Don Everly, one-half of the pioneering Everly Brothers whose harmonizing nation rock hits impacted a era of rock ‘n’ roll music, has died. He was 84.
Everly died at his dwelling in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, based on his legal professional and household spokesperson Linda Edell Howard. His brother, Phil Everly, died in January 2014 at age 74.
“Don lived by what he felt in his coronary heart,” an announcement from the household stated. “Don expressed his appreciation for the power to dwell his desires … residing in love together with his soul mate and spouse Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother. Don at all times expressed how grateful he was for his followers.”
Within the late 1950s and 1960s, the duo of Don and Phil drew upon their rural roots with their strummed guitars and excessive, craving harmonies, whereas their poignant songs — many by the workforce of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant — embodied teenage restlessness and power. Their 19 high 40 hits included “Bye Bye Love,” “Let It Be Me,” “All I Must Do Is Dream” and “Wake Up Little Susie,” and performers from the Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel cited them as key influences.
Don Everly of the Everly Brothers died in Nashville, Tenn. at age 84. (C Brandon/Redferns)
“The Everly Brothers are integral to the material of American music,” stated Jerry Lee Lewis in an announcement. “With my pal Don’s passing, I’m reflective … reflective on a life filled with great associates, spectacular music and fond reminiscences. There’s quite a bit I can say about Don, what he and Phil meant to me each as folks and as musicians, however I’m going to mirror at the moment.”
Songs like “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” appealed to the postwar era of child boomers, and their deceptively easy harmonies hid better which means among the many lighter pop fare of the period.
The 2 broke up amid quarreling in 1973 after 16 years of hits, then reunited in 1983, “sealing it with a hug,” Phil Everly stated.
Though their variety of hit information declined within the late 1980s, they’d profitable live performance excursions within the U.S. and Europe.
They had been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Corridor of Fame in 1986, the identical yr they’d successful pop-country file, “Born Yesterday.” Two years earlier, they’d success with the up-tempo ballad “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” written by Paul McCartney.
“As a singer, a songwriter and a guitar innovator, Don Everly was some of the proficient and impactful artists in standard music historical past,” stated Kyle Younger, CEO of the Nation Music Corridor of Fame and Museum, in an announcement. The brothers had been inducted into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame in 2001.
Don Everly was born in Brownie, Kentucky, to Ike and Margaret Everly, who had been folks and nation music singers. Phil Everly was born to the couple in Chicago, the place the Everlys moved from Brownie when Ike grew bored with working within the coal mines.
The brothers started singing nation music in 1945 on their household’s radio present in Shenandoah, Iowa.
Their profession breakthrough got here after they moved to Nashville within the mid-1950s and signed a recording contract with New York-based Cadence Information.
Their breakup got here dramatically throughout a live performance at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Phil Everly threw his guitar down and walked off, prompting Don Everly to inform the group, “The Everly Brothers died 10 years in the past.”
The disputes between the brothers even went to courtroom, when Don Everly sued the heirs of Phil Everly in 2017 over the copyright to 3 of their songs, together with “Cathy’s Clown.” The case went all the best way to the sixth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals.
However after Phil’s loss of life in 2014, Don stated that he felt a non secular message from his brother earlier than he died.
“Our love was and can at all times be deeper than any earthly variations we would have had,” Don Everly stated in an announcement in 2014.
Whereas aside, they pursued solo singing careers with little success. Phil additionally appeared within the 1978 Clint Eastwood film “Each Which Manner however Unfastened.” Don made a few information with associates in Nashville, carried out in native nightclubs and performed guitar and sang background vocals on recording classes.
Don Everly stated in a 1986 Related Press interview that he and his brother had been profitable as a result of “we by no means adopted tendencies. We did what we appreciated and adopted our instincts. Rock ‘n’ roll did survive, and we had been proper about that. Nation did survive, and we had been proper about that. You’ll be able to combine the 2, however folks stated we couldn’t.”
Many years later, their impression on standard music continues to be evident. In 2013, Inexperienced Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones launched a loving tribute to the Everlys on their collaborative album “Foreverly.”
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