We lost Phil in 2014 and perhaps now the two of them are somewhere singing together. Maybe they're not even pissed at each other now.
The Everly Brothers' two part vocalizing was so extraordinary that they could create a gorgeous sound as few others could. Most other artists would require a studio setting with a moody arrangement to achieve that kind of beauty. Don and Phil could do it just with their voices. Their blend wasn't inconsistent like Crosby, Stills and Nash's, or shrill the way I found the Hollies sometimes. The Everlys pretty much taught Lennon and McCartney how to sing together--how to gently push against each other's tone to create something a step more vivid than everyone else's.
Their records are still remarkable and I've got a long list of favorites: "Wake Up Little Suzie," "Poor Jenny," "Bird Dog," "Sleepless Nights," "Take a Message to Mary," "Let It Be Me," "Walk Right Back," "Don't Blame Me," "Crying In the Rain," "Bowling Green," "On the Wings of a Nightingale," "Why Worry" and probably a ton more. And that's what others wrote, like the team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.
How about their original songs? Amazing. "When Will I Be Loved" by Phil, "Gone Gone Gone" by both of them. And then many first rate tracks written by Don: "I Wonder If I Care as Much," "Cathy's Clown," "So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)," "(Till) I Kissed You," "Asleep" (from EB84) and "Born Yesterday."
I've mentioned this before--upon the death of Phil in 2014: When one of the many notable KAOS-FM hosts was leaving town for Seattle (that would be Paul Pearson of "Shrug Festival" fame), he unloaded a bunch of stuff that wound up in the used CD bin at Rainy Day Records, and I got the Brothers' Heartaches and Harmonies (Rhino Records) box set cheap. What dumb luck! Gina and I listened to all four discs in one sitting, putting the player on shuffle function so it would not run in chronological order. Track after wonderful track poured over the speakers: primo rock and ballads, among the finest in the legacy of rock'n'roll.
It was my good fortune to see the Everly Brothers onstage in Michigan in 1986--plus, they had their powerhouse drummer Larrie Londin with them (he passed a long time ago). The late Nanci Griffith opened the show.
You're shorting yourself if you only listen to the Everly Brothers with the Beatles or Simon & Garfunkel in mind. That's what media/music critic Bob Lefsetz did in his latest Lefsetz newsletter entry. I've already deleted it, but what Lefsetz was essentially saying was that the Everlys were before his time; he spent the column talking about cover versions and McCartney's rather lame 1976 "Let 'Em In," where Don and Phil became "Phil and Don," and now that's the order in which they're remembered. Can you imagine how hard John and George would have laughed had Paul presented that song to the Beatles in 1969?
Anyway, I thought Lefsetz penned a lousy column, oblivious to rock history--only experiencing the magic of the Everly Brothers vicariously, through other artists. I've noticed for years that his knowledge of rock'n'roll always starts where he came in...what happened before that never mattered. With YouTube making everything available to everyone now, that stance doesn't make sense. How short-eared.