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 house in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, in accordance with his lawyer 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 stay his goals … dwelling in love together with his soul mate and spouse Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother. Don all the time 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 crew of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant — embodied teenage restlessness and vitality. Their 19 prime 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 buddy Don’s passing, I’m reflective … reflective on a life stuffed with fantastic pals, spectacular music and fond recollections. There’s rather a lot I can say about Don, what he and Phil meant to me each as individuals and as musicians, however I’m going to replicate 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 higher that 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, that they had 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 that they had a success pop-country document, “Born Yesterday.” Two years earlier, that they had 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 one of the proficient and impactful artists in widespread 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 people 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 once 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 way in which to the sixth Circuit Court docket of Appeals.
However after Phil’s demise in 2014, Don stated that he felt a non secular message from his brother earlier than he died.
“Our love was and can all the time be deeper than any earthly variations we’d 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 pals 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 favored 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 individuals stated we couldn’t.”
Many years later, their affect on widespread 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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