50 years ago: The Everly Brothers achieve a “Dream”: #1 on 4 charts simultaneously

All I Have to Do Is Dream The Everly Brothers

Writer(s): Felice Bryant, Boudeleaux Bryant (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 14, 1958 Peak: 15 US, 13 HP, 14 CB, 2 GR, 14 HR, 13 CW, 15 RB, 17 UK, 15 CN, 3 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 6.0 radio, 0.43 video, 85.12 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Everly Brothers’ “close-harmony country-rock became an enormous influence on the wave of artists who found fame in the 1960s.” TB Bob Dylan said, “We owe those guys everything. They started it all.” TB Don and Phil Everly, born in 1937 and 1939 respectively, grew up in a musical family. They first performed on their parents’ radio show when they eight and six years old. Don was working as a writer in Nashville in 1954, having crafted songs for Kitty Wells and Justin Tubb. KL When the Everly Brothers tried to launch their own careers, they struck out on their first recording session, but then “Nashville heavyweight” TB Chet Atkins hooked them up with the husband-and-wife writing team of Felice & Boudleaux Bryant, KL who’d written hits for Little Jimmy Dickens, Joe Smith, and Eddy Arnold. FB Felice met Boudleaux when she was working as an elevator operator in a Milwaukee hotel where he was playing in a jazz band. When she met him, she claims she knew him immediately because she’d dreamed the face of her future husband when she was eight-years old. As such, “All I Have to Do Is Dream” may be closer to their story than any of their other songs. DM It “feels so natural and right in its beautiful hesitations and thoughtful syncopations that it might as well be fated.” DM The Bryants went on to write the Everlys’ first three big singles – “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream.” All three topped the country charts and the latter two topped the pop charts. However, “Dream,” “with Atkins’ innovative tremolo chording backing the brothers’ high-lonesome harmonies,” RS500 also topped the R&B and UK charts, making it the biggest hit of the Everlys’ career. On June 2, 1958, the song became the only record to hit #1 on all four of Billboard’s singles charts simultaneously. WK Phil Everly recalls first hearing the song “on an acetate and it was just Boudleaux and his guitar. I said, ‘You could put that out and it would be a hit.’” KL “‘It’s just a great, great song. It’s beautiful.’” SF Phil’s sentiments have been echoed in subsequent decades. Richard Chamberlain had a #14 hit with it in 1963. In the ‘70s, Bobbie Gentry & Glen Campbell had a top 40 version of the song and in 1981 Andy Gibb dueted with Victoria Principal for yet another charted version. In the end, though, it is the Everlys who own the “definitive version.” HL Theirs is “so pretty, so evanescent, so – dreamlike” PW that they “don’t sound like two guys. But they don’t sound like one guy, either. They sound…like an angel.” PW Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for The Everly Brothers FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 37. HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. London, England: Blandford Books. Page 13. KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 50. DM Dave Marsh (1989). The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made. New American Library: New York, NY. Page 394. SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Brothers, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 56. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 544-5. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 205. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 32. PW Paul Williams (1993). Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc. Pages 41-2. Last updated 4/5/2023.