Don Everly, of the first rock and roll of Everly Brothers, dies at the age of 84

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – Don Everly, half of the pioneers of the Everly Brothers, who harmonized country hits that impacted a generation of rock ‘n’ roll music, has died. He was 84 years old.

Everly died at her home in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, according to her lawyer and family spokeswoman Linda Edell Howard. His brother, Phil Everly, died in January 2014 at the age of 74.

“Don lived by what he felt in his heart,” a family statement said. “Don expressed his gratitude for the ability to live his dreams … living in love with his soul mate and his wife Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly brother. Don always expressed his gratitude for his followers ”.

In the late fifties and sixties, the duo of Don and Phil relied on their rural roots with their shaved guitars and high, longing harmonies, while their poignant songs, many of Felice and Boudleaux’s team. Bryant, embodied teenage restlessness and energy. Top 19 hits from the 40’s included “Bye Bye Love”, “Let It Be Me”, “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and “Wake Up Little Susie”, and Beatles performers on Simon & Garfunkel on cited as key influences.

“The Everly Brothers are an integral part of the fabric of American music,” Jerry Lee Lewis said in a statement. “With the passing of my friend Don, I am thoughtful … reflecting on a life full of wonderful friends, spectacular music and good memories. I can say a lot about Don, what he and Phil meant both as people and as musicians, but today I will reflect. “

Songs like “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” attracted the post-war baby boom generation, and their deceptively simple harmonies hid a greater meaning among the lighter pop rates of the time.

The two broke up in disputes in 1973 after 16 years of success, then reunited in 1983, “sealing it with a hug,” Phil Everly said.

Although their number of hit albums declined in the late 1980s, they had successful concert tours in the United States and Europe.

They were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year they had a pop-country record hit, “Born Yesterday.” Two years earlier, they had success with the fast-paced ballad “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” written by Paul McCartney.

“As a singer, songwriter and guitar innovator, Don Everly was one of the most talented and impactful artists in the history of popular music,” Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a communiqué. The brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Don Everly was born in Brownie, Kentucky, to Ike and Margaret Everly, who were folk and country music singers. Phil Everly was born to the couple in Chicago, where the Everlys moved from Brownie when Ike got tired of working in the coal mines.

The brothers began singing country music in 1945 on their family’s radio show in Shenandoah, Iowa.

Their professional advancement came when they moved to Nashville in the mid-1950s and signed a record deal with New York-based Cadence Records.

Her breakup occurred dramatically during a concert at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Phil Everly threw the guitar and left, prompting Don Everly to tell people, “The Everly Brothers died ten years ago.”

Disputes between the brothers even reached the courts, when Don Everly sued Phil Everly’s heirs in 2017 for the copyright of three of his songs, including “Cathy’s Clown”. The case reached the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

But after Phil’s death in 2014, Don said he heard a spiritual message from his brother before he died.

“Our love was and will always be deeper than any earthly difference we could have had,” Don Everly said in a statement in 2014.

While they were separated, they followed solo singing careers with little success. Phil also appeared in Clint Eastwood’s 1978 film “Every Which Way but Loose.” Don made a couple of records with friends in Nashville, performed at local nightclubs and played guitar and sang background vocals in the recording sessions.

Don Everly said in a 1986 Associated Press interview that he and his brother were successful because “we never followed trends. We did what we liked and we followed our instincts. Rock ‘n “Roll survived, and we were right about it. The country survived and we were right about it. The two can be mixed, but people said we couldn’t do it.”

Decades later, its impact on popular music is still evident. In 2013, Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones of Green Day released a loving tribute to the Everlys on their collaborative album “Foreverly.”