Day 162: The Everly Brothers – The Everly Brothers

Today’s choice is another plugging of a gap in my musical knowledge. I know how impactful the Everly Brothers are but I’m not particularly well versed in their stuff, so I thought I’d go for their self-titled debut, clocking in at a very tight 25 minutes, which is always a bonus when I’m running low on time

Album cover courtesy of Cadence Records

The duo consists of brothers Don and Phil Everly from Knoxville, Tennessee. They were from a musical family, where their father had been working in the mines since he was 14 but left to focus on music. He had a music show on the radio where he, his wife and his kids would occasionally sing as the Everly Family, but Don and Phil also occasionally sang by themselves as Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil. They gained popularity from singing on the radio and on television and got signed by Cadence Records in 1957 and recorded their first hit “Bye Bye Love” immediately.

Their self-titled debut was released 1958 and it featured their trademark harmonising with acoustic guitar-heavy rock and roll songs, with a bit of pop and country mixed in. The sound of it is incredibly pure and wholesome, it’s an album so squeaky clean where even the quasi-threatening “Leave My Woman Alone” sounds pretty convivial – “how’s about you leave my woman alone and we won’t have to fight, eh buddy?” just doesn’t really sound like much of a threat anyway.

The harmonies on the album are beautiful and there’s nothing I can really fault the album for, aside from maybe being a little bit unimaginative. There are a few original songs and some covers of artists like Ray Charles and Gene Vincent, all of which are perfectly fine. The only song that really takes my breath away is “I Wonder If I Care As Much” where their harmonies are absolutely stunning, but other than that, it’s pretty middle of the road for me.

I’m giving it a 7.5/10 – it’s still good, I’m glad I listened to it, but it’s probably not something I’ll reach for again. Fun fact, apparently the incredibly quaint-sounding  "Wake Up Little Susie” was so controversial that it was banned from radio stations in Boston due to the suggestive lyrics – bet the people in charge of that decision would have a stroke if they heard WAP.