0:00:02 > 0:00:04- What is your name? - Don Everly, aged 20.
0:00:04 > 0:00:07Only a 20-year-old would say his name in the first place.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10- How about you? What's your name? - Phil Everly and I'm 18 years old.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13# Bye, bye, love
0:00:13 > 0:00:16# Bye, bye, happiness
0:00:16 > 0:00:18# Hello, loneliness
0:00:18 > 0:00:21# I think I'm-a gonna cry-y #
0:00:21 > 0:00:25Any musician with a set of ears was influenced by The Everly Brothers.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Well, this is the best harmony I've ever heard in my life.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31And from that moment,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34I was on the train called The Everly Brothers.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38I don't think you'll ever find another pair that can match them.
0:00:38 > 0:00:45# Here he comes That's Cathy's clown. #
0:00:45 > 0:00:48Here's that thing about being brothers that the voices
0:00:48 > 0:00:51were so similar that that's also why the harmonies just sounded,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54you know, so great in unison.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58# Wake up, little Susie We gotta go home. #
0:00:58 > 0:01:03This programme contains some strong language
0:01:03 > 0:01:05They had a very different sound.
0:01:05 > 0:01:12They're fusing new elements into what had been up until then
0:01:12 > 0:01:14an easy-listening format.
0:01:14 > 0:01:22# I've been cheated Been mistreated
0:01:22 > 0:01:28# When will I be loved? #
0:01:28 > 0:01:29Some people are lucky enough
0:01:29 > 0:01:32to live at the time of a new form, others are not.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33The Everly Brothers were,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35that moment when rock and roll
0:01:35 > 0:01:36was just starting.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39And their gifts were perfect for it.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41Young at the right time,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44two people singing as if one head with two voices.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47# I can make you mine
0:01:47 > 0:01:50# Taste your lips of wine
0:01:50 > 0:01:54# Any time night or day
0:01:54 > 0:01:58# Only trouble is
0:01:58 > 0:01:59# Gee whiz
0:01:59 > 0:02:03# I'm dreamin' my life away. #
0:02:03 > 0:02:05For a period of five years,
0:02:05 > 0:02:09from 1957 to '62, The Everly Brothers
0:02:09 > 0:02:11were this amazing vocal duo
0:02:11 > 0:02:14who just completely dominated the pop charts.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17And they influenced a raft of musicians
0:02:17 > 0:02:20and bands who came in their wake.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22And the reason we all do what we do
0:02:22 > 0:02:24is cos we heard that and wanted to do it.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29# Walk right back to me this minute
0:02:29 > 0:02:31# Bring your love to me
0:02:31 > 0:02:32# Don't send it
0:02:32 > 0:02:37# I'm so lonesome every day
0:02:39 > 0:02:45# I'm so lonesome every day. #
0:02:48 > 0:02:50APPLAUSE
0:02:51 > 0:02:53It was 1957.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57I went bowling in Jamaica with Paul.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01I was on a school coach trip to the Lake District.
0:03:01 > 0:03:03You had to take a transfer and change buses.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06And on the jukebox was this wonderful sound...
0:03:06 > 0:03:09BYE BYE LOVE INTRO PLAYS
0:03:09 > 0:03:12And there the bus driver's radio
0:03:12 > 0:03:17- had... - HE IMITATES THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO
0:03:17 > 0:03:18Which was Bye Bye Love
0:03:18 > 0:03:22and I didn't know who was singing it or knew what the song was.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25And for some reason, it played about nine times on the trot,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27I think the jukebox was stuck.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31My best friend Allan Clarke and I are attending
0:03:31 > 0:03:34a Catholic school girls' dance on a Saturday night,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36Bye Bye Love by The Everly Brothers
0:03:36 > 0:03:37came on the big speakers
0:03:37 > 0:03:39and it changed me and Allan's life completely.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41# Bye, bye, love
0:03:41 > 0:03:45# Bye, bye, happiness. #
0:03:45 > 0:03:47- And both Paul and I went... - HE GASPS
0:03:47 > 0:03:49"These guys are the greatest.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52"How do they harmon...? Who are these people?"
0:03:52 > 0:03:55I'd seen that it was by some act called The Everly Brothers.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00"They're brothers, oh, no wonder, the DNA gives them a huge leg up."
0:04:00 > 0:04:02I didn't know how many there were.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04Whether they were a 10-piece band or what.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07But it made an enormous impact on me.
0:04:07 > 0:04:12# There goes my baby with-a someone new
0:04:12 > 0:04:18# She sure looks happy I sure am blue
0:04:18 > 0:04:24# She was my baby till he stepped in
0:04:24 > 0:04:29# Goodbye to romance that might have been. #
0:04:29 > 0:04:32It was the first time I ever heard music that I loved
0:04:32 > 0:04:34and I thought, "Wow, if this is what music is like,
0:04:34 > 0:04:36"I can't wait to find out more."
0:04:36 > 0:04:39And then I spent the last 30 years looking for anything that's as good
0:04:39 > 0:04:41as The Everly Brothers and there isn't anything.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43I assumed that was the tip of the iceberg,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45I thought all music was going to be that good.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47No.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49You bet music was changing.
0:04:49 > 0:04:56What came before that was so tame - Patti Page and Perry Como.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Doris Day and Frank Sinatra and the Beverley Sisters.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04The crooners came out of the war and the war era
0:05:04 > 0:05:07when everybody needed to be on message, if you like,
0:05:07 > 0:05:12and together and now you're starting to get the age of teenage rebellion
0:05:12 > 0:05:15and younger people wanting music that they could identify with,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17which was much more their own.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20This stirring things up was much more...
0:05:20 > 0:05:22subversive is the word I would use.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27The beginning for Phil and I is just a small dot on the map
0:05:27 > 0:05:30called Brownie, Kentucky.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34I was born in Brownie, Kentucky, it was the Brownie coal mines
0:05:34 > 0:05:36that named it Brownie, Kentucky,
0:05:36 > 0:05:41and my father worked at the coal mines then.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44These coal miners, you know, they worked five, six days a week
0:05:44 > 0:05:47and on the weekends, they get together
0:05:47 > 0:05:49and have their little parties
0:05:49 > 0:05:51and play music and that kind of thing.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55And my father, he came out of there playing a guitar.
0:05:55 > 0:05:56My father was
0:05:56 > 0:05:58a thumb picker out of Kentucky.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02- DON:- But Mum and Dad moved to Chicago
0:06:02 > 0:06:06and I don't remember the move cos I was very young.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07And their father was a great musician
0:06:07 > 0:06:11and somebody who's knowledge of music and, you know,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14folk music, in particular, was encyclopaedic.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17He was a unique guitar player when he was up in Chicago
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and the area, playing the honky-tonk.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Actually influenced Merle Travis.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Merle was the guy who went to Hollywood and made good
0:06:26 > 0:06:28and influenced a lot of people.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33Ike Everly and Merle Travis are the people that we feel
0:06:33 > 0:06:38is really responsible for the thumb-and-finger style
0:06:38 > 0:06:40or thumb style of guitar playing.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43Chet Atkins, considered one of the greatest guitar players
0:06:43 > 0:06:46in American history and certainly one of the most influential,
0:06:46 > 0:06:47because he took a style
0:06:47 > 0:06:49which was sort of playing the rhythm
0:06:49 > 0:06:52with your thumb and using your fingers to sort of pick out
0:06:52 > 0:06:54the melody and so you have sort of
0:06:54 > 0:06:56a double guitar sound going on at once.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59HE PLAYS WITH THE THUMB STYLE
0:07:12 > 0:07:15The interesting thing about the finger-picking styles
0:07:15 > 0:07:19were they were things that were handed from musician to musician.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23Ike Everly was a tremendous influence on his sons
0:07:23 > 0:07:29and, of course, made sure that even though
0:07:29 > 0:07:33they were both left-handed, they played the correct way around.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Because you'll have trouble for the rest of your life
0:07:36 > 0:07:37if you don't do that.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40I'm left-handed. I'm completely left-handed in everything.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44And he taught me right-handed, he wouldn't let me learn left-handed.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Don was probably six years old, Phil four years old,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51they decided they did not want them to grow up
0:07:51 > 0:07:54in a big town like Chicago, they wanted them to grow up
0:07:54 > 0:07:55kind of like they did.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58So, they moved off to western Iowa.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04Back then, radio had artists that...they put their own shows on.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06This is in the days, of course, when America had thousands
0:08:06 > 0:08:09and thousands of very localised radio stations.
0:08:09 > 0:08:14My mother and father figured out that they could go get us on air
0:08:14 > 0:08:16as the Everly family.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19'54 degrees in Shenandoah, 6.16 is the time.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23'Now into part two with the Everly family.'
0:08:23 > 0:08:27It was every morning, early morning radio show.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29Before school.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32And they appeared as Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37# She was crying, softly crying
0:08:40 > 0:08:45# Teardrops falling in the snow. #
0:08:45 > 0:08:47'This is Dad Everly,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50'speaking for Mum, Don, Baby Boy Phil.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52'Saying so long, thank you for listening.'
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Dad was teaching Phil and I to sing, you know, together.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58They grew up with harmony.
0:08:58 > 0:08:59It was like a language
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and thus, they could speak it when they got older.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06If you grew up in Louisville or you grew up in Kentucky,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09you were used to hearing bluegrass singing,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12you were used to hearing that kind of two-part harmony.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14That was just part of their lives, cos their mum and dad
0:09:14 > 0:09:16were doing that for years.
0:09:16 > 0:09:17That was how they were brought up,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19it was probably nothing strange for them.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21We think it's strange, you know,
0:09:21 > 0:09:23but I guess for them it wasn't strange,
0:09:23 > 0:09:26- cos they were brought up that way. - BLUEGRASS MUSIC PLAYS
0:09:26 > 0:09:29I went back to Tennessee
0:09:29 > 0:09:31and then I started writing.
0:09:31 > 0:09:34And it just came out of the clear blue.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36Chet Atkins had a lot to do with it.
0:09:36 > 0:09:40We went to a concert that he was at down in Oxford, Tennessee,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42and my father called him over
0:09:42 > 0:09:47and he got talking and he introduced Phil and I to him to chat
0:09:47 > 0:09:50and told him that I was writing songs.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53He was, you know, enamoured with, Ike Everly and his sons,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56you know, he finds all of these talented singers,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58so he encourages them to come to Nashville
0:09:58 > 0:10:01and introduces them to Wesley Rose, who was running Acuff-Rose,
0:10:01 > 0:10:04which was the biggest music publishing organisation in town.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07We drove over from Knoxville and went to Chet Atkins' house.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09He lived in Belle Meade at the time.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13And we recorded something on Chet's tape in his house and he said,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16"I'll publish 'em if I get 'em recorded."
0:10:16 > 0:10:17And I said, "Fine."
0:10:17 > 0:10:20The Everlys were very fortunate to have him
0:10:20 > 0:10:24as their mentor in the early days.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26But I think he recognised very early on
0:10:26 > 0:10:28that there was a special talent there.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30He was really instinctive
0:10:30 > 0:10:35in the way he brought musicians and songs together.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37So, that was a very inspired move
0:10:37 > 0:10:43to give Kitty Wells, Don Everly's song - Thou Shalt Not Steal.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46It sort of startled me that one of them was recorded already.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Kitty Wells, she was the first female country music star
0:10:50 > 0:10:54and was beginning to bring in real-life concerns,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57real-life issues, singing about, you know,
0:10:57 > 0:10:58double standards for men and women.
0:10:58 > 0:11:03It was a Bible song and it was about a cheating thing.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07# But I can't trade my love for pride
0:11:07 > 0:11:11# My conscience just can't be my guide
0:11:11 > 0:11:15# Too late to heed the warning
0:11:15 > 0:11:21# The love thou shalt not steal. #
0:11:21 > 0:11:23She sold quite a few records.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27I had got my cheque, that money got me and Phil to Nashville
0:11:27 > 0:11:30when I graduated high school.
0:11:30 > 0:11:31We're now living
0:11:31 > 0:11:33in Nashville, Tennessee.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35This is our town of Nashville.
0:11:35 > 0:11:36Nashville as a music town,
0:11:36 > 0:11:40you know, goes back to the start of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1920s,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43which was pretty much the beginning of commercial radio,
0:11:43 > 0:11:45commercial records or commercial music at all.
0:11:45 > 0:11:46The Grand Ole Opry
0:11:46 > 0:11:47was the nucleus of that
0:11:47 > 0:11:50and people came here by the droves
0:11:50 > 0:11:54to be on that show, which was broadcast on WSM,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57which was a 50,000-watt clear channel.
0:11:57 > 0:12:01And as the Opry grew, they had more reach than other radio stations,
0:12:01 > 0:12:04so you could hear them in Texas, you could hear them in Michigan,
0:12:04 > 0:12:06you know, you could hear them in Florida.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09They were so paranoid that they thought at some point
0:12:09 > 0:12:11they might have to make announcements
0:12:11 > 0:12:13over the radio, nationally,
0:12:13 > 0:12:15if there was a threat from the Soviet Union.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18'We interrupt our normal programme to cooperate
0:12:18 > 0:12:20'in security and civil defence measures.'
0:12:20 > 0:12:24In the end, the technology was used in a more positive way
0:12:24 > 0:12:26in terms of the music industry.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30You had millions of people sitting by their radio
0:12:30 > 0:12:35on those Saturday nights from the farms to the cities,
0:12:35 > 0:12:40falling in love with artists that they'd never seen,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42had never heard of, but were all of a sudden
0:12:42 > 0:12:44becoming their best friends.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49The Grand Ole Opry, which was on the radio, was a radio show
0:12:49 > 0:12:51and radio shows really meant something.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54It really helped win a national audience
0:12:54 > 0:12:56for country music among young people.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01It was crucial that kids listened to the radio and here,
0:13:01 > 0:13:03hardware becomes important.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05The invention of the transistor radio.
0:13:05 > 0:13:10Most houses had a radio or a radiogram.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12And that was in the sitting room.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16And that was your parents' territory and that's what they controlled.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19So, the transistor radio suddenly allowed young people
0:13:19 > 0:13:21to take their music to their rooms,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24listen to what they wanted to listen to.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27As regional as America was still at that point,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30you know, I think certain people in country music
0:13:30 > 0:13:34realised that this didn't have to be just a regional music,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37this could be a national music.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Nashville was buzzing
0:13:39 > 0:13:42and a lot of things going on
0:13:42 > 0:13:45if you were interested in music, this was the place to go
0:13:45 > 0:13:48and see what was going on.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50At that point in time, we had RCA,
0:13:50 > 0:13:53we had Decca, we had Capitol,
0:13:53 > 0:13:54and Columbia.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Those were the record companies in Nashville.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00There's a great story about Chet Atkins.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02Somebody asked him, you know, "Chet, like,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04"what is the national sound?"
0:14:04 > 0:14:07And he shakes his pocket and the coins all rattle and he goes,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10"That's the national sound. That's the sound of money."
0:14:10 > 0:14:14My parents, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant,
0:14:14 > 0:14:16were the first songwriting duo
0:14:16 > 0:14:21and team of professional writers in Nashville.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25So, by 1957 when the Everlys had arrived,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27my parents had had many hits.
0:14:27 > 0:14:29They wrote every day.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32It was their job and they would wake up every morning and write
0:14:32 > 0:14:37and it was, you know, come rain or come shine or colds or sickness,
0:14:37 > 0:14:39it didn't matter, this was their job.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42They showed that you can make a living as songwriters
0:14:42 > 0:14:46and they also showed that you had to go to work at it
0:14:46 > 0:14:49and be a professional at it.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53My brother and I were in the back seat one day driving to a home site
0:14:53 > 0:14:55where we were building a new home.
0:14:55 > 0:14:57And there was a light drizzle
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and the windshield wipers were going.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05And Dad started Bye Bye Love to the rhythm of the windshield wipers.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07He says, "Listen to this, it was...
0:15:07 > 0:15:09# Bye, bye, love
0:15:09 > 0:15:10# Bye, bye, happiness
0:15:10 > 0:15:11# Hello, something else
0:15:11 > 0:15:13# I think I'm gonna... #
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Die, cry or whatever the heck that was.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20And I said, "Oh, yeah." I was really impressed.
0:15:20 > 0:15:21DEL: Dad started showing it around
0:15:21 > 0:15:25and a lot of people liked it, but turned it down.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28I listened to it and I said, "We could do it."
0:15:28 > 0:15:30And it was as simple as that.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32I would've sung anything.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35The idea that we were going to get the chance to record,
0:15:35 > 0:15:38I knew we were going to make 64.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41And 64 sounded real important to me at the time.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45The real seismic change which had taken place in the '50s
0:15:45 > 0:15:47in American music was this coming together
0:15:47 > 0:15:49of black and white styles.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51I think the change, to be perfectly honest,
0:15:51 > 0:15:54was to do with black influence going mainstream,
0:15:54 > 0:15:59you know, because all the way through the big band era,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01it had been the, you know, the black musicians
0:16:01 > 0:16:03that were kind of driving it.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05And then into jazz, a lot of the black musicians
0:16:05 > 0:16:08went into the jazz area and sort of drove that.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13And I think probably for the first time, the younger people,
0:16:13 > 0:16:16they actually didn't care where the music came from.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19They cared about the music.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22There was a lot of gospel music, black gospel music
0:16:22 > 0:16:24on the radio back then.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28And it was wonderful music.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31So, you have the blues with black people,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35you have country and western with white people, but equally sincere.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39And then comes this moment in the mid-50s
0:16:39 > 0:16:44when the two were fused and the living synthesis is Elvis Presley.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48I think what was so shocking about it was that for the first time,
0:16:48 > 0:16:52you know, a white artist was doing what black people had been doing
0:16:52 > 0:16:55for years and years and years and people were anxious about that.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59I was very interested in black music and then country music too,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03the two together made rock and roll, I believe.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08I think Don had mentioned to Chet that he really loved Bo Diddly
0:17:08 > 0:17:12and he said, "How does he get that sound on his guitar?"
0:17:12 > 0:17:14BO DIDDLY PLAYS GUITAR
0:17:19 > 0:17:24I fell for Bo Diddly sounds and the rhythm that he got.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27And I just loved it. Loved it.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30BO DIDDLY PLAYS GUITAR
0:17:31 > 0:17:33Whoo!
0:17:35 > 0:17:40The drive that Bo Diddly had in his music
0:17:40 > 0:17:43is this incredible kind of rumble.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45That's there in The Everly Brothers' songs.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48I've followed him, you know, his music
0:17:48 > 0:17:51and I was trying to get it involved in my music
0:17:51 > 0:17:55and Archie Bleyer, the head of Cadence Records said,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57"Well, why don't you take that arrangement
0:17:57 > 0:17:59and put it on Bye Bye Love?
0:17:59 > 0:18:01And I said, "I never thought of that."
0:18:01 > 0:18:04THEY PLAY THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO
0:18:04 > 0:18:06APPLAUSE
0:18:06 > 0:18:10You see, there are some things you can't do
0:18:10 > 0:18:12in classical, regular tuning.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16You can only do it where you've got these weird
0:18:16 > 0:18:19little country tunings and stuff.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21HE PLAYS THE BYE BYE LOVE INTRO
0:18:24 > 0:18:27And I guess it rubbed off on me.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Don's acoustic guitar,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33that rhythm guitar was rocking, man.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38And now, eight seconds later, the intro's over, the song begins.
0:18:38 > 0:18:42# Bye, bye, love
0:18:42 > 0:18:44# Bye, bye, happiness,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46# Hello, loneliness
0:18:46 > 0:18:49# I think I'm-a gonna cry-y. #
0:18:49 > 0:18:51You have to write material that
0:18:51 > 0:18:53can sustain those two voices,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55running through the whole song.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58So that when the individual voice comes in, you know,
0:18:58 > 0:19:02usually Don's, you know, that really has a dramatic impact,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05because mostly they're singing harmony all the way through.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08# I'm-a through with romance
0:19:08 > 0:19:10# I'm a-through with love
0:19:10 > 0:19:16# I'm through with-a countin' the stars above
0:19:16 > 0:19:21# And here's the reason that I'm so free
0:19:21 > 0:19:25# My lovin' baby is through with me
0:19:28 > 0:19:30# Bye, bye, love. #
0:19:30 > 0:19:34The Everly Brothers were the first example in rock and roll
0:19:34 > 0:19:37of something that happens very rarely,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39but always beautifully in popular music,
0:19:39 > 0:19:42which is family groups singing in close harmony.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46The Andrews Sisters, the Bee Gees who were the Gibb brothers,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48The Beach Boys, who were a family group.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53And these exquisite harmonies come from people
0:19:53 > 0:19:55who've just been together all their lives.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58They cannot be separated.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01The classic model is thirds.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03One guy sings... HE VOCALISES
0:20:03 > 0:20:06And the other guy goes... HIGHER PITCHED VOCALISATION
0:20:06 > 0:20:08The interval is thirds.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10# La da... #
0:20:10 > 0:20:14If you hold that interval you have a very simple and pleasing,
0:20:14 > 0:20:16sweet, kind of folky harmony.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Boudleaux designed that harmony.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20You know, and I just sang it.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22That was... But he designed it to be that way.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25And that's all the greatness... All that stuff really counted.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30Phil was such a genius at matching Don's sound
0:20:30 > 0:20:33that they produced two halves of a whole.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35Boudleaux could hear harmonies.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38He could see what he wanted to
0:20:38 > 0:20:40happen with that piece of material.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43# Bye-bye love
0:20:43 > 0:20:46# Bye-bye sweet caress
0:20:46 > 0:20:48# Hello emptiness
0:20:48 > 0:20:51# I feel like I could die... #
0:20:51 > 0:20:56The difference is that Phil's voice was pitched in a tenor range
0:20:56 > 0:20:59and Don's was more baritone tenor
0:20:59 > 0:21:05so that the two-note difference that gives you the thirds interval
0:21:05 > 0:21:08was perfectly comfortable for Phil to be higher.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10# Bye-bye my love
0:21:10 > 0:21:11# Goodbye
0:21:11 > 0:21:12# Bye-bye my love
0:21:12 > 0:21:14# Goodbye... #
0:21:14 > 0:21:17There was a little buzz about this record, you know.
0:21:17 > 0:21:18This was a pretty good record.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22So we got the job down in Mississippi and Alabama.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25On that trip, the record came out
0:21:25 > 0:21:28and we were making 90 a week apiece, which was a fortune to us.
0:21:28 > 0:21:33The team in New York that did the promotion for Cadence Records
0:21:33 > 0:21:36made a mistake with the record Bye Bye Love.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40They sent it out to all of the radio stations.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44The country ones they had received addresses on, and the pop stations.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47By the time we got back to Nashville on the end of that tour,
0:21:47 > 0:21:48we were in the top ten.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51In pop and in country.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56And that was the... The game was on.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley was number one.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers was held at number two.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06You go and you record...a thing like that just happens to you.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09You don't know why, where or how.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13You can be talented, but that isn't enough sometimes.
0:22:13 > 0:22:14You've got to be lucky.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17You've got to be at the time the market is ready for you.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20That the public is ready to listen to you.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22You've got to have that on your side.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Almost all the other artists that could
0:22:24 > 0:22:29fill in the gaps between Elvis records were the
0:22:29 > 0:22:31black rhythm and blues pioneers such as
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35who had already been going.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40They had really brought what Alan Freed called rock and roll
0:22:40 > 0:22:42to the public consciousness.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45So the radio stations had all of these wonderful
0:22:45 > 0:22:48African American artists and Elvis Presley.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50"Let's get some more white people into the mix."
0:22:50 > 0:22:53Usually in history, it's the other way round.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56Here were the Everly Brothers - a real deal -
0:22:56 > 0:22:58genuine, white teenagers.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01And they sang music with a rock and roll sensibility.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Even though it was not that far divorced from pure country music.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08They were the country side of rock and roll.
0:23:08 > 0:23:09But it was rock and roll.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12After Bye Bye Love, we went on the road.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15We were... Things were happening.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17And we were travelling around this, that and the other.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20And we had to start thinking about a second single.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22And then you became the worry about one-record act.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24Cos there were plenty of them in rock and roll.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Then Boudleaux brought in Wake Up Little Susie.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29But he had designed Wake Up Little Susie
0:23:29 > 0:23:31with the holes in it
0:23:31 > 0:23:35for that guitar work. Cos he knew that this would work.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39And therein is the power of what we had from Boudleaux and Felice.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42That they started designing things for us.
0:23:42 > 0:23:47I can never think of the Everly Brothers, knowing what I know
0:23:47 > 0:23:52now about songwriting, that there were actually four people involved.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56And the other two were Felice and Boudleaux Bryant,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01who wrote all of those beautifully written songs.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03And so well-suited to the boys' voices.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Isn't it terrible to think a few years from now,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10these boys will both wind up looking like Yul Brynner?
0:24:10 > 0:24:12LAUGHTER
0:24:18 > 0:24:24# Wake up, little Susie, wake up. #
0:24:24 > 0:24:26The way Don uses it, it's quite aggressive.
0:24:26 > 0:24:31Rather than just be some gentle backing to fill out the track.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35So it would punch through the mix, sort of thing.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37And he'd get that...
0:24:37 > 0:24:41HE PLAYS Wake Up Little Susie
0:24:41 > 0:24:45It was downstrokes. Dan-da-da-da-da.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48The intro was all downstrokes.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52HE VOCALISES GUITAR PART
0:24:58 > 0:25:03# Wake up, little Susie, wake up... #
0:25:03 > 0:25:06Wake Up Little Susie would be recorded here.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08It was the next record after Bye Bye Love.
0:25:08 > 0:25:13I was upstairs. I hadn't gotten out of bed yet. And Boudleaux
0:25:13 > 0:25:16was on the main floor, which wasn't carpeted.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21And so the acoustics were just feeding up to the bedroom section.
0:25:21 > 0:25:22And I hear this...
0:25:22 > 0:25:25# Wake up, little Susie, wake up #
0:25:25 > 0:25:29and I thought, "Man, that sounds great. Just that much."
0:25:29 > 0:25:32And so, I thought I'd better get downstairs,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36because Boudleaux was most capable of finishing stuff on his own.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39And I had to jump in when I thought,
0:25:39 > 0:25:42"We've got something here. I want a piece of this."
0:25:42 > 0:25:46In its early stages, as Dad was writing it,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49was a little bit what Mother thought was a little too risque.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51She kind of cleaned it up.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56I added some lyrics because I thought Boudleaux was getting
0:25:56 > 0:25:59a little too rough, you know.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02And so I put the bridge in.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04"The movie wasn't so hot
0:26:04 > 0:26:05"Didn't have much of a plot
0:26:05 > 0:26:07"We fell asleep
0:26:07 > 0:26:08"Our goose is cooked
0:26:08 > 0:26:09"Our reputation is shot."
0:26:09 > 0:26:12# The movie wasn't so hot
0:26:12 > 0:26:14# It didn't have much of a plot
0:26:14 > 0:26:16# We fell asleep
0:26:16 > 0:26:17# Our goose is cooked
0:26:17 > 0:26:19# Our reputation is shot
0:26:19 > 0:26:21# Wake up, little Susie
0:26:21 > 0:26:24# Wake up, little Susie
0:26:24 > 0:26:26# We gotta go home. #
0:26:26 > 0:26:29For an artist in those days, you would have what were called
0:26:29 > 0:26:32regional breakouts and then they would go from region to region.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34So you would be popular for a long period of time
0:26:34 > 0:26:37but not always in the same place at the same time.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40So Bye Bye Love had a long chart life.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Peaking at number two from an extended run in the charts.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46Then Wake Up Little Susie comes out and everybody is paying
0:26:46 > 0:26:50attention at the same time and it's a very quick number one.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53There is a kind of winking sexuality to Wake Up Little Susie.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56You know, there's a sense that essentially
0:26:56 > 0:26:57they spent the night together.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02And they're in trouble. And the parents are upset.
0:27:02 > 0:27:04And the friends are saying, "Ooh la la."
0:27:04 > 0:27:06# Ooh la la. #
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Which everyone knew was French for racy.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12# Well, what are we going to tell your mama?
0:27:12 > 0:27:14# What are we going to tell your pa?
0:27:14 > 0:27:16# What are we going to tell our friends
0:27:16 > 0:27:19# When they say, "Ooh la la!"
0:27:19 > 0:27:22# Wake up, little Susie... #
0:27:22 > 0:27:24It was banned in Boston.
0:27:24 > 0:27:26And a couple of other places.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30My father was thrilled because at that time, as today,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34when something is banned with a certain amount of publicity,
0:27:34 > 0:27:38it really has the tendency to spark interest and explode.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41And indeed, Wake Up Little Susie did.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44It's hard now for people to realise how scandalous that would
0:27:44 > 0:27:46have seemed at the time.
0:27:46 > 0:27:48But was much more in keeping with what was actually
0:27:48 > 0:27:49realistically going on.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Every other word out of people's mouths in the 1950s
0:27:53 > 0:27:55was about juvenile delinquents.
0:27:55 > 0:27:56There was a lot of concern about
0:27:56 > 0:27:58what was happening with rock and roll.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01And a song like Wake Up Little Susie,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06as innocent as it is, to a degree, participated in that.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09It was really the emergence of the teenager as we know it.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14The purse strings were also just in transition from being
0:28:14 > 0:28:17the older generation to being a situation where the younger
0:28:17 > 0:28:19generation was starting to have their own money.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23For the first time, you had young people who could buy records
0:28:23 > 0:28:24and they bought them in droves.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26It was the times.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27It was America coming
0:28:27 > 0:28:30out of the Eisenhower administration
0:28:30 > 0:28:34and the greyness, straightness of that administration.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37America did not realise how lucky it was in the 1950s.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39First of all, it had not been bombed,
0:28:39 > 0:28:42with the exception of Pearl Harbor, which was off in Hawaii somewhere,
0:28:42 > 0:28:45the mainland had not been bombed in the war.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49So it was not spending millions to rebuild.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52There was an incredible sense of optimism in the country.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55The economy was booming.
0:28:55 > 0:28:56The country felt very young.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59There were a lot of young kids around. It was the baby boom.
0:28:59 > 0:29:05What started to become more relevant was fashion and cars,
0:29:05 > 0:29:09you know, things which were sort of style objects
0:29:09 > 0:29:13which were much more about the youth of the day.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17Back then, it was brand-new. Rock and roll was brand-new.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Nobody knew how to do it.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24Don was very smart about guitar parts and arrangements.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26And I'm sure Chet had some say in that too.
0:29:26 > 0:29:29The drums are barely part of those early records.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33It's mostly just guitars, bass and electric guitar.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36But it's very carefully thought out. It's well arranged.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38And it's so well recorded.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41Everything was just in the right place.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43So simple but so difficult to do.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47I'm sure that you recognise this as a golden record.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50And this is the third golden record that the boys have won.
0:29:50 > 0:29:51This year.
0:29:51 > 0:29:54This, of course, is All I Have To Do Is Dream
0:29:54 > 0:29:55by the Everly Brothers.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59Donald told me that one night they were on the
0:29:59 > 0:30:02rock and roll tour bus and Buddy Holly came over
0:30:02 > 0:30:04and sat down next to him and he goes,
0:30:04 > 0:30:09"Hey, man. I wrote a song for you guys. It's called Not Fade Away."
0:30:09 > 0:30:11He played it for them.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14And Donald says to me, "Yeah. That's great."
0:30:14 > 0:30:16He says, "I love it, but we can't do it."
0:30:16 > 0:30:19He says, "We're going back to Nashville.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22"We've got to cut some ballad called Dream."
0:30:22 > 0:30:26After a novelty like Bye Bye Love, you have to come in with
0:30:26 > 0:30:29another novelty. Wake Up Little Susie.
0:30:29 > 0:30:34After that, you've got to give them...
0:30:34 > 0:30:35You can live longer on a ballad.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Dream, I think actually made us a...
0:30:40 > 0:30:43The difference between sort of an act
0:30:43 > 0:30:45and then being here forever, you know?
0:30:45 > 0:30:49At that time in America, there were different categories,
0:30:49 > 0:30:53different charts - pop charts, country charts,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57what they called the race records charts.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01And not many artists crossed over
0:31:01 > 0:31:03because they were marketed very differently.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08and Dream I think were all in the R&B charts.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12They were on the pop charts and they were on the country charts.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14They were on all three charts at that time.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16# Dream, dream, dream
0:31:16 > 0:31:19# When I feel blue
0:31:19 > 0:31:20# In the night
0:31:20 > 0:31:23# And I need you
0:31:23 > 0:31:25# To hold me tight
0:31:25 > 0:31:27# Whenever I want you
0:31:27 > 0:31:29# All I have to do
0:31:29 > 0:31:33# Is dream. #
0:31:33 > 0:31:38At this particular time now, we're having success with the Everlys
0:31:38 > 0:31:41so we wrote for them specifically.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45On the slow ones, the harmonies can really stretch out.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50And that is the forte of the Everly Brothers.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53# I can make you mine
0:31:53 > 0:31:55# Taste your lips with wine
0:31:55 > 0:32:00# Any time, night or day
0:32:00 > 0:32:03# Only trouble is
0:32:03 > 0:32:05# Gee whizz
0:32:05 > 0:32:10# I'm dreamin' my life away... #
0:32:10 > 0:32:13That line, "Only trouble is, gee whizz, I'm dreaming my life away"
0:32:13 > 0:32:14is a great line.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17He says, like, you know, gee whizz is one of the lyrics.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21I don't think that now it's going to have the same appeal,
0:32:21 > 0:32:24but, you know, that's the beauty of it.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27It was a time and it was, you know...
0:32:27 > 0:32:30At the time, it was really cool.
0:32:30 > 0:32:31I still think it's cool.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35They've recorded All I Have To Do Is Dream 31 times.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39Back in those days, you couldn't record like you can now.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42You didn't have the digital tracks so you could slice and cut.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46If you messed up, you backed up, started all over again.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50And something happens then. You get a warmth and a power.
0:32:50 > 0:32:52And, of course, adjusting the mics all the time.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54In between each outtake.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57So eventually it comes together and you hit the centre and bam,
0:32:57 > 0:33:00you've got it. And you go, "That's it, we can all go home."
0:33:00 > 0:33:02# Whenever I want you
0:33:02 > 0:33:04# All I have to do
0:33:04 > 0:33:07# Is dream
0:33:07 > 0:33:10# Dream, dream, dream
0:33:10 > 0:33:12# Dream
0:33:12 > 0:33:15# Dream, dream, dream
0:33:15 > 0:33:17# Dream
0:33:17 > 0:33:20# Dream, dream, dream
0:33:20 > 0:33:23# Dream. #
0:33:23 > 0:33:25CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:33:25 > 0:33:30There is the second level of hits
0:33:30 > 0:33:32after the big three.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35The big three established what they can do.
0:33:35 > 0:33:36It establishes them internationally.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38Well, then, they've got to do something else.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41But they can't make a breakthrough any more
0:33:41 > 0:33:43because they've already made the breakthrough.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45They've made their contribution.
0:33:45 > 0:33:46They can just have more hit records.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50And so they have this period of very enjoyable songs,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53which would be late '58 and '59.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55# Johnny is a joker
0:33:55 > 0:33:57# He's a bird
0:33:57 > 0:33:59# A very funny joker
0:33:59 > 0:34:00# He's a bird
0:34:00 > 0:34:02# But when he jokes, my honey
0:34:02 > 0:34:03# He's a dog
0:34:03 > 0:34:05# His joking ain't so funny
0:34:05 > 0:34:06# What a dog
0:34:06 > 0:34:10# Johnny is a joker that's a-tryin' to steal my baby
0:34:10 > 0:34:12# He's a bird dog. #
0:34:12 > 0:34:15Great lyrics again. I mean, daft but brilliant.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22There was another one. They threw it in there.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Oh, it's in Problems, isn't it? Yeah.
0:34:24 > 0:34:26Where that keeps, that thing, the...
0:34:26 > 0:34:28HE PLAYS Problems
0:34:28 > 0:34:31That bit. That's the Everly Brothers' thing.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39# Problems, problems, problems all day long
0:34:42 > 0:34:46# Will my problems work out right or wrong? #
0:34:48 > 0:34:51My father was working...digging ditches and stuff up there
0:34:51 > 0:34:53by the end.
0:34:53 > 0:34:55And he told us that he couldn't support us any more.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57I said, "It's OK. We're making money now."
0:34:57 > 0:35:03And then I said, "You've got to quit your job and come back with us."
0:35:03 > 0:35:06The trappings of success were, certainly back then,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09very straightforward material things.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13A nice place to live, a nice car, nice clothes,
0:35:13 > 0:35:18be able to go out to the higher class establishments.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21In the late '50s...
0:35:21 > 0:35:23everybody...
0:35:23 > 0:35:25You did the normal thing.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27You bought them a house and everything.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32# Worries, worries pile upon my head
0:35:35 > 0:35:39# Woe is me, I shoulda stayed in bed... #
0:35:39 > 0:35:42I was paying 90% taxes, though.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45First taxes I paid were 90%.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48I couldn't believe that. But that was the way it was.
0:35:48 > 0:35:55# Problems, problems, problems
0:35:55 > 0:36:01# They won't be solved until I'm sure of you. #
0:36:01 > 0:36:0590% is a lot of money to pay to the government for nothing.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08It was for, you know, for bombers and things.
0:36:11 > 0:36:17# Problems, problems, problems all day long. #
0:36:17 > 0:36:21I played one of the Everly Brothers signature editions.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24I think it was, yeah, it was one of the Gibson ones.
0:36:24 > 0:36:25It was just one of those.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28You pick it up and it was a pretty magical thing.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33It had that top end sound to it, which is just them.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37We designed it. I said I wanted a smaller guitar.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40I said, "Make it three-quarters size of it."
0:36:40 > 0:36:43And I said, "That's the size we want. And I want a black guitar."
0:36:43 > 0:36:46And he said black guitars wouldn't be any good cos they wouldn't sell.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49And I said, "Well, that's what I want."
0:36:49 > 0:36:51Didn't play that good.
0:36:51 > 0:36:52They looked good.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54They looked like a '50s Cadillac.
0:36:54 > 0:36:57HE LAUGHS
0:37:04 > 0:37:06I could see why they were hits.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09They were great fucking records. Every one.
0:37:09 > 0:37:11For about 12, 13 in a row.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15For the first few years, I would buy my Cadence Records,
0:37:15 > 0:37:20produced by Archie Bleyer, take it home and go, "The streak continues.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24"They just don't quit in how great they are, these guys."
0:37:24 > 0:37:28# Take a message to Mary
0:37:28 > 0:37:33# But don't tell her where I am
0:37:33 > 0:37:37# Take a message to Mary
0:37:37 > 0:37:41# But don't say I'm in a jam
0:37:41 > 0:37:46# You can tell her I had to see the world
0:37:46 > 0:37:50# Tell her that my ship set sail
0:37:50 > 0:37:55# You can say she'd better not wait for me
0:37:55 > 0:37:58# But don't tell her I'm in jail. #
0:37:58 > 0:38:02When I listen to it, it sends the shivers up your spine.
0:38:02 > 0:38:05It's a good sadness, you know.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08It makes you feel a certain way.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10It's not a typical sadness.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Take A Message To Mary was a stone in the vacuum cleaner.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Click. Click. Click.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20# Take a message to Mary. #
0:38:20 > 0:38:25At the session, when they were recording this,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Archie Bleyer, who knew nothing about my vacuum cleaner,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31said to Boudleaux.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36He said, "You know, Boudleaux, I hear a chink, chink,
0:38:36 > 0:38:38"chink in this Take A Message."
0:38:40 > 0:38:43And he said, "Somebody bring me a Coke bottle.
0:38:43 > 0:38:45"And somebody get me a screwdriver."
0:38:45 > 0:38:48So he says, "Here, Boudleaux, you belong to the union."
0:38:48 > 0:38:50SHE LAUGHS
0:38:50 > 0:38:52He says, "Hit this Coke bottle."
0:38:54 > 0:38:58And he says, "That'll take care of what I think I hear."
0:38:58 > 0:39:01So that's what you hear on the Everlys' record
0:39:01 > 0:39:03of Take A Message To Mary.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05You hear Boudleaux playing a Coke bottle.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09# You can tell her I had to change my plans
0:39:09 > 0:39:13# And cancel out the wedding day
0:39:13 > 0:39:17# But please don't mention my lonely cell
0:39:17 > 0:39:21# Where I'm gonna pine away
0:39:21 > 0:39:26# Until my dyin' day. #
0:39:26 > 0:39:31The Everlys could pull your fucking heartstrings out.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35And still do when I listen to the records.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39They couldn't not sound good.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42You know, they would take a song, take it apart,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45put it back together and...
0:39:45 > 0:39:49it's still really, really interesting and solid.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53Till I Kissed You was Don Everly, I think he wrote that on his own.
0:39:53 > 0:39:59Yeah, it had a great da-dum, that drum sound on it.
0:39:59 > 0:40:02The drum was quite an important part of the rhythm,
0:40:02 > 0:40:04which was unusual for the Everlys.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08# Never felt like this until I kissed you
0:40:10 > 0:40:14# How did I exist until I kissed you?
0:40:17 > 0:40:20# Never had you on my mind
0:40:21 > 0:40:24# Now you're there all the time
0:40:24 > 0:40:28# Never knew what I missed till I kissed you
0:40:29 > 0:40:30# Uh-huh
0:40:30 > 0:40:32# I kissed you
0:40:32 > 0:40:34# Oh, yeah. #
0:40:34 > 0:40:35It's funny, you know.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38If you listen to the records, when the harmonies are singing,
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Phil's voice is the louder voice.
0:40:40 > 0:40:45His voice was pure. He had a pure voice. You know?
0:40:45 > 0:40:47Pure harmony.
0:40:47 > 0:40:48And everybody liked that harmony.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51They would sing along with the records.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53So they equated it with Phil.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57# Mm, you got a way about you
0:40:57 > 0:41:01# Now I can't live without you
0:41:01 > 0:41:06# Never knew what I missed till I kissed you
0:41:06 > 0:41:07# Uh-huh. #
0:41:07 > 0:41:10If you didn't know, you wouldn't guess they were brothers.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13They are wholly different personalities.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15We never got along.
0:41:15 > 0:41:16He was...different than I.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20He was a Republican. I was a Democrat. You know?
0:41:20 > 0:41:23And I couldn't believe he was voting for Republicans.
0:41:23 > 0:41:24I just couldn't believe it.
0:41:24 > 0:41:30I was a complete Democrat. I was...just a leftist, you know?
0:41:30 > 0:41:34You'd find that you wouldn't really get along with both.
0:41:34 > 0:41:35You wouldn't be in both camps.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38You would fall into one or the other.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41I didn't know anyone who was really friendly with both of them
0:41:41 > 0:41:42at the same time.
0:41:42 > 0:41:44It's just funny to think of the Everly Brothers as belonging
0:41:44 > 0:41:47to another great rock tradition, which is
0:41:47 > 0:41:50that of the brothers who can't stand each other.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53When you have two talented people working together...
0:41:53 > 0:41:56there's always going to be friction. And that friction
0:41:56 > 0:41:57often leads to really good things.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02After the Everlys came The Kinks...
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Oasis, Creedence Clearwater Revival,
0:42:06 > 0:42:07Jesus And Mary Chain.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10It just seems that there's something about having two
0:42:10 > 0:42:15brothers in with line-up which is a recipe for conflict and grief.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18The fact that they happened to be brothers means that they
0:42:18 > 0:42:22probably expressed themselves more directly to each other.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26Phil died about a year and a half ago. Almost two years now.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30And I miss him, you know?
0:42:32 > 0:42:38# We used to have good times together
0:42:42 > 0:42:48# But now I feel them slip away
0:42:51 > 0:42:55# It makes me cry
0:42:56 > 0:43:01# To see love die
0:43:01 > 0:43:06# So sad to watch good love go bad. #
0:43:08 > 0:43:12We went from Cadence to Warner Bros
0:43:12 > 0:43:14because they offered us 1 million.
0:43:14 > 0:43:20You have to think of what 1 million was then and what 1 million is now.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24I mean, if you think about what a million dollars could have bought.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26Warner Bros was a new company.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30It was a spin-off of the film company, obviously.
0:43:30 > 0:43:36And it started releasing film soundtracks, movie-related stuff.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40But they wanted a rock group because rock and roll was big.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43So they got the Everly Brothers in.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48When we left Cadence, we had to give them 14 records.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50Or 14 singles.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54And I thought, "Oh, gosh. We have to do 14 singles, wouldn't work."
0:43:54 > 0:43:58So I told Archie. I said, "Why don't we do Songs Our Daddy Taught Us?"
0:43:58 > 0:44:02I had that idea, I thought it was a good idea.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06It's like, "No, maybe we better make this record that shows
0:44:06 > 0:44:09audiences a little bit who we are more fully."
0:44:09 > 0:44:13I think it's inevitable that as well as doing
0:44:13 > 0:44:16pop, rock and roll, as it was considered then,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20they would go back to their roots. Cos their roots go deeper.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24I mean, this was kind of mountain music and folk music.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28And, you know, it was stuff that was very much
0:44:28 > 0:44:33woven into the kind of communities that they lived in and grew up in.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35One of these early songs which they use on that album
0:44:35 > 0:44:38is a favourite of mine called Kentucky.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41This was something of a standard in country circles.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44I don't think it was an enormous pop hit.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46But it was a favourite with the country audiences.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54# Kentucky
0:44:56 > 0:44:58# I miss you... #
0:44:58 > 0:45:01They both had to get in on that one mic.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04And that was really magical.
0:45:04 > 0:45:05There was something about it
0:45:05 > 0:45:08when they got on that one microphone,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11we'd all look at each other and think, "Wow, listen to that!"
0:45:11 > 0:45:14# I die... #
0:45:18 > 0:45:19Don would do his...
0:45:19 > 0:45:21HE STRUMS GUITAR
0:45:21 > 0:45:26Maybe do his little solo bits and he'd lift it up to the microphone.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30So you could hear it, you know?
0:45:34 > 0:45:36I'd never heard anything so beautiful.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39And by the time they'd got to the ending,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41when they did this slide down at the end of it,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45this vocal slide down together, I was standing there crying.
0:45:47 > 0:45:57# Kentucky... #
0:46:01 > 0:46:05Cathy's Clown was the first one for Warner's.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08First one for Warner's had to be good.
0:46:08 > 0:46:09That was one of the criteria.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Had it not been for the Everly Brothers, Warner Bros
0:46:12 > 0:46:15probably would not exist today. Because of Cathy's Clown.
0:46:15 > 0:46:22# Don't want your love any more... #
0:46:22 > 0:46:26Huge international number one, Cathy's Clown.
0:46:27 > 0:46:32So, at a time when Warner Bros is haemorrhaging money,
0:46:32 > 0:46:36their balance sheet is saved not by a film star,
0:46:36 > 0:46:38not by a soundtrack, but by the Everly Brothers.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40You couldn't make it up.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44# I die each time
0:46:44 > 0:46:47# I hear this sound
0:46:48 > 0:46:52# Here he comes
0:46:52 > 0:46:54# That's Cathy's clown. #
0:46:54 > 0:46:58Cathy's Clown was designed pretty much in the same way.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00Donald designed that.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04And what people mistook for the lead was the harmony part.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07He wanted me on a sustained note. That was his idea.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09And he dropped the lead down to that.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13Phil told me that he had to call Donald and say,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15"Hey, man, you better come over here.
0:47:15 > 0:47:18"I think I wrote something good." So he goes over to his house
0:47:18 > 0:47:20and he's got the chorus to Cathy's Clown written.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23And Donald wrote the parts that he sang along.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25"I've gotta stand tall."
0:47:25 > 0:47:29# I've gotta stand tall
0:47:29 > 0:47:33# You know a man can't crawl
0:47:33 > 0:47:34# When he knows you're tellin' lies
0:47:34 > 0:47:37# And he let's 'em pass him by
0:47:37 > 0:47:40# Then he's not a man at all. #
0:47:40 > 0:47:47They could express it, that sort of...young sort of yearning,
0:47:47 > 0:47:49melancholy thing,
0:47:49 > 0:47:51and still make you feel good.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56You know? Even though it's so sad to see good love go bad.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58You know? HE CHUCKLES
0:47:58 > 0:48:02Cathy's Clown, which is credited to both of them,
0:48:02 > 0:48:05was probably, in terms of sales, their biggest of all.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10Which is interesting, because it is a magnificent pop record.
0:48:10 > 0:48:11Superbly sung.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15Great song. But it's not a universal theme, really.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18I would guess that most of the audience wasn't listening to it
0:48:18 > 0:48:21thinking like, "Yeah, everybody's making fun of me.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23"That's why I like to listen to this song."
0:48:23 > 0:48:26I think they liked to hear it cos the beat was so cool and the
0:48:26 > 0:48:29singing was so powerful and the harmonies worked together so well.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33And people just hadn't heard anything like that
0:48:33 > 0:48:35and couldn't stop listening to it.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37Because it was just such a visceral experience.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41I started listening to like, you know, like Cathy's Clown and songs
0:48:41 > 0:48:47like All I Have To Do Is Dream just because the harmonies were so cool.
0:48:47 > 0:48:48I wanted to learn both parts.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51There are aspects of the song that...
0:48:51 > 0:48:54You know, that middle part in the song, the bridge,
0:48:54 > 0:48:57it takes you to another place. It's a little more confident.
0:48:57 > 0:49:03But then you're right back into that struggle of feeling like,
0:49:03 > 0:49:04you know...
0:49:04 > 0:49:07you're Cathy's Clown. You're the guy that got left.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11# When you see me shed a tear
0:49:11 > 0:49:14# And you know that it's sincere
0:49:14 > 0:49:17# Don't you think it's kinda sad
0:49:17 > 0:49:19# That you're treatin' me so bad
0:49:19 > 0:49:23# Or don't you even care?
0:49:23 > 0:49:31# Don't want your love any more... #
0:49:31 > 0:49:34Paul and I were a brand-new rock and roll group.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Practising, practising, and we used the Everlys as our models.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43And we started writing songs that were like Don and Phil.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Phil got his chance to shine when he wrote When Will I Be Loved.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49And I think that's one of the most soulful records they ever did.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52There's just a feel to that record that doesn't quit.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56# I've been made blue
0:49:56 > 0:50:00# I've been lied to
0:50:00 > 0:50:07# When will I be loved? #
0:50:07 > 0:50:10I loved the fact that When Will I Be Loved
0:50:10 > 0:50:13was issued by Cadence Records
0:50:13 > 0:50:17when Cathy's Clown had charted on Warner Bros.
0:50:17 > 0:50:18So it was like, "Wait a minute.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21"You've left us but we've still got these."
0:50:21 > 0:50:23And it turns out When Will I Be Loved
0:50:23 > 0:50:24was a major song.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28# It happens every time
0:50:28 > 0:50:32# I've been cheated
0:50:32 > 0:50:36# Been mistreated
0:50:36 > 0:50:43# When will I be loved?
0:50:44 > 0:50:50# When will I be loved? #
0:50:52 > 0:50:55The Everly Brothers hit a real watershed in '59
0:50:55 > 0:50:58when they were signed by Warner Bros.
0:50:58 > 0:51:02Million-dollar deal. It seemed amazing.
0:51:02 > 0:51:06But actually, it turned out to be a real poisoned chalice.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09The Everly Brothers' early manager
0:51:09 > 0:51:12and their publisher, Wesley Rose,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15was also my family's publisher.
0:51:15 > 0:51:20Don and I, somewhere in like '61, broke with Wesley Rose.
0:51:20 > 0:51:25And Wesley Rose had been managing us
0:51:25 > 0:51:27and we didn't want him to manage us any more.
0:51:27 > 0:51:32When that happened, Wesley Rose would not license any more
0:51:32 > 0:51:35Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs for us.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37So we couldn't get any more songs.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41And that was a terrible thing to have happen. It really was.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44That's not our fault, not the Bryants' fault,
0:51:44 > 0:51:46that was Wesley's fault.
0:51:46 > 0:51:51Acuff-Rose happened to represent not only Boudleaux and Felice Bryant,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55which meant the Everly Brothers were cut off from their songs,
0:51:55 > 0:51:56but the Everly Brothers.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59So that meant they couldn't even record their own songs.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04I mean, it was silly of me to have a deal with a publishing
0:52:04 > 0:52:07company where they wouldn't release unless they published it.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10It was silly. It's death for an artist.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12There's no court of appeals.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14You know, I mean, obviously the Bryants want
0:52:14 > 0:52:16the Everly Brothers to record their songs.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18The Everly Brothers want those songs.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22But the company says no. And that's the end of it.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24You know, it's rough stuff.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27What an unbearable situation.
0:52:27 > 0:52:32And when we learn that in future we want to go back in time
0:52:32 > 0:52:36to 1962 and say, "Oh, my God. Now I know why you have recorded
0:52:36 > 0:52:40"Crying In The Rain by Carol King and Howard Greenfield.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42"Cos you can't record your own songs.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45"And you can't record Boudleaux and Felice Bryant songs."
0:52:45 > 0:52:48In 1962, the Everly Brothers had this massive hit.
0:52:48 > 0:52:50It wasn't their own song.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53It was Carol King's song, Crying In The Rain.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55But it went into the top ten.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59And it was actually their last big American top ten hit.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03Great for them, but they couldn't really enjoy it.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06Or even capitalise on that success because, at that point,
0:53:06 > 0:53:07they were in the Marines.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13# I'll never let you see
0:53:13 > 0:53:17# The way my broken heart is hurting me
0:53:17 > 0:53:22# I've got my pride and I know how to hide
0:53:22 > 0:53:25# All my sorrow and pain
0:53:25 > 0:53:30# I'll do my crying in the rain... #
0:53:30 > 0:53:32And then The Beatles happened
0:53:32 > 0:53:35and even though The Beatles are directly
0:53:35 > 0:53:37influenced by the Everly Brothers,
0:53:37 > 0:53:41no-one wants to know anybody who existed before breakfast,
0:53:41 > 0:53:43because now it's The Beatles and the British Invasion.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47So, suddenly the Everly Brothers, who had actually influenced
0:53:47 > 0:53:50The Beatles, start to look really old-fashioned, an old hat.
0:53:50 > 0:53:55They ran into the brick wall with The Stones and The Beatles.
0:53:55 > 0:54:00Because it happened to be 1963 and the world was suddenly changing.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03And suddenly, they were old-fashioned for some reason.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07Where there was no reason really, in musical terms, to think so.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12Everybody was grabbing what was relevant from the Everly Brothers.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15The Beatles taking the harmonies and that part of it.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18I mean, From Me To You, Please Please Me,
0:54:18 > 0:54:20everything is based on Everly Brothers' harmony.
0:54:20 > 0:54:25Paul McCartney said that John was Don and he was Phil.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28Allan Clarke and Graham singing their two-part,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31call it The Hollies, but they were doing Everlys.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33If you talk to The Stones, if you talk to The Beatles,
0:54:33 > 0:54:34you talk to everybody,
0:54:34 > 0:54:37if you talk to everyone that was in the British Invasion,
0:54:37 > 0:54:39Herman's Hermits, everybody you wanted to know
0:54:39 > 0:54:41loved the Everly Brothers. And tried to do that.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45The great British Invasion didn't come at a very good
0:54:45 > 0:54:47time for the Everlys.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49I remember going to see the Everly Brothers in '63
0:54:49 > 0:54:52and the opening act was The Rolling Stones.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55It was an Everly Brothers' tour,
0:54:55 > 0:54:59so I got to watch those guys every night.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03I remember watching Mick Jagger onstage and I said,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06"That's different, man. That was different."
0:55:06 > 0:55:09And I told him. I said, "You guys can make it in the States."
0:55:09 > 0:55:13You kind of thought, "Well, this act, The Rolling Stones..."
0:55:13 > 0:55:16I mean, I certainly wasn't prescient enough to say,
0:55:16 > 0:55:20"These guys are going to be the biggest thing out."
0:55:20 > 0:55:26But you could see that there was a different audience emerging.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29At the same time, the Evs had to live with
0:55:29 > 0:55:32the fact that The Stones were suddenly the flavour of the month.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35And they actually stepped down
0:55:35 > 0:55:40and gave us the top of the bill at the Albert Hall
0:55:40 > 0:55:42after six weeks on the road.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47And I think that was an amazing gesture from their part.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51I think the reason why they may have faded from the public
0:55:51 > 0:55:55appreciation is the fact that times move on. You know?
0:55:55 > 0:56:00I mean, there are people that think that Paul McCartney was in Wings.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03Their days of selling big numbers were over.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06The Everly Brothers didn't lose their talent,
0:56:06 > 0:56:11but they lost that sense of being part of the zeitgeist.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15They continued to perform, but the atmosphere between them
0:56:15 > 0:56:17was very strained.
0:56:17 > 0:56:22To the point where 1973, infamous live performance.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25They're playing a gig in California
0:56:25 > 0:56:30and they had this really acrimonious split right there onstage.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33And didn't speak to each other for ten years.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38Then they reformed in 1983 for this amazing comeback concert
0:56:38 > 0:56:40at the Royal Albert Hall.
0:56:40 > 0:56:44# And so I beg you
0:56:45 > 0:56:49# Let it be me. #
0:56:50 > 0:56:54They were battling brothers, but they were brothers nonetheless.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57And when they sang together, you know, you can
0:56:57 > 0:57:00really feel that connection in their sound.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02They brought together so many different
0:57:02 > 0:57:04forms of contemporary music
0:57:04 > 0:57:09and projected it totally genuinely through what they were.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12Which was two young kids making their way.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15I think pop music would have been quite different
0:57:15 > 0:57:18if it hadn't been for the Everly Brothers.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21That simplicity when it comes to songwriting and simple,
0:57:21 > 0:57:22strong melodies.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25I don't think you can listen to that music
0:57:25 > 0:57:29or look at those guys singing so close in harmony like that
0:57:29 > 0:57:30and not smile.
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Their legacy is that their music will last forever.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37It's indefinable. And that, I guess,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42is the beauty of it, is that you can't put your finger on it.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45But, boy, look at those boys sing, man. You know?
0:57:45 > 0:57:48It's an interesting question for Artie Garfunkel,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51who is not Paul Simon's brother, there is no DNA there,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55but damned if we didn't try to make it seems like there was.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58We were brothers when we were in junior high school.
0:57:58 > 0:58:00We were each other's main friends.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03We smoked our first cigarettes together.
0:58:03 > 0:58:08We were trying to be in each other's family.
0:58:08 > 0:58:14But we didn't quite get to where Don and Phil did.
0:58:15 > 0:58:20# So never leave me lonely
0:58:20 > 0:58:25# Tell me you'll love me only
0:58:26 > 0:58:31# And that you'll always
0:58:34 > 0:58:41# Let it be me. #