All I Have to Do Is POLL: The EVERLY BROTHERS Singles

they only had three pop #1's: "wake up little susie," "all i have to do is dream" and "cathy's clown." "bird dog" and "bye bye love" were both country #1's.

and nearly a third of these were written by felice and boudleaux bryant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUoN50lkRi4&feature=related

i saw these guys play about 10 or 11 years ago, they still sounded great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKn6h2x5IcY

really tough. gotta put on that greatest hits & report back...

It's not on this list, but I've been really loving this lately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FyCU87phGw

that's a nice tune, i'd never heard it. i really don't know their stuff from the mid-60s on, except for the mccartney reunion album.

i guess my vote in this is between obvious and more obvious, "susie" vs. "dream" vs. "cathy's clown." except i also really love "bye bye love," "claudette" and "bird dog" and "when will i be loved."

and "poor jenny" is pretty hilarious.

and "let it be me" and "like strangers" are classics too. they really had a hell of a run.

"When Will I Be Loved" but I love every one of these songs.

The Ferris Wheel (1964)

You want to know how good this one is.

"Crying In The Rain", closely followed by "Cathy's Clown". One of the best pre-Beatles acts there ever were.

I love all the ones mentioned already but I have to throw "Walk Right Back" out there too. It sounds louder or sadder or something on the old mono Golden Hits record than it does on the best of cds i've heard.

"the ferris wheel" is interesting because it sounds to me like a reaction to the beatles. the song and production both feel mersey-beatish. (and obv. the beatles were drawing heavily on the everlys to start with.)

the everlys went to their last few years of high school in knoxville. one of their classmates was the mother of a friend of mine. they were already kind of a big deal, they had a regular gig on local radio. among the other students was a girl named cathy, who would be immortalized in "cathy's clown." but my friend's mother has told him, with a bit of a sniff, that she never really saw what the big deal was with cathy. my friend later on ended up living in the same house cathy had lived in while she was in high school.

when i was writing about knox county schools, one of the school board members was a former teacher and principal who had taught the everlys and had been given the nickname "bird dog" for the strict eye he kept on the students. he never directly claimed the song was a sideways tribute to him, but he didn't go out of his way to discourage the idea.

Voted "Bowling Green", but really, what a run of 45s. They're all great.

Gone Gone Gone is my fave at the moment but yeah, super classic.

not lobbying for a vote, but as far as late-career encores go, this one was good.

"When Will I Be Loved" but I love every one of these songs.

― Euler, Monday, December 14, 2009 4:13 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Not sure if they were in the charter HOF group with Elvis and Chuck Berry and the rest, but I hope they were at least in the next one--they were so great. From "All I Have to Do Is Dream," "('Til) I Kissed You," "Let It Be Me," "Problems," and "When Will I Be Loved," I'll go with "('Til) I Kissed You."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Yes, they were in the charter HOF group with Elvis, Chuck, etc. Whoever posted about them only having 3 Pop #1's is wrong if they are talking Billboard charts. They had 4. "Bird Dog" went to #1 in in August 1958.

on the pop chart? wikipedia says it was #3 pop, #1 country. but it could be wrong.

Unbelievable run of recordings and very hard to choose. "When Will I Be Loved?" maybe encapsulates their importance most tightly, but, I have to vote for "Poor Jenny" or "Little Susie," for still being funny in 2009, and just having really flowing, memorable lyrics in general. I mean, wtf:

And then some joker went and called the cops on the phone
So everybody scattered out for places unknown
I couldn't carry Jenny so I left her alone...
Poor Jenny!

and

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!

Love these guys.

i love poor jenny, but i'll probably vote for Problems.

one thing worth its own mention: their freight-train acoustic strumming. it's really what made them rock n roll, just propelled the hell out of the fast tunes.

even on something midtempo like "bye bye love," you get those hard strums, like they've got so much energy they don't know where to put it.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I'm going by Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles book, and he has "Bird Dog" listed as a #1. The Wikipedia entry doesn't say which chart they are using, but Whitburn uses Billboard's.

forgot to vote in this, but might've voted "Like Strangers" -- kind of a unique example of "mature" Everly Bros. So much great stuff though.

wow - "The Price Of Love" was a big 1965 UK hit (#2), but didn't crack the U.S. Top 100!

Appalled at self for somehow blanking this thread; Walk Right Back would have have had my vote, but then I would be feeling bad right now that Let It Be Me has 0, and wishing I'd voted for that. But just wow at that set of singles.

Learning chords for "Let It Be Me," realized that at the end of middle 8 -- "...what would life be?" -- there's a quick key change so the word "be" lands on the chord B. Nice.

Nice. I'm another one who slept on this thread. Don't know which I would have gone with. Saw them in the mid-nineties in Austin and when the harmonies clicked it was as spooky and spine-tingling as you might expect.

one thing worth its own mention: their freight-train acoustic strumming. it's really what made them rock n roll, just propelled the hell out of the fast tunes.

http://www.acousticguitar.com/issues/ag92/everlybros.shtml

"I heard ‘Bo Diddley’ back in ’55," says Don. "I put it on and I’ll never forget it—it just nailed me. And I was immediately hit with the thought, ‘I’ll never be able to incorporate this type of rhythm into any kind of country music.’" But by laying that brisk Diddley rhythm over a country-based acoustic arrangement, Everly inadvertently stumbled upon something closer to the excitement of rock and R&B than the stiff rhythms he’d been used to playing. "Lo and behold, it happened," he recalls. "I just tried it on my open-G acoustic one afternoon, and there it was."

Yes, they were in the charter HOF group with Elvis, Chuck, etc.
Agree with this. It's also pretty obvious that the Everlys along with their friend Buddy Holly were adding key elements to early Rock and Roll that led up to the Beatles and all that they wrought.

Never knew about the direct Diddley influence before - that's super interesting!

Aw man. RIP Phil.

http://lat.ms/JzCm9F

Aw man.

:(

bummer

An ILX thread + a Facebook post and I clue in. I put them on a plane with Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly--personally, they're my favourites after Berry.

harmonies of the gods

My mother supposedly grew up down the street from them and never tired of telling me about it. Some truly timeless and perfect songs. rip.

RIP Phil Everly
The #1 here, would have been mine as well.

I saw them 10 or 15 years ago at the last big arena show I went to. Simon & Garfunkel brought them out, and they all got together for a a couple of EB songs, and I think Phil and Don might have done a couple on their own. I don't think it was a surprise, but it was pretty great.

Phil's Diner album from the 70s worth tracking down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMiLdvRBx3I

An ILX thread + a Facebook post and I clue in. I put them on a plane with Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Buddy Holly--personally, they're my favourites after Berry.

― clemenza, Saturday, 4 January 2014 03:06 (40 minutes ago) Permalink

I don't think anyone should be put on the same plane as buddy holly but that's just me.

R.I.P. the sweetest high harmony in rock'n'roll.

Wikipedia: "In an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show during the 2000 U.S. presidential election, then-Governor George W. Bush named 'Wake Up Little Susie' as his favorite song.[4] 'Wake Up Little Susie' was the first single filmmaker David Lynch bought.[5]"

I'm taking Don off that plane.

Everything about the Everlys recordings is super basic and sweetly simple, and at the same time they're absolutely magical. I know that sounds like a lame platitude, but those harmonies put me in a trance.

truth

RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70F7N_Wd5g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70F7N_Wd5g

There's another Music Scene clip (not on youtube) that has them doing an absolutely smoking medley of "The Price of Love" along with several then-new songs (including "The End", "Games People Play", even "Aquarius"!).

oops

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt0aNPs9gBg

If you want to read a good account of the boys' high school days in Knoxville: http://monkeyfire.com/mpol/dir_suncity/dir_music/dir_bands/everly_bros.html.

I remember this getting a lot of airplay at the time. The production hasn't aged particularly well, but goddammit if this isn't the most beautiful thing McCartney wrote in the 80s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnpFJsRYz2A

Wow at Felice and Boudleaux Bryant full names.

xp
The whole EB 84 album that's on is worth checking out (esp. Don's songs), but yeah, def. got the scent of Lynne about it.

Great memories and story from Brian May

http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjan14a.html#04

Always so moved by that song "Man with Money" after first hearing the Who's cover version. What adventurous songwriting, and yet it's all wrapped up in 2:21.

Have you seen Iggy Pop's message?

Michael Sicinski‏@msicism13h

Billy Joel met McCartney, gushed abt his influence. "Don't worry," Paul said, "when I said this to Phil Everly I felt like an asshole too."

Too bad Whisperin' Edd doesn't post here any more. I would love to hear what he had to say.

James Redd, I saw the Iggy message - thank you.

Has Don made any statement yet?

Taking this opportunity to recommend the Paul McCartney produced documentary The Real Buddy Holly Story which is on youtube. Both Phil and Don are in it, particularly right here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZwWxgW_H9w&list=PL58F217029BEB41C7 and it really provides a first hand view, via the Crickets, among others, of those early days of rock and roll.

Also recommending the memoir of Phil's predecessor Charlie Louvin's Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers which is an incredible evocation of the country music milieu they came out of, as discussed here: RIP Charlie Louvin

Finally here is a picture of Charlie and Phil. RIP, fellas.
http://images2.mtv.com/uri/mgid:file:docroot:cmt.com:/sitewide/assets/img/news/2009/05_09/hall_of_fame_induction/hall_of_fame_3188-x600.jpg?enlarge=false&matte=true&matteColor=black&quality=0.85
http://www.cmt.com/artists/charlie-louvin/photos/3882320/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDTtLbXHN8E

Muskrat is an awesome song but it got 0 votes.

Don: "Our love was and will always be deeper than any earthly differences we might have had."

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20772391,00.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl7|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D426792

Wrote on "When Will I Be Loved" and "Man with Money":

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/

probably would have voted for "Bye Bye Love" in this poll

1962, but crying in the rain is a kinda-perfect, weirdly-obsessive, noir-ish little 50s pop song.

this song didn't count for the poll? it was first-released on a 1960 everly brothers' album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFE2SnliiV0

i guess, on second look, it wasn't a single. but what an iconic song. and their version is terrific.

Gram & Emmylou > Everlys > Nazareth >>>>>>>>>>>> Bob Pollard & Kim Deal

depends on whether you like your rock songs delicate, slightly spooky, or bombastic. for me, depends on mood. but who can argue the greatness of the orbison version?

I've probably heard the Orbison version, but the ones I ranked are the four versions I'm most familiar with.

voilà -- the orbison version

i just cried, on the train, listening to their version of love is strange

Poor Tracer.

<3

My mom told me today one of her favourite songs is Ebony Eyes. Listened to it tonight and felt like breaking down

Walk Right Back (1961)

Number one when I was born.

Let It Be Me