4/1/14 – Phil Everly – 19th January 1939 – 3rd January – 2014

Life & Death

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It’s said that when two voices blend together as beautifully as this it has to be in the DNA and Phil and Don Everly’s voices were certainly special. Their harmonies, moved you, demanded your attention, a magic combination. They inspired Simon And Garfunkel, Lennon And McCartney, The Mamas and The Papas, Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. Husband and wife songwriting team Felice and Boudleaux Bryant wrote 23 hits for them and although formulaic it just worked so well that even as the trends changed and the influenced became the stars, The Everly Brothers’ music  endured. It wasn’t just their voices that were a perfect blend, they found a niche for their fifties, Rock ‘n’ Roll, mixed with country music that made them timeless.

Like others in the fifties and sixties, The Everly Brothers had a hit with a teenage death song, Ebony Eyes, about the tragic loss of the girl on Flight 1203. Famously falling out in 1973 and not speaking for ten years, they got back together and Paul McCartney wrote a song for them, On The Wings Of A Nightingale that was a small hit. Phil Everly was a lifelong smoker dying of a combination of emphysema and bronchitis. Sadly missed he was 74 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Everly_Brothers

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/04/phil-everly-brothers-dies-74

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