye bye, love ♪ Bye bye, happiness ♪ Hello, loneliness ♪ I think I'm gonna cry >> You know, you have to write material that can sustain those two voices running through the whole song.
You know, so that when the individual voice comes in, you know, usually Don's, that really has a dramatic impact because mostly they're singing harmony all the way through.
>> ♪ I'm through with romance ♪ I'm through with love ♪ I'm through with countin' the stars above ♪ ♪ And here's the reason that I'm so free ♪ is through with me ♪ ♪ Bye bye, love >> The Everly Brothers were the first example in rock 'n' roll of something that happens very rarely but always beautifully in popular music which is family groups singing in close harmony -- The Andrews Sisters, The Bee Gees who were the Gibb brothers, The Beach Boys who were a family group.
And these exquisite harmonies come from people who've just been together all their lives.
They cannot be separated.
>> The classic model is thirds.
One guy sings ♪ La, da, da And the other guy goes ♪ La, da, da The interval is thirds.
♪ La ♪ Da have a very simple and pleasing, sweet kind of folky harmony.
>> Boudleaux designed that harmony, you know, and I just sang it, you know, but he designed it to be that way, and that's all the greatness of... All that stuff really counted.
>> Phil was such a genius at matching Don's sound that they produced two halves of a whole.
>> Boudleaux could hear harmonies.
He could see what he wanted to happen with that piece of material.
>> ♪ Bye bye, love ♪ Bye bye, sweet caress ♪ Hello, emptiness ♪ I feel like I could die ♪ Bye bye, my love, goodbye >> The difference is that Phil's voice was pitched in a tenor range, and Don's was more baritone tenor so that the two-note difference that gives you the thirds interval was perfectly comfortable for Phil to be higher.
>> ♪ Bye bye, my love, goodbye ♪ Bye bye, my love, goodbye >> There was a little buzz about this record, you know.
This was a pretty good record.
So we got a job down in Mississippi and Alabama.
Well, on that trip, the record came out and we were making $90 a week apiece, which was a fortune to us.
>> The team in New York that did the promotion for Cadence Records made a mistake with the record "Bye Bye Love" and sent it out to all of the radio stations.
The country ones had received addresses on and the pop stations.
>> By the time we got back to Nashville on the end of that tour, we were in the Top 10, in pop and in country, and it was...
The game was on.
>> "Teddy Bear" by Elvis Presley was number one, "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers was held at number two.
>> You go and you record, and a thing like that just happens to you.
You don't know why, where, or how.
You can be talented, but that ain't enough, sometimes.
You've got to be lucky.
You've got to be at the time that the market's ready for you, that the public is ready to listen to you.
You've got to have that on your side.
>> Almost all the other artists that could fill in the gaps between Elvis records were the black rhythm-and-blues pioneers, such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, who had already been going.
They had really brought what Alan Freed called rock 'n' roll to public consciousness.
So the radio stations had all of these wonderful African American artists and Elvis Presley.
Let's get some more white people into the mix.
Usually in history it's the other way around.
Here were the Everly Brothers, a real deal.
Genuine white teenagers, and they sang music with a rock 'n' roll sensibility, even though it was not that far divorced from pure country music.
>> They were the country side of rock 'n' roll.
But it was rock 'n' roll.
>> After "Bye Bye Love," we went on the road, you know, and...
Things were happening.
And we were traveling around, this, that, and the other, and we had to start thinking about a second single.
And then you became to worry about being a one-record act, because there were plenty of them in rock 'n' roll.
And then Boudleaux brought in "Wake Up Little Susie."
But he had designed "Wake Up Little Susie" with the holes in it for that guitar work because he knew that this would work.
And therein is the power of what we had from Boudleaux and Felice is that they started designing things for us.
>> I can never think of the Everly Brothers, knowing, you know, what I know now in songwriting, that there were actually four people involved, and the other two was Felice and Boudleaux Bryant who wrote all of those and so well-suited to the boys' voices.
>> Isn't it terrible to think that a few years from now these boys will both wind up looking like Yul Brynner?
[ Laughter ] >> ♪ Wake up, little Susie ♪ Wake up >> The way Don uses it, it's quite aggressive, rather than just be some gentle backing to fill out the track.
So it would punch through the get that.
♪♪ >> It was down strokes.
♪ Da, da, da, da, da The intro was all down strokes.
♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da ♪ ♪ Da, da, da ♪ Da, da, da, da-da ♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da ♪ ♪ Da, da, da ♪ Da, da, da, da-da ♪♪ >> ♪ Wake up, little Susie ♪ Wake up >> "Wake Up Little Susie," It was the next record after "Bye Bye Love."
>> I was upstairs.
I hadn't gotten out of bed yet, and Boudleaux was on the main floor which wasn't carpeted, and so the acoustics were just feeding up to the bedroom section.
And I hear this, ♪ Wake up little Susie ♪ Wake up And I thought, "Man, that sounds great."
Just that much.
And so I thought I'd better get downstairs because Boudleaux was most capable of finishing stuff on his own, and I had to jump in something here, I want a piece of this."
>> In its early stages, as Dad was writing it, was a little bit what Mother thought was a little too risqué.
She kind of cleaned it up.
>> I added some lyrics because I thought Boudleaux was getting a little too rough, you know.
And so I put the bridge in -- ♪ The movie wasn't so hot ♪ Didn't have much of a plot ♪ We fell asleep ♪ Our goose is cooked ♪ Our reputation is shot >> ♪ The movie wasn't so hot ♪ It didn't have much of a plot ♪ ♪ We fell asleep ♪ Our goose is cooked ♪ Our reputation is shot ♪ Wake up little Susie ♪ Wake up little Susie ♪ We got to go home >> For an artist in those days, you would have what were called regional breakouts, and then it would go from region to region, so you'd be popular for a long period of time.
But not always in the same place at the same time.
So "Bye Bye Love" had a long chart life, peaking at number two for an extended run on the charts, and then "Wake Up Little Susie" comes out, and everybody's paying attention at the same time and it's a very quick number one.
>> There's a kind of winking sexuality to "Wake Up Little Susie."
You know, there's the sense that, you know, essentially they spent the night together, and they were in trouble and the parents are upset and the friends are saying "Ooh, la, la."
>> "Ooh, la, la," which everyone knew was French for racy.
>> ♪ Well, what are we gonna tell your mama ♪ ♪ What are we going to tell your pop ♪ ♪ What are we going to tell our friends ♪ ♪ When they say 'Ooh, la la' ♪ Wake up little Susie >> It was banned in Boston and a couple of other places, and my father was thrilled because at that time, as today, when something is banned with a certain amount of publicity, it really has a tendency And indeed "Wake Up Little Susie" did.
>> It's hard now for people to realize how scandalous that would have seemed at the time, but was much more in keeping with what was actually realistically going on.
>> Every other word out of people's mouths in the 1950s was about juvenile delinquents.
And you know, there was a lot of concern about what was happening with rock 'n' roll.
And a song like innocent as it is, you know, to a degree participated in that.
>> It was really the emergence of the teenager as we know it.
>> The purse strings were also just in transition from being the older generation to being a situation where the younger generation were starting to have their own money.
>> For the first time, you had young people who could buy droves.
>> It was the times.
It was America coming out of the Eisenhower administration and the grayness, straightness of that administration.
>> America did not realize how lucky it was in the 1950s.
First of all, it had not been bombed, with the exception of Pearl Harbor, which was off in Hawaii somewhere.
The mainland had not been bombed in the war.
So it was not spending millions to rebuild.
>> There was an incredible sense of optimism in the country.
You know, the economy was booming.
The country felt very young.
There were a lot of young kids around.
It was the Baby Boom.
>> And what started to become more relevant was fashion and cars and things which were sort of style objects, which were much more about the youth of the day.
Rock 'n' roll was brand-new, and nobody knew how to do it.
>> Don was very smart about guitar parts and arrangements, and I'm sure Chet had some say in that, too.
>> The drums are barely part of those early records.
It's mostly just guitars and bass and electric guitar, but it's very carefully It's well-arranged and it's so well-recorded.
Everything is just in the right place.
So simple but so difficult to do.
>> Well, I'm sure that you recognize this as a golden record, and this the third golden record that the boys have won this year.
This, of course, is "All I Have To Do Is Dream" by the Everly Brothers.
>> Donald told me one night they were on the rock 'n' roll tour bus, and Buddy Holly came over and sat down next to them and he goes, "Hey, man, It's called 'Not Fade Away,'" and he played it for them.
And Donald says to me "Yeah, that's great," he said.
"I love it, but we can't do it.
We're going back to Nashville.
We got to cut something, some ballad called "Dream."
>> After a novelty like "Bye Bye Love," you have to come in with another novelty, "Wake Up Little Susie."
After that, you've got to give You can live longer on a ballad.
>> "Dream," I think, actually made us a difference between sort of an act and then sort of being here forever, you know.
>> At that time in America there were different categories, different charts -- pop charts, country charts, what they called the Race Record charts.
And not many artists crossed over, because they were marketed very differently.
>> "Bye Bye Love" and "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Dream," they were all on the R&B charts, they were on the pop charts, and they were on the country charts.
They were on all three charts at that time.
>> ♪ Dream, dream, dream ♪ When I feel blue in the night ♪ ♪ And I need you ♪ To hold me tight ♪ Whenever I want you ♪ All I have to do is dream >> At this particular time now, we're having success with the Everlys, so we wrote for them specifically.
>> On the slow ones, the out, and that is the forte of the Everly Brothers.
>> ♪ I can make you mine ♪ Taste your lips of wine ♪ Anytime, night or day ♪ Only trouble is ♪ Gee whiz ♪ I'm dreaming my life away >> That line, "My only trouble is, gee whiz, I'm dreaming my life away," is a great line.
>> He says, like, you know, "Gee whiz," is one of the lyrics.
I don't think that now...
It doesn't have the same appeal, but that's the beauty of it.
It was a time and it was, you cool, and I still think it's cool.
>> They recorded "All I Have To Do is Dream" 31 times.
Back in those days, you couldn't record like you can now.
You didn't have the digital tracks where you could slice and If you messed up, get back there and start it all over again.
>> And something happens and you get a warmth and a power, and of course adjusting the mics all the time in between each outtake.
So eventually it comes together and you hit the center and -- Bam!
-- you've got it.
And you go, "That's it.
We can all go home."
>> ♪ Whenever I want you ♪ All I have to do is dream ♪ Dream, dream, dream, dream ♪ Dream, dream, dream, dream [ Cheers and applause ] >> There is the second level of hits after the big three.
The big three established what they can do.
It establishes them internationally.
Well, then, they've got to do something else.
But they can't make a breakthrough anymore because they've already made the breakthrough.
They've made their contribution.
They can just have more hit records.
And so they have this period of very enjoyable songs which would be late '58 and '59.
>> ♪ Johnny is a joker ♪ He's a bird ♪ A very funny joker ♪ He's a bird ♪ But when he jokes my honey ♪ He's a dog ♪ His jokin' ain't so funny ♪ What a dog ♪ Johnny is a joker that's a-trying to steal my baby ♪ ♪ He's a bird dog >> Great lyrics, again.
I mean, daft but brilliant.
♪♪ >> There was another one.
They throw it in there.
Oh it's in "Problems," isn't it?
That thing, you know, the -- ♪♪ That bit.
That's the Everly Brothers thing.
♪♪ >> ♪ Problems, problems ♪ Problems all day long ♪ Will my problems work out right or wrong ♪ >> My father was working digging ditches and stuff up there by then, and he told us that he couldn't support us anymore.
And I said, "It's okay.
We're making money now."
And then I said, "You got to quit your job and come back with us."
>> The trappings of success were certainly back then very straightforward material things.
You know, a nice place to live, a nice car, nice clothes, be able to go out to the higher-class establishments.
>> In the late 50s, everybody... You did just the normal thing.
We bought them a house and everything.
>> ♪ Worries, worries, pile up on my head ♪ ♪ Woe is me, I should have stayed in bed ♪ >> I was paying 90% taxes.
First taxes I paid were 90%.
I couldn't believe that, but that was the way it was.
>> ♪ Problems, problems, problems ♪ ♪ They won't be solved until I'm sure of you ♪ >> 90% is a lot of money to pay to the government for nothing.
For bombers and things, you know.
>> ♪ Problems, problems, problems all day long ♪ >> I played one of the Everly Brothers' signature editions.
It was one of the Gibson ones.
It's just one of those -- You'd pick it up and it was a pretty magical thing.
It had that really like top-end sound to it, which you know, is just them.
>> We designed it.
I said I wanted a smaller guitar.
I said, "Make a 3/4 size of it."
And I said "That's the size we want."
And I want a black guitar.
>> And they said, "Oh, black guitars wouldn't be any good because they wouldn't sell."
And I said, "Well, that's what I want."
Didn't play that good.
They looked good.
They looked like a '50s Cadillac.
[ Laughing ] You know?
>> I can see why they were hits.
They were great...records.
Every one for about 12, 13 in a row for the first few years.
I would buy my Cadence Records produced by Archie Bleyer take it home and go, They just don't quit in how great they are, these guys.
>> ♪ Take a message to Mary ♪ But don't tell her where I am ♪ ♪ Take a message to Mary ♪ But don't say I'm in a jam ♪ You can tell her I had to see the world ♪ ♪ Tell her that my ship set sail ♪ ♪ You can say she better not wait for me ♪ ♪ But don't tell her I'm in jail ♪ >> When I listen to it, it just sends like, you know, those shivers up your spine.
You know, it's a good sadness.
a certain way.
It's not a typical sadness.
>> "Take A Message to Mary" was a stone in the vacuum cleaner.
Click, click, click, click.
♪ Take a message to Mary At the session, when they were recording this, Archie Bleyer who knew nothing about my vacuum cleaner said to Boudleaux he said, "You know, Boudleaux, I hear a 'chink...chink...chink' in this 'Take A Message.'"
And he said, "Somebody bring me a coke bottle and somebody get me a screwdriver."
So he says, "Here, Boudleaux.
You belong to the union."
Hey says, "Hit this Coke bottle," and he says, "That will take care of what I think I hear."
And so that's what you hear on the Everly's record of "Take A Message to Mary."
You'll hear Boudleaux playing a Coke bottle.
>> ♪ You can tell her I had to change my plans ♪ ♪ And cancel out the wedding day ♪ ♪ But please don't mention my lonely cell ♪ ♪ Were I'm gonna pine away ♪ Until my dying day >> The Everlys could pull and they still do when I listen to the records.
>> They couldn't not sound good.
They couldn't.
You know, they would take a song, take it apart, put it back together, and it's still really, really interesting and solid.
>> "'Til I Kissed You" was Don Everly -- I think he wrote that on his own.
Yeah it had a great "doo-doom," that drum sound on it.
The drum was quite an important part of the rhythm, which was unusual for the Everlys.
>> ♪ Never felt like this until I kissed you ♪ ♪ How did I exist until I kissed you?
♪ ♪ Never had you on my mind ♪ Now you're there all the time ♪ ♪ Never knew what I missed 'til I kissed you ♪ ♪ Uh-huh, I kissed you ♪ Oh, yeah >> It's funny, you know, if you listen to the records, too, Phil's voice is the louder voice.
>> His voice was pure.
He had a pure voice, you know, pure harmony, and everybody liked that harmony.
They would sing along with the records.
They would equate that with Phil.
>> ♪ You've got a way about you ♪ ♪ Now I can't live without you ♪ I never knew what I missed 'til I kissed you ♪ ♪ Uh-huh >> If you didn't know, you wouldn't guess they were brothers.
They are wholly different personalities.
>> We never got along.
He was different than I.
He was a Republican.
I was a Democrat, you know?
And I couldn't believe he was voting for Republicans.
I just couldn't believe it.
I was a complete Democrat.
I was a leftist, you know?
>> You find that you wouldn't really get along with both, you wouldn't be in both camps.
You'd fall into one or the other.
really friendly with both of them at the same time.
>> It's just funny to think of the Everly Brothers as belonging to another great rock tradition, which is that of the brothers who can't stand each other.
>> When you have two talented people working together, there's always going to be friction, and that fiction often leads to really good things.
>> After the Everlys, there came the Kinks, Oasis, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jesus & Mary Chain -- it just seems that there's something about having two brothers in a lot which is a recipe for conflict and grief.
>> The fact that they happened to be brothers means that they probably expressed themselves more directly to each other.
>> Phil died about a year-and-a-half ago, almost two years now.
And I miss him, you know?
>> ♪ We used to have good times together ♪ ♪ But now I feel them slip away ♪ ♪ It makes me cry ♪ To see love die ♪ So sad to watch good love go bad ♪ >> We went from Cadence to Warner Brothers because they offered us $1 million.
>> You have to think of what $1 million was then and what $1 million is now.
You know, if you think about what $1 million could have bought.
>> Warner Brothers was a new company.
It was a spin-off of the film company, obviously, and it started releasing film soundtracks and movie-related stuff, but they wanted a rock group because rock 'n' roll was big, so they got the Everly Brothers in.
>> When we left Cadence, we had to give them 14 records or 14 singles.
And I thought, "Oh, gosh.
14 singles wouldn't work."
So I told Archie, I said, "Why don't we do songs our daddy taught us?"
I have had that idea, I thought it was a good idea.
>> It's like "No, maybe we better make this record that shows audiences a little bit who we are more fully."
>> I think it's inevitable that as well as doing that pop rock 'n' roll as it was considered to their roots because their roots go deep.
>> I mean, this was, you know, kind of mountain music and folk music and stuff that was very much woven into the kind of communities that they lived in and grew up in.
>> One of these early songs which they use on that album is a favorite of mine called "Kentucky."
This was something of a standard in country circles.
hit, but it was a favorite with the country audiences.
♪♪ >> ♪ Kentucky ♪ I miss you >> They both had to get in on that one mic, and that was really magical.
There was something about it when they got on that one microphone, we'd all look at each other and say, "Wow, listen to that."
>> ♪ When I die >> Don would do his -- ♪♪ Maybe do his little solo bits and he'd lift it up to the microphone, you know.
So you could hear it, you know.
♪♪ >> I'd never heard anything so beautiful.
And by the time they got to the ending, where they do this slide down at the end of it, this vocal slide down together, I was standing there crying.
>> ♪ Kentucky ♪♪ >> "Cathy's Clown" was the first one for Warner's.
The first one for Warner's had to be good.
That was one of the criteria.
>> Had it not been for the probably would not exist today.
Because of "Cathy's Clown."
>> ♪ Don't want your love anymore ♪ >> A huge international number one, "Cathy's Clown."
So at a time when Warner Brothers is hemorrhaging money, their balance sheet is saved not by a film star, not by a soundtrack, but by the Everly Brothers.
You couldn't make it up.
>> ♪ I die each time I hear the sound ♪ ♪ Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown ♪ >> "Cathy's Clown" was designed pretty much in the same way Donald designed that, and what people mistook for the lead was the harmony part.
He wanted me on a sustained note, and that was his idea, and he dropped the lead down to that.
>> Phil told me that all of a sudden he had to call Donald and say "Hey, man, you better come over here.
I think I wrote something good."
So he goes over to his house and he's got the chorus to "Cathy's Clown" written, and Donald wrote the parts that he sang alone.
♪ I've got to stand tall >> ♪ I've got to stand tall ♪ You know a man can't crawl ♪ When he knows you're tellin' lies and he lets them pass him by ♪ ♪ Then he's not a man at all >> They could express it.
That young sort of yearning, melancholy, and still even though it was sort of sad to see good love go bad.
>> Cathy's Clown, which is credited to both of them, was probably, in terms of sales, their biggest of all, which is interesting because it is a magnificent pop record, superbly sung.
Great, great song.
But it's not a universal theme, really.
>> I would guess that most of the audience wasn't listening to it thinking like, "Yeah, everybody's making fun of me.
That's why I like to listen to this song."
I think they liked to hear it because the beat was so cool, and the singing was so powerful and the harmonies worked together so well.
And that's when people just hadn't heard anything like that it because it was just such a visceral experience.
>> I started listening to like, you know, "Cathy's Clown" and songs like "All I Have To Do Is Dream," just because the harmonies were, you know, so cool.
I wanted to learn both parts.
>> There are aspects of the song -- you know, that middle part in the song, the bridge, takes you to another place.
It's a little more confident, but then you're right back into that struggle of feeling like you're Cathy's clown.
You're the guy that got left.
>> ♪ When you see me shed a tear ♪ ♪ And you know that it's sincere ♪ ♪ Oh, don't you think it's kind of sad ♪ ♪ That you're treating me so bad ♪ ♪ Or don't you even care ♪ Don't want your love anymore ♪ >> Paul and I were a brand-new rock 'n' roll group practicing, practicing, and we used the started writing songs that were like Don and Phil.
>> Phil got his chance to shine when he wrote "When Will I Be Loved," and I think that's one of the most soulful records they ever did.
There's just a feel to that record that doesn't quit.
>> ♪ I've been made blue ♪ I've been lied to ♪ When will I be loved?
>> I love the fact that "When Will I Be Loved" was issued by Cadence Records when "Cathy's Clown" had charted on Warner Brothers.
So it was like, "Wait a minute, you've left us, but we've still got these."
And it turns out "When Will I Be Loved" was a major song.
>> ♪ It happens every time ♪ I've been cheated ♪ When will I be loved?
♪ When will I be loved?
>> The Everly Brothers hit a real watershed in '59 when they were signed by Warner Brothers -- $1 million deal.
It seemed amazing, but actually, it turned out to be a real poisoned chalice.
>> The Everly Brothers' early manager and their publisher, Wesley Rose, was also my family's publisher.
>> Don and I, somewhere in like '61, broke with Wesley Rose, and Wesley Rose had been managing us, and we didn't want him to manage us anymore.
And when that happened, Wesley Rose would not license anymore Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs for us, so we couldn't get any more songs.
And that was a terrible thing to have happen.
You know, it really was.
That's not our fault, not the Bryants' fault, that was Wesley's fault.
>> Acuff-Rose happened to represent not only Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, which meant the Everly Brothers were cut off from their songs, but the Everly Brothers.
So that meant they couldn't even record their own songs.
>> I mean that was silly, to have a deal with a publishing company where they wouldn't release it unless it was published and they published it.
It was silly.
It's death for an artist.
>> There's no court of appeals.
You know, I mean, obviously the Bryants want the Everly Brothers to record their songs.
The Everly Brothers want those songs, you know, but the company says no, and that's the end of it.
It's rough stuff.
>> What an unbearable situation.
And when we learned that in future, we want to go back in time to 1962 and say "Oh, my God, now I know why you have recorded "Crying In The Rain" by Carole King and Howard Greenfield.
Because you can't record your own songs and you can't record Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs.
>> So, in 1962, the Everly Brothers had this massive hit.
It wasn't their own song.
It was Carole King's song "Crying In The Rain."
But it went into the Top 10 and it was actually their last big American Top 10 hit.
Great for them, but they couldn't really enjoy it or even capitalize on that success, because at that point they were in the Marines.
>> ♪ I'll never let you see ♪ The way my broken heart is hurting me ♪ ♪ I've got my pride and I know how to hide ♪ ♪ All my sorrow and pain ♪ I'll do my crying in the rain ♪ >> And then the Beatles happen, and even though the Beatles are directly influenced by the Everly Brothers, no one wants to know anybody who existed before breakfast, because now it's the Beatles and the British Invasion.
>> So suddenly the Everly Brothers, who had actually influenced the Beatles, start to look really old-fashioned and old hat.
>> They ran into the brick wall with the Stones and the Beatles, because it happened to be 1963, and the world was suddenly changing, and suddenly they were old-fashioned for some reason.
Well, there was no reason, really, in musical terms to think so.
>> Everybody was grabbing what was relevant from, you know, the Everly Brothers.
>> You know, the Beatles taking the harmonies and that part of it.
>> I mean "From Me To You," "Please Please Me" -- Everything is based on Everly Brothers harmony.
>> Paul McCartney said that John was Don and he was Phil.
>> You know, Allan Clarke and Graham singing their two part.
They called it the Hollies but they were doing Everlys.
>> And if you talked to the Stones, if you talked to the Beatles, if you talked to everybody, if you talked to everyone that was in the British Invasion -- Herman's Hermits -- everybody you wanted to know loved the Everly Brothers and tried to do that.
>> The Great British Invasion didn't come at a very good time for the Everlys.
I remember going to see the Everly Brothers in '63, and the opening act was The Rolling Stones.
It's an Everly Brothers tour.
So I got to watch those guys every night.
>> I remember watching Mick Jagger on stage and I said, "That's different."
Man, that was different.
And I told him, I said, "You guys can make it in the States."
>> You kind of thought -- Well, this act, The Rolling Stones, I mean, I certainly wasn't prescient enough to say, "These guys are gonna be the biggest thing out."
But you could see that there was a different audience emerging.
>> At the same time, the Everlys had to live with the fact that the Stones were suddenly the flavor of the month.
And they actually stepped down and gave us the top part of the bill at the Albert Hall, after six weeks on the road, and I think that was an amazing gesture on their part.
>> I think the reason why they may have faded from the public appreciation is the fact that times move on, you know?
I mean, there are people that think that Paul McCartney was in Wings.
>> Their days of selling big numbers were over.
>> The Everly Brothers didn't lose their talent, but they lost that sense of being part of the zeitgeist.
>> They continued to perform, but the atmosphere between them was very strained, to the point where 1973... Infamous live performance.
They're playing a gig in California, and then they had this really acrimonious split right there on stage and didn't speak to each other for 10 years.
Then they reformed in 1983 for this amazing comeback concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
>> ♪ And I so I beg you ♪ Let it be me >> They were battling brothers, but they were brothers nonetheless, and when they sang together, you can really feel that connection in their sound.
>> They brought together so many different forms of contemporary music, and projected it totally genuinely, through what they were, which was two young kids making their way.
>> I think pop music would have been quite different if it hadn't been for the Everly Brothers.
>> That simplicity when it comes to songwriting and, you know, simple, strong melodies.
>> I don't think you can listen to that music or look at those guys singing so close in harmony like that and not smile.
Their legacy is that their music will last forever.
>> It's indefinable.
And that, I guess, is the beauty of it, is that you can't put your finger on it, but, boy, look at those boys sing, man.
>> It's an interesting question for Artie Garfunkel, who is not Paul Simon's brother.
There is no DNA there, but damned if we didn't try to make it seem like there was.
We were brothers when we were in junior high school, we were each other's main friends.
We smoked our first cigarettes together.
We were trying to be in each But we didn't quite get to where Don and Phil did.
>> ♪ So never leave me lonely ♪ Tell me you love me only ♪ And that you'll always ♪ Let it be me ♪♪ [ Applause ] ♪♪
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