The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven


The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven

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-What is your name?

-Don Everly, aged 20.

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Only a 20-year-old would say his name in the first place.

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-How about you? What's your name?

-Phil Everly and I'm 18 years old.

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# Bye, bye, love

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# Bye, bye, happiness

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# Hello, loneliness

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# I think I'm-a gonna cry-y #

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Any musician with a set of ears was influenced by The Everly Brothers.

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Well, this is the best harmony I've ever heard in my life.

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And from that moment,

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I was on the train called The Everly Brothers.

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I don't think you'll ever find another pair that can match them.

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# Here he comes That's Cathy's clown. #

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Here's that thing about being brothers that the voices

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were so similar that that's also why the harmonies just sounded,

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you know, so great in unison.

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# Wake up, little Susie We gotta go home. #

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This programme contains some strong language

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They had a very different sound.

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They're fusing new elements into what had been up until then

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an easy-listening format.

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# I've been cheated Been mistreated

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# When will I be loved? #

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Some people are lucky enough

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to live at the time of a new form, others are not.

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The Everly Brothers were,

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that moment when rock and roll

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was just starting.

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And their gifts were perfect for it.

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Young at the right time,

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two people singing as if one head with two voices.

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# I can make you mine

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# Taste your lips of wine

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# Any time night or day

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# Only trouble is

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# Gee whiz

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# I'm dreamin' my life away. #

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For a period of five years,

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from 1957 to '62, The Everly Brothers

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were this amazing vocal duo

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who just completely dominated the pop charts.

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And they influenced a raft of musicians

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and bands who came in their wake.

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And the reason we all do what we do

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is cos we heard that and wanted to do it.

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# Walk right back to me this minute

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# Bring your love to me

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# Don't send it

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# I'm so lonesome every day

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# I'm so lonesome every day. #

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APPLAUSE

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It was 1957.

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I went bowling in Jamaica with Paul.

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I was on a school coach trip to the Lake District.

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You had to take a transfer and change buses.

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And on the jukebox was this wonderful sound...

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BYE BYE LOVE INTRO PLAYS

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And there the bus driver's radio

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-had...

-HE IMITATES THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO

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Which was Bye Bye Love

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and I didn't know who was singing it or knew what the song was.

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And for some reason, it played about nine times on the trot,

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I think the jukebox was stuck.

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My best friend Allan Clarke and I are attending

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a Catholic school girls' dance on a Saturday night,

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Bye Bye Love by The Everly Brothers

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came on the big speakers

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and it changed me and Allan's life completely.

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# Bye, bye, love

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# Bye, bye, happiness. #

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-And both Paul and I went...

-HE GASPS

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"These guys are the greatest.

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"How do they harmon...? Who are these people?"

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I'd seen that it was by some act called The Everly Brothers.

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"They're brothers, oh, no wonder, the DNA gives them a huge leg up."

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I didn't know how many there were.

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Whether they were a 10-piece band or what.

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But it made an enormous impact on me.

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# There goes my baby with-a someone new

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# She sure looks happy I sure am blue

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# She was my baby till he stepped in

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# Goodbye to romance that might have been. #

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It was the first time I ever heard music that I loved

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and I thought, "Wow, if this is what music is like,

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"I can't wait to find out more."

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And then I spent the last 30 years looking for anything that's as good

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as The Everly Brothers and there isn't anything.

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I assumed that was the tip of the iceberg,

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I thought all music was going to be that good.

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No.

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You bet music was changing.

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What came before that was so tame - Patti Page and Perry Como.

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Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and the Beverley Sisters.

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The crooners came out of the war and the war era

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when everybody needed to be on message, if you like,

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and together and now you're starting to get the age of teenage rebellion

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and younger people wanting music that they could identify with,

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which was much more their own.

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This stirring things up was much more...

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subversive is the word I would use.

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I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.

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The beginning for Phil and I is just a small dot on the map

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called Brownie, Kentucky.

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I was born in Brownie, Kentucky, it was the Brownie coal mines

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that named it Brownie, Kentucky,

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and my father worked at the coal mines then.

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These coal miners, you know, they worked five, six days a week

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and on the weekends, they get together

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and have their little parties

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and play music and that kind of thing.

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And my father, he came out of there playing a guitar.

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My father was

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a thumb picker out of Kentucky.

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-DON:

-But Mum and Dad moved to Chicago

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and I don't remember the move cos I was very young.

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And their father was a great musician

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and somebody who's knowledge of music and, you know,

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folk music, in particular, was encyclopaedic.

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He was a unique guitar player when he was up in Chicago

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and the area, playing the honky-tonk.

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Actually influenced Merle Travis.

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Merle was the guy who went to Hollywood and made good

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and influenced a lot of people.

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Ike Everly and Merle Travis are the people that we feel

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is really responsible for the thumb-and-finger style

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or thumb style of guitar playing.

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Chet Atkins, considered one of the greatest guitar players

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in American history and certainly one of the most influential,

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because he took a style

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which was sort of playing the rhythm

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with your thumb and using your fingers to sort of pick out

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the melody and so you have sort of

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a double guitar sound going on at once.

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HE PLAYS WITH THE THUMB STYLE

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The interesting thing about the finger-picking styles

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were they were things that were handed from musician to musician.

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Ike Everly was a tremendous influence on his sons

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and, of course, made sure that even though

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they were both left-handed, they played the correct way around.

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Because you'll have trouble for the rest of your life

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if you don't do that.

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I'm left-handed. I'm completely left-handed in everything.

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And he taught me right-handed, he wouldn't let me learn left-handed.

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Don was probably six years old, Phil four years old,

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they decided they did not want them to grow up

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in a big town like Chicago, they wanted them to grow up

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kind of like they did.

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So, they moved off to western Iowa.

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Back then, radio had artists that...they put their own shows on.

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This is in the days, of course, when America had thousands

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and thousands of very localised radio stations.

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My mother and father figured out that they could go get us on air

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as the Everly family.

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'54 degrees in Shenandoah, 6.16 is the time.

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'Now into part two with the Everly family.'

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It was every morning, early morning radio show.

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Before school.

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And they appeared as Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil.

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# She was crying, softly crying

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# Teardrops falling in the snow. #

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'This is Dad Everly,

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'speaking for Mum, Don, Baby Boy Phil.

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'Saying so long, thank you for listening.'

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Dad was teaching Phil and I to sing, you know, together.

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They grew up with harmony.

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It was like a language

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and thus, they could speak it when they got older.

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If you grew up in Louisville or you grew up in Kentucky,

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you were used to hearing bluegrass singing,

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you were used to hearing that kind of two-part harmony.

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That was just part of their lives, cos their mum and dad

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were doing that for years.

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That was how they were brought up,

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it was probably nothing strange for them.

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We think it's strange, you know,

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but I guess for them it wasn't strange,

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-cos they were brought up that way.

-BLUEGRASS MUSIC PLAYS

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I went back to Tennessee

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and then I started writing.

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And it just came out of the clear blue.

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Chet Atkins had a lot to do with it.

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We went to a concert that he was at down in Oxford, Tennessee,

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and my father called him over

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and he got talking and he introduced Phil and I to him to chat

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and told him that I was writing songs.

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He was, you know, enamoured with, Ike Everly and his sons,

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you know, he finds all of these talented singers,

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so he encourages them to come to Nashville

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and introduces them to Wesley Rose, who was running Acuff-Rose,

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which was the biggest music publishing organisation in town.

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We drove over from Knoxville and went to Chet Atkins' house.

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He lived in Belle Meade at the time.

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And we recorded something on Chet's tape in his house and he said,

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"I'll publish 'em if I get 'em recorded."

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And I said, "Fine."

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The Everlys were very fortunate to have him

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as their mentor in the early days.

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But I think he recognised very early on

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that there was a special talent there.

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He was really instinctive

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in the way he brought musicians and songs together.

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So, that was a very inspired move

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to give Kitty Wells, Don Everly's song - Thou Shalt Not Steal.

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It sort of startled me that one of them was recorded already.

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Kitty Wells, she was the first female country music star

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and was beginning to bring in real-life concerns,

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real-life issues, singing about, you know,

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double standards for men and women.

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It was a Bible song and it was about a cheating thing.

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# But I can't trade my love for pride

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# My conscience just can't be my guide

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# Too late to heed the warning

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# The love thou shalt not steal. #

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She sold quite a few records.

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I had got my cheque, that money got me and Phil to Nashville

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when I graduated high school.

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We're now living

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in Nashville, Tennessee.

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This is our town of Nashville.

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Nashville as a music town,

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you know, goes back to the start of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s,

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which was pretty much the beginning of commercial radio,

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commercial records or commercial music at all.

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The Grand Ole Opry

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was the nucleus of that

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and people came here by the droves

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to be on that show, which was broadcast on WSM,

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which was a 50,000-watt clear channel.

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And as the Opry grew, they had more reach than other radio stations,

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so you could hear them in Texas, you could hear them in Michigan,

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you know, you could hear them in Florida.

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They were so paranoid that they thought at some point

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they might have to make announcements

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over the radio, nationally,

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if there was a threat from the Soviet Union.

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'We interrupt our normal programme to cooperate

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'in security and civil defence measures.'

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In the end, the technology was used in a more positive way

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in terms of the music industry.

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You had millions of people sitting by their radio

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on those Saturday nights from the farms to the cities,

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falling in love with artists that they'd never seen,

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had never heard of, but were all of a sudden

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becoming their best friends.

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The Grand Ole Opry, which was on the radio, was a radio show

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and radio shows really meant something.

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It really helped win a national audience

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for country music among young people.

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It was crucial that kids listened to the radio and here,

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hardware becomes important.

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The invention of the transistor radio.

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Most houses had a radio or a radiogram.

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And that was in the sitting room.

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And that was your parents' territory and that's what they controlled.

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So, the transistor radio suddenly allowed young people

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to take their music to their rooms,

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listen to what they wanted to listen to.

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As regional as America was still at that point,

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you know, I think certain people in country music

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realised that this didn't have to be just a regional music,

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this could be a national music.

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Nashville was buzzing

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and a lot of things going on

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if you were interested in music, this was the place to go

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and see what was going on.

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At that point in time, we had RCA,

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we had Decca, we had Capitol,

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and Columbia.

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Those were the record companies in Nashville.

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There's a great story about Chet Atkins.

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Somebody asked him, you know, "Chet, like,

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"what is the national sound?"

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And he shakes his pocket and the coins all rattle and he goes,

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"That's the national sound. That's the sound of money."

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My parents, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant,

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were the first songwriting duo

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and team of professional writers in Nashville.

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So, by 1957 when the Everlys had arrived,

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my parents had had many hits.

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They wrote every day.

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It was their job and they would wake up every morning and write

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and it was, you know, come rain or come shine or colds or sickness,

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it didn't matter, this was their job.

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They showed that you can make a living as songwriters

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and they also showed that you had to go to work at it

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and be a professional at it.

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My brother and I were in the back seat one day driving to a home site

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where we were building a new home.

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And there was a light drizzle

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and the windshield wipers were going.

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And Dad started Bye Bye Love to the rhythm of the windshield wipers.

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He says, "Listen to this, it was...

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# Bye, bye, love

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# Bye, bye, happiness

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# Hello, something else

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# I think I'm gonna... #

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Die, cry or whatever the heck that was.

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And I said, "Oh, yeah." I was really impressed.

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DEL: Dad started showing it around

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and a lot of people liked it, but turned it down.

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I listened to it and I said, "We could do it."

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And it was as simple as that.

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I would've sung anything.

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The idea that we were going to get the chance to record,

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I knew we were going to make 64.

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And 64 sounded real important to me at the time.

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The real seismic change which had taken place in the '50s

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in American music was this coming together

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of black and white styles.

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I think the change, to be perfectly honest,

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was to do with black influence going mainstream,

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you know, because all the way through the big band era,

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it had been the, you know, the black musicians

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that were kind of driving it.

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And then into jazz, a lot of the black musicians

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went into the jazz area and sort of drove that.

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And I think probably for the first time, the younger people,

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they actually didn't care where the music came from.

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They cared about the music.

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There was a lot of gospel music, black gospel music

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on the radio back then.

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And it was wonderful music.

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So, you have the blues with black people,

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you have country and western with white people, but equally sincere.

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And then comes this moment in the mid-50s

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when the two were fused and the living synthesis is Elvis Presley.

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I think what was so shocking about it was that for the first time,

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you know, a white artist was doing what black people had been doing

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for years and years and years and people were anxious about that.

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I was very interested in black music and then country music too,

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the two together made rock and roll, I believe.

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I think Don had mentioned to Chet that he really loved Bo Diddly

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and he said, "How does he get that sound on his guitar?"

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BO DIDDLY PLAYS GUITAR

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I fell for Bo Diddly sounds and the rhythm that he got.

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And I just loved it. Loved it.

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BO DIDDLY PLAYS GUITAR

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Whoo!

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The drive that Bo Diddly had in his music

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is this incredible kind of rumble.

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That's there in The Everly Brothers' songs.

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I've followed him, you know, his music

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and I was trying to get it involved in my music

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and Archie Bleyer, the head of Cadence Records said,

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"Well, why don't you take that arrangement

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and put it on Bye Bye Love?

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And I said, "I never thought of that."

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THEY PLAY THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO

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APPLAUSE

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You see, there are some things you can't do

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in classical, regular tuning.

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You can only do it where you've got these weird

0:18:120:18:16

little country tunings and stuff.

0:18:160:18:19

HE PLAYS THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO

0:18:190:18:21

And I guess it rubbed off on me.

0:18:240:18:27

Don's acoustic guitar,

0:18:270:18:30

that rhythm guitar was rocking, man.

0:18:300:18:33

And now, eight seconds later, the intro's over, the song begins.

0:18:330:18:38

# Bye, bye, love

0:18:380:18:42

# Bye, bye, happiness,

0:18:420:18:44

# Hello, loneliness

0:18:440:18:46

# I think I'm-a gonna cry-y. #

0:18:460:18:49

You have to write material that

0:18:490:18:51

can sustain those two voices,

0:18:510:18:53

running through the whole song.

0:18:530:18:55

So that when the individual voice comes in, you know,

0:18:550:18:58

usually Don's, you know, that really has a dramatic impact,

0:18:580:19:02

because mostly they're singing harmony all the way through.

0:19:020:19:05

# I'm-a through with romance

0:19:050:19:08

# I'm a-through with love

0:19:080:19:10

# I'm through with-a countin' the stars above

0:19:100:19:16

# And here's the reason that I'm so free

0:19:160:19:21

# My lovin' baby is through with me

0:19:210:19:25

# Bye, bye, love. #

0:19:280:19:30

The Everly Brothers were the first example in rock and roll

0:19:300:19:34

of something that happens very rarely,

0:19:340:19:37

but always beautifully in popular music,

0:19:370:19:39

which is family groups singing in close harmony.

0:19:390:19:42

The Andrews Sisters, the Bee Gees who were the Gibb brothers,

0:19:420:19:46

The Beach Boys, who were a family group.

0:19:460:19:48

And these exquisite harmonies come from people

0:19:480:19:53

who've just been together all their lives.

0:19:530:19:55

They cannot be separated.

0:19:550:19:58

The classic model is thirds.

0:19:580:20:01

One guy sings... HE VOCALISES

0:20:010:20:03

And the other guy goes... HIGHER PITCHED VOCALISATION

0:20:030:20:06

The interval is thirds.

0:20:060:20:08

# La da... #

0:20:080:20:10

If you hold that interval you have a very simple and pleasing,

0:20:100:20:14

sweet, kind of folky harmony.

0:20:140:20:16

Boudleaux designed that harmony.

0:20:160:20:18

You know, and I just sang it.

0:20:180:20:20

That was... But he designed it to be that way.

0:20:200:20:22

And that's all the greatness... All that stuff really counted.

0:20:220:20:25

Phil was such a genius at matching Don's sound

0:20:250:20:30

that they produced two halves of a whole.

0:20:300:20:33

Boudleaux could hear harmonies.

0:20:330:20:35

He could see what he wanted to

0:20:350:20:38

happen with that piece of material.

0:20:380:20:40

# Bye-bye love

0:20:400:20:43

# Bye-bye sweet caress

0:20:430:20:46

# Hello emptiness

0:20:460:20:48

# I feel like I could die... #

0:20:480:20:51

The difference is that Phil's voice was pitched in a tenor range

0:20:510:20:56

and Don's was more baritone tenor

0:20:560:20:59

so that the two-note difference that gives you the thirds interval

0:20:590:21:05

was perfectly comfortable for Phil to be higher.

0:21:050:21:08

# Bye-bye my love

0:21:080:21:10

# Goodbye

0:21:100:21:11

# Bye-bye my love

0:21:110:21:12

# Goodbye... #

0:21:120:21:14

There was a little buzz about this record, you know.

0:21:140:21:17

This was a pretty good record.

0:21:170:21:18

So we got the job down in Mississippi and Alabama.

0:21:180:21:22

On that trip, the record came out

0:21:220:21:25

and we were making 90 a week apiece, which was a fortune to us.

0:21:250:21:28

The team in New York that did the promotion for Cadence Records

0:21:280:21:33

made a mistake with the record Bye Bye Love.

0:21:330:21:36

They sent it out to all of the radio stations.

0:21:360:21:40

The country ones they had received addresses on, and the pop stations.

0:21:400:21:44

By the time we got back to Nashville on the end of that tour,

0:21:440:21:47

we were in the top ten.

0:21:470:21:48

In pop and in country.

0:21:480:21:51

And that was the... The game was on.

0:21:510:21:56

Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley was number one.

0:21:560:21:58

Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers was held at number two.

0:21:580:22:02

You go and you record...a thing like that just happens to you.

0:22:020:22:06

You don't know why, where or how.

0:22:060:22:09

You can be talented, but that isn't enough sometimes.

0:22:090:22:13

You've got to be lucky.

0:22:130:22:14

You've got to be at the time the market is ready for you.

0:22:140:22:17

That the public is ready to listen to you.

0:22:170:22:20

You've got to have that on your side.

0:22:200:22:22

Almost all the other artists that could

0:22:220:22:24

fill in the gaps between Elvis records were the

0:22:240:22:29

black rhythm and blues pioneers such as

0:22:290:22:31

Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry,

0:22:310:22:33

who had already been going.

0:22:330:22:35

They had really brought what Alan Freed called rock and roll

0:22:350:22:40

to the public consciousness.

0:22:400:22:42

So the radio stations had all of these wonderful

0:22:420:22:45

African American artists and Elvis Presley.

0:22:450:22:48

"Let's get some more white people into the mix."

0:22:480:22:50

Usually in history, it's the other way round.

0:22:500:22:53

Here were the Everly Brothers - a real deal -

0:22:530:22:56

genuine, white teenagers.

0:22:560:22:58

And they sang music with a rock and roll sensibility.

0:22:580:23:01

Even though it was not that far divorced from pure country music.

0:23:010:23:05

They were the country side of rock and roll.

0:23:050:23:08

But it was rock and roll.

0:23:080:23:09

After Bye Bye Love, we went on the road.

0:23:090:23:12

We were... Things were happening.

0:23:120:23:15

And we were travelling around this, that and the other.

0:23:150:23:17

And we had to start thinking about a second single.

0:23:170:23:20

And then you became the worry about one-record act.

0:23:200:23:22

Cos there were plenty of them in rock and roll.

0:23:220:23:24

Then Boudleaux brought in Wake Up Little Susie.

0:23:240:23:27

But he had designed Wake Up Little Susie

0:23:270:23:29

with the holes in it

0:23:290:23:31

for that guitar work. Cos he knew that this would work.

0:23:310:23:35

And therein is the power of what we had from Boudleaux and Felice.

0:23:350:23:39

That they started designing things for us.

0:23:390:23:42

I can never think of the Everly Brothers, knowing what I know

0:23:420:23:47

now about songwriting, that there were actually four people involved.

0:23:470:23:52

And the other two were Felice and Boudleaux Bryant,

0:23:520:23:56

who wrote all of those beautifully written songs.

0:23:560:24:01

And so well-suited to the boys' voices.

0:24:010:24:03

Isn't it terrible to think a few years from now,

0:24:030:24:07

these boys will both wind up looking like Yul Brynner?

0:24:070:24:10

LAUGHTER

0:24:100:24:12

# Wake up, little Susie, wake up. #

0:24:180:24:24

The way Don uses it, it's quite aggressive.

0:24:240:24:26

Rather than just be some gentle backing to fill out the track.

0:24:260:24:31

So it would punch through the mix, sort of thing.

0:24:310:24:35

And he'd get that...

0:24:350:24:37

HE PLAYS Wake Up Little Susie

0:24:370:24:41

It was downstrokes. Dan-da-da-da-da.

0:24:410:24:45

The intro was all downstrokes.

0:24:450:24:48

HE VOCALISES GUITAR PART

0:24:480:24:52

# Wake up, little Susie, wake up... #

0:24:580:25:03

Wake Up Little Susie would be recorded here.

0:25:030:25:06

It was the next record after Bye Bye Love.

0:25:060:25:08

I was upstairs. I hadn't gotten out of bed yet. And Boudleaux

0:25:080:25:13

was on the main floor, which wasn't carpeted.

0:25:130:25:16

And so the acoustics were just feeding up to the bedroom section.

0:25:160:25:21

And I hear this...

0:25:210:25:22

# Wake up, little Susie, wake up #

0:25:220:25:25

and I thought, "Man, that sounds great. Just that much."

0:25:250:25:29

And so, I thought I'd better get downstairs,

0:25:290:25:32

because Boudleaux was most capable of finishing stuff on his own.

0:25:320:25:36

And I had to jump in when I thought,

0:25:360:25:39

"We've got something here. I want a piece of this."

0:25:390:25:42

In its early stages, as Dad was writing it,

0:25:420:25:46

was a little bit what Mother thought was a little too risque.

0:25:460:25:49

She kind of cleaned it up.

0:25:490:25:51

I added some lyrics because I thought Boudleaux was getting

0:25:510:25:56

a little too rough, you know.

0:25:560:25:59

And so I put the bridge in.

0:25:590:26:02

"The movie wasn't so hot

0:26:020:26:04

"Didn't have much of a plot

0:26:040:26:05

"We fell asleep

0:26:050:26:07

"Our goose is cooked

0:26:070:26:08

"Our reputation is shot."

0:26:080:26:09

# The movie wasn't so hot

0:26:090:26:12

# It didn't have much of a plot

0:26:120:26:14

# We fell asleep

0:26:140:26:16

# Our goose is cooked

0:26:160:26:17

# Our reputation is shot

0:26:170:26:19

# Wake up, little Susie

0:26:190:26:21

# Wake up, little Susie

0:26:210:26:24

# We gotta go home. #

0:26:240:26:26

For an artist in those days, you would have what were called

0:26:260:26:29

regional breakouts and then they would go from region to region.

0:26:290:26:32

So you would be popular for a long period of time

0:26:320:26:34

but not always in the same place at the same time.

0:26:340:26:37

So Bye Bye Love had a long chart life.

0:26:370:26:40

Peaking at number two from an extended run in the charts.

0:26:400:26:43

Then Wake Up Little Susie comes out and everybody is paying

0:26:430:26:46

attention at the same time and it's a very quick number one.

0:26:460:26:50

There is a kind of winking sexuality to Wake Up Little Susie.

0:26:500:26:53

You know, there's a sense that essentially

0:26:530:26:56

they spent the night together.

0:26:560:26:57

And they're in trouble. And the parents are upset.

0:26:570:27:02

And the friends are saying, "Ooh la la."

0:27:020:27:04

# Ooh la la. #

0:27:040:27:06

Which everyone knew was French for racy.

0:27:060:27:08

# Well, what are we going to tell your mama?

0:27:080:27:12

# What are we going to tell your pa?

0:27:120:27:14

# What are we going to tell our friends

0:27:140:27:16

# When they say, "Ooh la la!"

0:27:160:27:19

# Wake up, little Susie... #

0:27:190:27:22

It was banned in Boston.

0:27:220:27:24

And a couple of other places.

0:27:240:27:26

My father was thrilled because at that time, as today,

0:27:260:27:30

when something is banned with a certain amount of publicity,

0:27:300:27:34

it really has the tendency to spark interest and explode.

0:27:340:27:38

And indeed, Wake Up Little Susie did.

0:27:380:27:41

It's hard now for people to realise how scandalous that would

0:27:410:27:44

have seemed at the time.

0:27:440:27:46

But was much more in keeping with what was actually

0:27:460:27:48

realistically going on.

0:27:480:27:49

Every other word out of people's mouths in the 1950s

0:27:490:27:53

was about juvenile delinquents.

0:27:530:27:55

There was a lot of concern about

0:27:550:27:56

what was happening with rock and roll.

0:27:560:27:58

And a song like Wake Up Little Susie,

0:27:580:28:01

as innocent as it is, to a degree, participated in that.

0:28:010:28:06

It was really the emergence of the teenager as we know it.

0:28:060:28:09

The purse strings were also just in transition from being

0:28:090:28:14

the older generation to being a situation where the younger

0:28:140:28:17

generation was starting to have their own money.

0:28:170:28:19

For the first time, you had young people who could buy records

0:28:190:28:23

and they bought them in droves.

0:28:230:28:24

It was the times.

0:28:240:28:26

It was America coming

0:28:260:28:27

out of the Eisenhower administration

0:28:270:28:30

and the greyness, straightness of that administration.

0:28:300:28:34

America did not realise how lucky it was in the 1950s.

0:28:340:28:37

First of all, it had not been bombed,

0:28:370:28:39

with the exception of Pearl Harbor, which was off in Hawaii somewhere,

0:28:390:28:42

the mainland had not been bombed in the war.

0:28:420:28:45

So it was not spending millions to rebuild.

0:28:450:28:49

There was an incredible sense of optimism in the country.

0:28:490:28:52

The economy was booming.

0:28:520:28:55

The country felt very young.

0:28:550:28:56

There were a lot of young kids around. It was the baby boom.

0:28:560:28:59

What started to become more relevant was fashion and cars,

0:28:590:29:05

you know, things which were sort of style objects

0:29:050:29:09

which were much more about the youth of the day.

0:29:090:29:13

Back then, it was brand-new. Rock and roll was brand-new.

0:29:130:29:17

Nobody knew how to do it.

0:29:170:29:20

Don was very smart about guitar parts and arrangements.

0:29:200:29:24

And I'm sure Chet had some say in that too.

0:29:240:29:26

The drums are barely part of those early records.

0:29:260:29:29

It's mostly just guitars, bass and electric guitar.

0:29:290:29:33

But it's very carefully thought out. It's well arranged.

0:29:330:29:36

And it's so well recorded.

0:29:360:29:38

Everything was just in the right place.

0:29:380:29:41

So simple but so difficult to do.

0:29:410:29:43

I'm sure that you recognise this as a golden record.

0:29:430:29:47

And this is the third golden record that the boys have won.

0:29:470:29:50

This year.

0:29:500:29:51

This, of course, is All I Have To Do Is Dream

0:29:510:29:54

by the Everly Brothers.

0:29:540:29:55

Donald told me that one night they were on the

0:29:550:29:59

rock and roll tour bus and Buddy Holly came over

0:29:590:30:02

and sat down next to him and he goes,

0:30:020:30:04

"Hey, man. I wrote a song for you guys. It's called Not Fade Away."

0:30:040:30:09

He played it for them.

0:30:090:30:11

And Donald says to me, "Yeah. That's great."

0:30:110:30:14

He says, "I love it, but we can't do it."

0:30:140:30:16

He says, "We're going back to Nashville.

0:30:160:30:19

"We've got to cut some ballad called Dream."

0:30:190:30:22

After a novelty like Bye Bye Love, you have to come in with

0:30:220:30:26

another novelty. Wake Up Little Susie.

0:30:260:30:29

After that, you've got to give them...

0:30:290:30:34

You can live longer on a ballad.

0:30:340:30:35

Dream, I think actually made us a...

0:30:350:30:39

The difference between sort of an act

0:30:400:30:43

and then being here forever, you know?

0:30:430:30:45

At that time in America, there were different categories,

0:30:450:30:49

different charts - pop charts, country charts,

0:30:490:30:53

what they called the race records charts.

0:30:530:30:57

And not many artists crossed over

0:30:570:31:01

because they were marketed very differently.

0:31:010:31:03

Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie,

0:31:030:31:06

and Dream I think were all in the R&B charts.

0:31:060:31:08

They were on the pop charts and they were on the country charts.

0:31:080:31:12

They were on all three charts at that time.

0:31:120:31:14

# Dream, dream, dream

0:31:140:31:16

# When I feel blue

0:31:160:31:19

# In the night

0:31:190:31:20

# And I need you

0:31:200:31:23

# To hold me tight

0:31:230:31:25

# Whenever I want you

0:31:250:31:27

# All I have to do

0:31:270:31:29

# Is dream. #

0:31:290:31:33

At this particular time now, we're having success with the Everlys

0:31:330:31:38

so we wrote for them specifically.

0:31:380:31:41

On the slow ones, the harmonies can really stretch out.

0:31:410:31:45

And that is the forte of the Everly Brothers.

0:31:450:31:50

# I can make you mine

0:31:500:31:53

# Taste your lips with wine

0:31:530:31:55

# Any time, night or day

0:31:550:32:00

# Only trouble is

0:32:000:32:03

# Gee whizz

0:32:030:32:05

# I'm dreamin' my life away... #

0:32:050:32:10

That line, "Only trouble is, gee whizz, I'm dreaming my life away"

0:32:100:32:13

is a great line.

0:32:130:32:14

He says, like, you know, gee whizz is one of the lyrics.

0:32:140:32:17

I don't think that now it's going to have the same appeal,

0:32:170:32:21

but, you know, that's the beauty of it.

0:32:210:32:24

It was a time and it was, you know...

0:32:240:32:27

At the time, it was really cool.

0:32:270:32:30

I still think it's cool.

0:32:300:32:31

They've recorded All I Have To Do Is Dream 31 times.

0:32:310:32:35

Back in those days, you couldn't record like you can now.

0:32:350:32:39

You didn't have the digital tracks so you could slice and cut.

0:32:390:32:42

If you messed up, you backed up, started all over again.

0:32:420:32:46

And something happens then. You get a warmth and a power.

0:32:460:32:50

And, of course, adjusting the mics all the time.

0:32:500:32:52

In between each outtake.

0:32:520:32:54

So eventually it comes together and you hit the centre and bam,

0:32:540:32:57

you've got it. And you go, "That's it, we can all go home."

0:32:570:33:00

# Whenever I want you

0:33:000:33:02

# All I have to do

0:33:020:33:04

# Is dream

0:33:040:33:07

# Dream, dream, dream

0:33:070:33:10

# Dream

0:33:100:33:12

# Dream, dream, dream

0:33:120:33:15

# Dream

0:33:150:33:17

# Dream, dream, dream

0:33:170:33:20

# Dream. #

0:33:200:33:23

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:33:230:33:25

There is the second level of hits

0:33:250:33:30

after the big three.

0:33:300:33:32

The big three established what they can do.

0:33:320:33:35

It establishes them internationally.

0:33:350:33:36

Well, then, they've got to do something else.

0:33:360:33:38

But they can't make a breakthrough any more

0:33:380:33:41

because they've already made the breakthrough.

0:33:410:33:43

They've made their contribution.

0:33:430:33:45

They can just have more hit records.

0:33:450:33:46

And so they have this period of very enjoyable songs,

0:33:460:33:50

which would be late '58 and '59.

0:33:500:33:53

# Johnny is a joker

0:33:530:33:55

# He's a bird

0:33:550:33:57

# A very funny joker

0:33:570:33:59

# He's a bird

0:33:590:34:00

# But when he jokes, my honey

0:34:000:34:02

# He's a dog

0:34:020:34:03

# His joking ain't so funny

0:34:030:34:05

# What a dog

0:34:050:34:06

# Johnny is a joker that's a-tryin' to steal my baby

0:34:060:34:10

# He's a bird dog. #

0:34:100:34:12

Great lyrics again. I mean, daft but brilliant.

0:34:120:34:15

There was another one. They threw it in there.

0:34:180:34:22

Oh, it's in Problems, isn't it? Yeah.

0:34:220:34:24

Where that keeps, that thing, the...

0:34:240:34:26

HE PLAYS Problems

0:34:260:34:28

That bit. That's the Everly Brothers' thing.

0:34:280:34:31

# Problems, problems, problems all day long

0:34:350:34:39

# Will my problems work out right or wrong? #

0:34:420:34:46

My father was working...digging ditches and stuff up there

0:34:480:34:51

by the end.

0:34:510:34:53

And he told us that he couldn't support us any more.

0:34:530:34:55

I said, "It's OK. We're making money now."

0:34:550:34:57

And then I said, "You've got to quit your job and come back with us."

0:34:570:35:03

The trappings of success were, certainly back then,

0:35:030:35:06

very straightforward material things.

0:35:060:35:09

A nice place to live, a nice car, nice clothes,

0:35:090:35:13

be able to go out to the higher class establishments.

0:35:130:35:18

In the late '50s...

0:35:180:35:21

everybody...

0:35:210:35:23

You did the normal thing.

0:35:230:35:25

You bought them a house and everything.

0:35:250:35:27

# Worries, worries pile upon my head

0:35:270:35:32

# Woe is me, I shoulda stayed in bed... #

0:35:350:35:39

I was paying 90% taxes, though.

0:35:390:35:42

First taxes I paid were 90%.

0:35:420:35:45

I couldn't believe that. But that was the way it was.

0:35:450:35:48

# Problems, problems, problems

0:35:480:35:55

# They won't be solved until I'm sure of you. #

0:35:550:36:01

90% is a lot of money to pay to the government for nothing.

0:36:010:36:05

It was for, you know, for bombers and things.

0:36:050:36:08

# Problems, problems, problems all day long. #

0:36:110:36:17

I played one of the Everly Brothers signature editions.

0:36:170:36:21

I think it was, yeah, it was one of the Gibson ones.

0:36:210:36:24

It was just one of those.

0:36:240:36:25

You pick it up and it was a pretty magical thing.

0:36:250:36:28

It had that top end sound to it, which is just them.

0:36:280:36:33

We designed it. I said I wanted a smaller guitar.

0:36:330:36:37

I said, "Make it three-quarters size of it."

0:36:370:36:40

And I said, "That's the size we want. And I want a black guitar."

0:36:400:36:43

And he said black guitars wouldn't be any good cos they wouldn't sell.

0:36:430:36:46

And I said, "Well, that's what I want."

0:36:460:36:49

Didn't play that good.

0:36:490:36:51

They looked good.

0:36:510:36:52

They looked like a '50s Cadillac.

0:36:520:36:54

HE LAUGHS

0:36:540:36:57

I could see why they were hits.

0:37:040:37:06

They were great fucking records. Every one.

0:37:060:37:09

For about 12, 13 in a row.

0:37:090:37:11

For the first few years, I would buy my Cadence Records,

0:37:110:37:15

produced by Archie Bleyer, take it home and go, "The streak continues.

0:37:150:37:20

"They just don't quit in how great they are, these guys."

0:37:200:37:24

# Take a message to Mary

0:37:240:37:28

# But don't tell her where I am

0:37:280:37:33

# Take a message to Mary

0:37:330:37:37

# But don't say I'm in a jam

0:37:370:37:41

# You can tell her I had to see the world

0:37:410:37:46

# Tell her that my ship set sail

0:37:460:37:50

# You can say she'd better not wait for me

0:37:500:37:55

# But don't tell her I'm in jail. #

0:37:550:37:58

When I listen to it, it sends the shivers up your spine.

0:37:580:38:02

It's a good sadness, you know.

0:38:020:38:05

It makes you feel a certain way.

0:38:050:38:08

It's not a typical sadness.

0:38:080:38:10

Take A Message To Mary was a stone in the vacuum cleaner.

0:38:100:38:14

Click. Click. Click.

0:38:140:38:18

# Take a message to Mary. #

0:38:180:38:20

At the session, when they were recording this,

0:38:200:38:25

Archie Bleyer, who knew nothing about my vacuum cleaner,

0:38:250:38:29

said to Boudleaux.

0:38:290:38:31

He said, "You know, Boudleaux, I hear a chink, chink,

0:38:310:38:36

"chink in this Take A Message."

0:38:360:38:38

And he said, "Somebody bring me a Coke bottle.

0:38:400:38:43

"And somebody get me a screwdriver."

0:38:430:38:45

So he says, "Here, Boudleaux, you belong to the union."

0:38:450:38:48

SHE LAUGHS

0:38:480:38:50

He says, "Hit this Coke bottle."

0:38:500:38:52

And he says, "That'll take care of what I think I hear."

0:38:540:38:58

So that's what you hear on the Everlys' record

0:38:580:39:01

of Take A Message To Mary.

0:39:010:39:03

You hear Boudleaux playing a Coke bottle.

0:39:030:39:05

# You can tell her I had to change my plans

0:39:050:39:09

# And cancel out the wedding day

0:39:090:39:13

# But please don't mention my lonely cell

0:39:130:39:17

# Where I'm gonna pine away

0:39:170:39:21

# Until my dyin' day. #

0:39:210:39:26

The Everlys could pull your fucking heartstrings out.

0:39:260:39:31

And still do when I listen to the records.

0:39:310:39:35

They couldn't not sound good.

0:39:350:39:39

You know, they would take a song, take it apart,

0:39:390:39:42

put it back together and...

0:39:420:39:45

it's still really, really interesting and solid.

0:39:450:39:49

Till I Kissed You was Don Everly, I think he wrote that on his own.

0:39:490:39:53

Yeah, it had a great da-dum, that drum sound on it.

0:39:530:39:59

The drum was quite an important part of the rhythm,

0:39:590:40:02

which was unusual for the Everlys.

0:40:020:40:04

# Never felt like this until I kissed you

0:40:040:40:08

# How did I exist until I kissed you?

0:40:100:40:14

# Never had you on my mind

0:40:170:40:20

# Now you're there all the time

0:40:210:40:24

# Never knew what I missed till I kissed you

0:40:240:40:28

# Uh-huh

0:40:290:40:30

# I kissed you

0:40:300:40:32

# Oh, yeah. #

0:40:320:40:34

It's funny, you know.

0:40:340:40:35

If you listen to the records, when the harmonies are singing,

0:40:350:40:38

Phil's voice is the louder voice.

0:40:380:40:40

His voice was pure. He had a pure voice. You know?

0:40:400:40:45

Pure harmony.

0:40:450:40:47

And everybody liked that harmony.

0:40:470:40:48

They would sing along with the records.

0:40:480:40:51

So they equated it with Phil.

0:40:510:40:53

# Mm, you got a way about you

0:40:530:40:57

# Now I can't live without you

0:40:570:41:01

# Never knew what I missed till I kissed you

0:41:010:41:06

# Uh-huh. #

0:41:060:41:07

If you didn't know, you wouldn't guess they were brothers.

0:41:070:41:10

They are wholly different personalities.

0:41:100:41:13

We never got along.

0:41:130:41:15

He was...different than I.

0:41:150:41:16

He was a Republican. I was a Democrat. You know?

0:41:160:41:20

And I couldn't believe he was voting for Republicans.

0:41:200:41:23

I just couldn't believe it.

0:41:230:41:24

I was a complete Democrat. I was...just a leftist, you know?

0:41:240:41:30

You'd find that you wouldn't really get along with both.

0:41:300:41:34

You wouldn't be in both camps.

0:41:340:41:35

You would fall into one or the other.

0:41:350:41:38

I didn't know anyone who was really friendly with both of them

0:41:380:41:41

at the same time.

0:41:410:41:42

It's just funny to think of the Everly Brothers as belonging

0:41:420:41:44

to another great rock tradition, which is

0:41:440:41:47

that of the brothers who can't stand each other.

0:41:470:41:50

When you have two talented people working together...

0:41:500:41:53

there's always going to be friction. And that friction

0:41:530:41:56

often leads to really good things.

0:41:560:41:57

After the Everlys came The Kinks...

0:41:570:42:02

Oasis, Creedence Clearwater Revival,

0:42:020:42:06

Jesus And Mary Chain.

0:42:060:42:07

It just seems that there's something about having two

0:42:070:42:10

brothers in with line-up which is a recipe for conflict and grief.

0:42:100:42:15

The fact that they happened to be brothers means that they

0:42:150:42:18

probably expressed themselves more directly to each other.

0:42:180:42:22

Phil died about a year and a half ago. Almost two years now.

0:42:220:42:26

And I miss him, you know?

0:42:280:42:30

# We used to have good times together

0:42:320:42:38

# But now I feel them slip away

0:42:420:42:48

# It makes me cry

0:42:510:42:55

# To see love die

0:42:560:43:01

# So sad to watch good love go bad. #

0:43:010:43:06

We went from Cadence to Warner Bros

0:43:080:43:12

because they offered us 1 million.

0:43:120:43:14

You have to think of what 1 million was then and what 1 million is now.

0:43:140:43:20

I mean, if you think about what a million dollars could have bought.

0:43:200:43:24

Warner Bros was a new company.

0:43:240:43:26

It was a spin-off of the film company, obviously.

0:43:260:43:30

And it started releasing film soundtracks, movie-related stuff.

0:43:300:43:36

But they wanted a rock group because rock and roll was big.

0:43:360:43:40

So they got the Everly Brothers in.

0:43:400:43:43

When we left Cadence, we had to give them 14 records.

0:43:430:43:48

Or 14 singles.

0:43:480:43:50

And I thought, "Oh, gosh. We have to do 14 singles, wouldn't work."

0:43:500:43:54

So I told Archie. I said, "Why don't we do Songs Our Daddy Taught Us?"

0:43:540:43:58

I had that idea, I thought it was a good idea.

0:43:580:44:02

It's like, "No, maybe we better make this record that shows

0:44:020:44:06

audiences a little bit who we are more fully."

0:44:060:44:09

I think it's inevitable that as well as doing

0:44:090:44:13

pop, rock and roll, as it was considered then,

0:44:130:44:16

they would go back to their roots. Cos their roots go deeper.

0:44:160:44:20

I mean, this was kind of mountain music and folk music.

0:44:200:44:24

And, you know, it was stuff that was very much

0:44:240:44:28

woven into the kind of communities that they lived in and grew up in.

0:44:280:44:33

One of these early songs which they use on that album

0:44:330:44:35

is a favourite of mine called Kentucky.

0:44:350:44:38

This was something of a standard in country circles.

0:44:380:44:41

I don't think it was an enormous pop hit.

0:44:410:44:44

But it was a favourite with the country audiences.

0:44:440:44:46

# Kentucky

0:44:490:44:54

# I miss you... #

0:44:560:44:58

They both had to get in on that one mic.

0:44:580:45:01

And that was really magical.

0:45:010:45:04

There was something about it

0:45:040:45:05

when they got on that one microphone,

0:45:050:45:08

we'd all look at each other and think, "Wow, listen to that!"

0:45:080:45:11

# I die... #

0:45:110:45:14

Don would do his...

0:45:180:45:19

HE STRUMS GUITAR

0:45:190:45:21

Maybe do his little solo bits and he'd lift it up to the microphone.

0:45:210:45:26

So you could hear it, you know?

0:45:270:45:30

I'd never heard anything so beautiful.

0:45:340:45:36

And by the time they'd got to the ending,

0:45:360:45:39

when they did this slide down at the end of it,

0:45:390:45:41

this vocal slide down together, I was standing there crying.

0:45:410:45:45

# Kentucky... #

0:45:470:45:57

Cathy's Clown was the first one for Warner's.

0:46:010:46:05

First one for Warner's had to be good.

0:46:050:46:08

That was one of the criteria.

0:46:080:46:09

Had it not been for the Everly Brothers, Warner Bros

0:46:090:46:12

probably would not exist today. Because of Cathy's Clown.

0:46:120:46:15

# Don't want your love any more... #

0:46:150:46:22

Huge international number one, Cathy's Clown.

0:46:220:46:26

So, at a time when Warner Bros is haemorrhaging money,

0:46:270:46:32

their balance sheet is saved not by a film star,

0:46:320:46:36

not by a soundtrack, but by the Everly Brothers.

0:46:360:46:38

You couldn't make it up.

0:46:380:46:40

# I die each time

0:46:400:46:44

# I hear this sound

0:46:440:46:47

# Here he comes

0:46:480:46:52

# That's Cathy's clown. #

0:46:520:46:54

Cathy's Clown was designed pretty much in the same way.

0:46:540:46:58

Donald designed that.

0:46:580:47:00

And what people mistook for the lead was the harmony part.

0:47:000:47:04

He wanted me on a sustained note. That was his idea.

0:47:040:47:07

And he dropped the lead down to that.

0:47:070:47:09

Phil told me that he had to call Donald and say,

0:47:090:47:13

"Hey, man, you better come over here.

0:47:130:47:15

"I think I wrote something good." So he goes over to his house

0:47:150:47:18

and he's got the chorus to Cathy's Clown written.

0:47:180:47:20

And Donald wrote the parts that he sang along.

0:47:200:47:23

"I've gotta stand tall."

0:47:230:47:25

# I've gotta stand tall

0:47:250:47:29

# You know a man can't crawl

0:47:290:47:33

# When he knows you're tellin' lies

0:47:330:47:34

# And he let's 'em pass him by

0:47:340:47:37

# Then he's not a man at all. #

0:47:370:47:40

They could express it, that sort of...young sort of yearning,

0:47:400:47:47

melancholy thing,

0:47:470:47:49

and still make you feel good.

0:47:490:47:51

You know? Even though it's so sad to see good love go bad.

0:47:510:47:56

You know? HE CHUCKLES

0:47:560:47:58

Cathy's Clown, which is credited to both of them,

0:47:580:48:02

was probably, in terms of sales, their biggest of all.

0:48:020:48:05

Which is interesting, because it is a magnificent pop record.

0:48:050:48:10

Superbly sung.

0:48:100:48:11

Great song. But it's not a universal theme, really.

0:48:110:48:15

I would guess that most of the audience wasn't listening to it

0:48:150:48:18

thinking like, "Yeah, everybody's making fun of me.

0:48:180:48:21

"That's why I like to listen to this song."

0:48:210:48:23

I think they liked to hear it cos the beat was so cool and the

0:48:230:48:26

singing was so powerful and the harmonies worked together so well.

0:48:260:48:29

And people just hadn't heard anything like that

0:48:290:48:33

and couldn't stop listening to it.

0:48:330:48:35

Because it was just such a visceral experience.

0:48:350:48:37

I started listening to like, you know, like Cathy's Clown and songs

0:48:370:48:41

like All I Have To Do Is Dream just because the harmonies were so cool.

0:48:410:48:47

I wanted to learn both parts.

0:48:470:48:48

There are aspects of the song that...

0:48:480:48:51

You know, that middle part in the song, the bridge,

0:48:510:48:54

it takes you to another place. It's a little more confident.

0:48:540:48:57

But then you're right back into that struggle of feeling like,

0:48:570:49:03

you know...

0:49:030:49:04

you're Cathy's Clown. You're the guy that got left.

0:49:040:49:07

# When you see me shed a tear

0:49:070:49:11

# And you know that it's sincere

0:49:110:49:14

# Don't you think it's kinda sad

0:49:140:49:17

# That you're treatin' me so bad

0:49:170:49:19

# Or don't you even care?

0:49:190:49:23

# Don't want your love any more... #

0:49:230:49:31

Paul and I were a brand-new rock and roll group.

0:49:310:49:34

Practising, practising, and we used the Everlys as our models.

0:49:350:49:39

And we started writing songs that were like Don and Phil.

0:49:390:49:43

Phil got his chance to shine when he wrote When Will I Be Loved.

0:49:430:49:46

And I think that's one of the most soulful records they ever did.

0:49:460:49:49

There's just a feel to that record that doesn't quit.

0:49:490:49:52

# I've been made blue

0:49:520:49:56

# I've been lied to

0:49:560:50:00

# When will I be loved? #

0:50:000:50:07

I loved the fact that When Will I Be Loved

0:50:070:50:10

was issued by Cadence Records

0:50:100:50:13

when Cathy's Clown had charted on Warner Bros.

0:50:130:50:17

So it was like, "Wait a minute.

0:50:170:50:18

"You've left us but we've still got these."

0:50:180:50:21

And it turns out When Will I Be Loved

0:50:210:50:23

was a major song.

0:50:230:50:24

# It happens every time

0:50:240:50:28

# I've been cheated

0:50:280:50:32

# Been mistreated

0:50:320:50:36

# When will I be loved?

0:50:360:50:43

# When will I be loved? #

0:50:440:50:50

The Everly Brothers hit a real watershed in '59

0:50:520:50:55

when they were signed by Warner Bros.

0:50:550:50:58

Million-dollar deal. It seemed amazing.

0:50:580:51:02

But actually, it turned out to be a real poisoned chalice.

0:51:020:51:06

The Everly Brothers' early manager

0:51:060:51:09

and their publisher, Wesley Rose,

0:51:090:51:12

was also my family's publisher.

0:51:120:51:15

Don and I, somewhere in like '61, broke with Wesley Rose.

0:51:150:51:20

And Wesley Rose had been managing us

0:51:200:51:25

and we didn't want him to manage us any more.

0:51:250:51:27

When that happened, Wesley Rose would not license any more

0:51:270:51:32

Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs for us.

0:51:320:51:35

So we couldn't get any more songs.

0:51:350:51:37

And that was a terrible thing to have happen. It really was.

0:51:370:51:41

That's not our fault, not the Bryants' fault,

0:51:410:51:44

that was Wesley's fault.

0:51:440:51:46

Acuff-Rose happened to represent not only Boudleaux and Felice Bryant,

0:51:460:51:51

which meant the Everly Brothers were cut off from their songs,

0:51:510:51:55

but the Everly Brothers.

0:51:550:51:56

So that meant they couldn't even record their own songs.

0:51:560:51:59

I mean, it was silly of me to have a deal with a publishing

0:51:590:52:04

company where they wouldn't release unless they published it.

0:52:040:52:07

It was silly. It's death for an artist.

0:52:070:52:10

There's no court of appeals.

0:52:100:52:12

You know, I mean, obviously the Bryants want

0:52:120:52:14

the Everly Brothers to record their songs.

0:52:140:52:16

The Everly Brothers want those songs.

0:52:160:52:18

But the company says no. And that's the end of it.

0:52:180:52:22

You know, it's rough stuff.

0:52:220:52:24

What an unbearable situation.

0:52:240:52:27

And when we learn that in future we want to go back in time

0:52:270:52:32

to 1962 and say, "Oh, my God. Now I know why you have recorded

0:52:320:52:36

"Crying In The Rain by Carol King and Howard Greenfield.

0:52:360:52:40

"Cos you can't record your own songs.

0:52:400:52:42

"And you can't record Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs."

0:52:420:52:45

In 1962, the Everly Brothers had this massive hit.

0:52:450:52:48

It wasn't their own song.

0:52:480:52:50

It was Carol King's song, Crying In The Rain.

0:52:500:52:53

But it went into the top ten.

0:52:530:52:55

And it was actually their last big American top ten hit.

0:52:550:52:59

Great for them, but they couldn't really enjoy it.

0:52:590:53:03

Or even capitalise on that success because, at that point,

0:53:030:53:06

they were in the Marines.

0:53:060:53:07

# I'll never let you see

0:53:090:53:13

# The way my broken heart is hurting me

0:53:130:53:17

# I've got my pride and I know how to hide

0:53:170:53:22

# All my sorrow and pain

0:53:220:53:25

# I'll do my crying in the rain... #

0:53:250:53:30

And then The Beatles happened

0:53:300:53:32

and even though The Beatles are directly

0:53:320:53:35

influenced by the Everly Brothers,

0:53:350:53:37

no-one wants to know anybody who existed before breakfast,

0:53:370:53:41

because now it's The Beatles and the British Invasion.

0:53:410:53:43

So, suddenly the Everly Brothers, who had actually influenced

0:53:430:53:47

The Beatles, start to look really old-fashioned, an old hat.

0:53:470:53:50

They ran into the brick wall with The Stones and The Beatles.

0:53:500:53:55

Because it happened to be 1963 and the world was suddenly changing.

0:53:550:54:00

And suddenly, they were old-fashioned for some reason.

0:54:000:54:03

Where there was no reason really, in musical terms, to think so.

0:54:030:54:07

Everybody was grabbing what was relevant from the Everly Brothers.

0:54:070:54:12

The Beatles taking the harmonies and that part of it.

0:54:120:54:15

I mean, From Me To You, Please Please Me,

0:54:150:54:18

everything is based on Everly Brothers' harmony.

0:54:180:54:20

Paul McCartney said that John was Don and he was Phil.

0:54:200:54:25

Allan Clarke and Graham singing their two-part,

0:54:250:54:28

call it The Hollies, but they were doing Everlys.

0:54:280:54:31

If you talk to The Stones, if you talk to The Beatles,

0:54:310:54:33

you talk to everybody,

0:54:330:54:34

if you talk to everyone that was in the British Invasion,

0:54:340:54:37

Herman's Hermits, everybody you wanted to know

0:54:370:54:39

loved the Everly Brothers. And tried to do that.

0:54:390:54:41

The great British Invasion didn't come at a very good

0:54:410:54:45

time for the Everlys.

0:54:450:54:47

I remember going to see the Everly Brothers in '63

0:54:470:54:49

and the opening act was The Rolling Stones.

0:54:490:54:52

It was an Everly Brothers' tour,

0:54:520:54:55

so I got to watch those guys every night.

0:54:550:54:59

I remember watching Mick Jagger onstage and I said,

0:54:590:55:03

"That's different, man. That was different."

0:55:030:55:06

And I told him. I said, "You guys can make it in the States."

0:55:060:55:09

You kind of thought, "Well, this act, The Rolling Stones..."

0:55:090:55:13

I mean, I certainly wasn't prescient enough to say,

0:55:130:55:16

"These guys are going to be the biggest thing out."

0:55:160:55:20

But you could see that there was a different audience emerging.

0:55:200:55:26

At the same time, the Evs had to live with

0:55:260:55:29

the fact that The Stones were suddenly the flavour of the month.

0:55:290:55:32

And they actually stepped down

0:55:320:55:35

and gave us the top of the bill at the Albert Hall

0:55:350:55:40

after six weeks on the road.

0:55:400:55:42

And I think that was an amazing gesture from their part.

0:55:420:55:47

I think the reason why they may have faded from the public

0:55:470:55:51

appreciation is the fact that times move on. You know?

0:55:510:55:55

I mean, there are people that think that Paul McCartney was in Wings.

0:55:550:56:00

Their days of selling big numbers were over.

0:56:000:56:03

The Everly Brothers didn't lose their talent,

0:56:030:56:06

but they lost that sense of being part of the zeitgeist.

0:56:060:56:11

They continued to perform, but the atmosphere between them

0:56:110:56:15

was very strained.

0:56:150:56:17

To the point where 1973, infamous live performance.

0:56:170:56:22

They're playing a gig in California

0:56:220:56:25

and they had this really acrimonious split right there onstage.

0:56:250:56:30

And didn't speak to each other for ten years.

0:56:300:56:33

Then they reformed in 1983 for this amazing comeback concert

0:56:330:56:38

at the Royal Albert Hall.

0:56:380:56:40

# And so I beg you

0:56:400:56:44

# Let it be me. #

0:56:450:56:49

They were battling brothers, but they were brothers nonetheless.

0:56:500:56:54

And when they sang together, you know, you can

0:56:540:56:57

really feel that connection in their sound.

0:56:570:57:00

They brought together so many different

0:57:000:57:02

forms of contemporary music

0:57:020:57:04

and projected it totally genuinely through what they were.

0:57:040:57:09

Which was two young kids making their way.

0:57:090:57:12

I think pop music would have been quite different

0:57:120:57:15

if it hadn't been for the Everly Brothers.

0:57:150:57:18

That simplicity when it comes to songwriting and simple,

0:57:180:57:21

strong melodies.

0:57:210:57:22

I don't think you can listen to that music

0:57:220:57:25

or look at those guys singing so close in harmony like that

0:57:250:57:29

and not smile.

0:57:290:57:30

Their legacy is that their music will last forever.

0:57:300:57:34

It's indefinable. And that, I guess,

0:57:340:57:37

is the beauty of it, is that you can't put your finger on it.

0:57:370:57:42

But, boy, look at those boys sing, man. You know?

0:57:420:57:45

It's an interesting question for Artie Garfunkel,

0:57:450:57:48

who is not Paul Simon's brother, there is no DNA there,

0:57:480:57:51

but damned if we didn't try to make it seems like there was.

0:57:510:57:55

We were brothers when we were in junior high school.

0:57:550:57:58

We were each other's main friends.

0:57:580:58:00

We smoked our first cigarettes together.

0:58:000:58:03

We were trying to be in each other's family.

0:58:030:58:08

But we didn't quite get to where Don and Phil did.

0:58:080:58:14

# So never leave me lonely

0:58:150:58:20

# Tell me you'll love me only

0:58:200:58:25

# And that you'll always

0:58:260:58:31

# Let it be me. #

0:58:340:58:41

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