When the book about steel-clad harmony voices in pop music is written, chances are that the first chapter in that book will be about Phil and Don Everly – collectively known as The Everly Brothers. Their blend of voices gave them near instant success when Bye Bye Love was released to the world in March 1957. It was their second ever single, but their first with widespread major label distribution.
Initially, the brothers had found some success working in local radio and variety programs before they caught the attention of family friend Chet Atkins, who secured them a session for Columbia Records in early 1956. The following single release Keep-A-Lovin’ Me was released as a test, immediately flopped, and the label passed on them without really giving them a chance.
Chet Atkins still believed in them. He went on to introduce the brothers to Wesley Rose, of Acuff-Rose music publishers. Rose felt they had some potential, and told them he would secure them a recording deal if they signed to Acuff-Rose as songwriters. They signed in late 1956, and the following year Rose introduced them to Archie Bleyer who was looking for artists for his Cadence Records. The Everlys signed for that label and started recording in February 1957. These sessions would produce material for their first album.
The brothers also needed a lead-off single, and Bye Bye Love was offered to them as a candidate. What was not revealed to them was that the song had already been rejected by over thirty (!) other artists. According to legend, the Everlys were not too impressed with the song either, but they had not seen much success yet and were very appreciative of the $64 fee that they both received for the session.
They went to work on the song, settling into a snappy backing track of acoustic guitars which provided a catchy bedding for their trademark harmony vocals. The song also had a somewhat discreet band backing which suited the track, emphasising the vocal performances. The session was quick, and the song was arranged, rehearsed, and recorded on 1 March 1957.
The song’s musical attitude contradicts its lyrics. It is a toe-tapping and uplifting tune, as catchy as it is memorable. But it also carries the weight of heartbreak, with the Everly Brothers saying goodbye to love and happiness as their baby has found someone new. When it was released just a few weeks after it was recorded, it became their first hit in both the UK and US.
Bye-bye love, bye-bye happiness
Hello loneliness, I think I’m gonna cry
Bye-bye love, bye-bye sweet caress
Hello emptiness, I feel like I could die
Bye-bye my love, goodbyeThere goes my baby with someone new
She sure looks happy, I sure am blue
She was my baby ’til he stepped in
Goodbye to romance that might’ve been
The song was written by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant. The talented couple penned many huge hits together for the Everly Brothers and other artists, including Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have To Do Is Dream, Bird Dog, Devoted to You, and Love Hurts (also covered by Nazareth, amongst others). The Bryants are credited with being the first songwriters to come to Nashville and make a living only by writing songs.
In a 1981 interview with Country Music People, Boudleaux recalled: “I wrote Bye Bye Love while traveling home one night. Felice was driving down the highway and I got the first verse and chorus right down there. I always make sure I have a pen and paper in the car for these occasions.”
He added: “We really believed in the song and were disappointed when so many people turned it down. They said it was unsuitable, some even asked if we has anything better!”
In addition to the Everlys on joint lead vocals and acoustic guitars, Chet Atkins provided electric guitar on the track, with Floyd Chance playing double bass and Buddy Harman drumming.
The Everlys employed the same country harmony style they had used since childhood, which gave their version a slightly upbeat tempo rather than being the sad ballad it could have been. The song had also been written with a fiddle or a steel guitar in mind. This was not an option for the Everlys, who preferred to go with the innovative playing of guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins.
Cadence had initially wanted a song for the country market. The finished track was more rock’n’roll than he expected. Although it still worked as a country-sounding cut, this gave the label a dilemma. They didn’t really know whether to market the record toward the pop market or the country market. The solution? They ended up promoting it in both.
Bye Bye Love became their debut single on Cadence Records, and went on to become their breakthrough single, released just weeks after the session at an undisclosed date in the latter half of March 1957.
Success was not immediate. Momentum would slowly but surely build through promotional activities, radio play, and TV appearances. The song debuted on Billboard’s country singles chart on 13 May 1957, and began a steady climb. Two weeks later it also appeared in the rock charts.
Bye Bye Love reached the top of the country charts on 22 June, where it held the #1 position for seven weeks. It nearly replicated this success on the main Billboard singles chart, but not quite, peaking at #2 (only beaten by Elvis Presley’s (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear) where it stayed for four weeks. The track made it all the way to #1 on Billboard’s competing pop chart Cash Box, though. Don & Phil’s very country-sounding rock song had become a major crossover hit, and was their first of many million-sellers.
Once people heard the Everly Brothers version of Bye Bye Love, people’s attitudes to the song changed. Now everybody wanted to cover it – perhaps even a bit too soon. Webb Pierce, a hugely popular country star of the ’50s, recorded his own version of the song just six weeks after the Everly Brothers. The brothers got wind of it, and worried that his rendition would overshadow theirs. Don Everly put in a frantic call to producer Archie Bleyer. He later recalled: “I said, ‘Archie, we’re really in trouble – Webb Pierce has covered Bye Bye Love. He said, ‘Who’s Webb Pierce?’ Then he said, ‘Don’t worry about it, we’re hitting pop.'”
Bleyer was right. While Pierce’s version took the #7 spot on the Country chart, it barely made a showing on the Hot 100, peaking at #73.
Over the years, many other artists have covered the song, including Roy Orbison and Ray Charles. Although most have made good versions of the track, nobody has ever outshone the Everly’s version. Instead they have added to their legacy by keeping the track alive.
The track was a particular favourite of the pop duo Simon & Garfunkel. As kids, the two of them took a bus to the nearest record store so they could buy the single, and it became a staple of their shows when they started performing. It was always a fun song for them to play, especially when the audience would supply the backbeat. When they included it on their classic Bridge Over Troubled Water album, they recorded audiences clapping from some of their shows to incorporate into the mix.
This song was also a big influence on The Hollies, whose founding member Graham Nash told Songfacts: “I’m always trying to make music, make you feel how I felt when I very first heard The Everly Brothers in 1957. When I first heard Bye Bye Love, my life changed instantly. I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and so did my friend, [Hollies co-founder] Allan Clarke.” In 1966, The Hollies would later provide a lot of songs as well as be the backing band for the Everly Brothers on their album Two Yanks In England.
The Beatles can be seen covering the song on Peter Jackson’s Get Back-documentary (from the Let It Be album sessions in 1969). They had admitted that much of their sound came from trying to imitate Don and Phil’s special vocal blends. George Harrison later recorded his own version of the song for his 1974 album Dark Horse, changing the words to reference his wife Pattie Boyd leaving him for his friend Eric Clapton.
The Everly Brothers went on to have hit after hit, which sent them out touring the early rock circuit with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and Bill Haley. They became one of the most popular groups in the world, but unfortunately their beautiful harmonies were not a reflection of their brotherly love. Behind the scenes Don and Phil had a stormy relationship, fuelled by an intense workload and the fact that they never got a moment’s peace from each other. Things were taking a toll, and on a fateful evening in 1973 at Knotts Berry Farm in California Phil had enough. After a drunken Don proceeded to mess up the lyrics to Cathy’s Clown, Phil smashed his guitar on the floor and stormed offstage, disappearing into the night. Don played the rest of the show alone.
The following night, it was clear that Phil had no intention of returning. Don went on stage alone and, visibly drunk, told the crowd “The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago.” There had been squabbles before, but it was different – more serious – this time. It really looked like the Everly Brothers were over. The press ran with this story, and Bye Bye Love was frequently used as the headline – and punchline – to the story.
“People thought that night was just some brouhaha between Phil and me,” Don told Rolling Stone in 1986. “They didn’t realize we had been working our buns off for years. We had never been anywhere without working; had never known any freedom. We were just strapped together like a team of horses. It’s funny, the press hadn’t paid any attention to us in ten years, but they jumped on that. It was one of the saddest days of my life.”
“What we needed was to take a long vacation, to get off the merry-go-round,” Phil added. “There were too many people making too much money off us, keeping us going. The tensions between Don and I existed from day one, from birth. And will go on forever.”
The brothers didn’t speak for most of a decade. Their father’s funeral brought them together in 1975 and they had words with each other again. While this was a major step in their reconciliation, they still didn’t see each other again until the early 1980s. By 1983, things had progressed enough that they were considering a comeback – but they still needed a little nudge. Their producer Dave Edmunds decided to call Paul McCartney.
“Dave said it was the hardest phone call he ever made, because McCartney is always being asked for something,” Don Everly told Rolling Stone. “Paul said if he could come up with anything, he’d give a call. Dave forgot about it, but about six weeks later, the phone rang, and it was McCartney. He said, ‘I think I’ve got one.'”
McCartney’s song On the Wings of a Nightingale was released on the Everly Brothers’ comeback album, EB ’84. The single, and the brothers’ comeback tour, proved to be a success.
In 1986, the Everly Brothers were contacted by another well-known fan – Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkel, who enlisted them to sing harmonies on his newest album’s title track Graceland. He described it as “the perfect Everly Brothers song.”
The duo were among the first 10 acts to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame when it was launched in 1986. The brothers continued to play together until Phil’s death of pulmonary disease in 2014 aged 74. Don was 84 when he passed in 2021.
For as much tension as there at times seemed to be between them, they both looked at peace when they sang together and managed to reach that pinnacle of harmonies that they are still remembered for. For as long as singers are harmonising or splicing heartache and bittersweet guitar melodies, they will be remembered.
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