50 years ago: The Everly Brothers “Cathy’s Clown” hit #1

Cathy’s Clown The Everly Brothers

Writer(s): Don Everly, Phil Everly (see lyrics here) First Charted: April 18, 1960 Peak: 15 US, 15 CB, 14 HR, 11 RB, 17 UK, 2 CN, 3 AU, 8 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 8.5 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Don and Phil Everly were pioneers of rock and roll, combined elements of country and pop. They found success with “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and more in the 1950s. On songs like the latter, the brothers “radiated a tremulous lost-little-kid vulnerability. That approachability might have been one key to their longevity; they were still making hits back when many of their peers were falling off.” SG “Of that initial big-bang wave of ’50s rock ‘n’ roll stars, the Everly Brothers were arguably the least threatening.” SG In 1960, when some rock stars were already peaking, the Everlys signed a 10-year, million-dollar contract with Warner Brothers. FB It was reportedly the first million-dollar contract. KL Their first single on the new label, “Cathy’s Clown,” was the best-selling of their career. SG It was also their longest-running #1 in the UK, where they topped the charts five times. The song also has the distinction of being the first single to be atop the charts simultaneously in the United States and the UK. FB The “perfectly solid pop song about romantic bitterness” SG was written once Don and Phil Everly were home in Nashville after a tour. Warner Brothers was eager for a hit and didn’t see one in the eight songs the Everlys had recorded so far. Don wrote the melody and the chorus while Phil wrote the verses. FB It was another example of how they “simply knew how to put a song together.” SG “They managed to make even the bitterness sound friendly and approachable.” SG Graham Gouldman of 10cc said, “I loved the Everly Brothers and still do. They would sound like three people singing and they recorded brilliant songs, looked great, and played beautiful guitars. ‘Cathy’s Clown’ was the first record I bought and I can still hear its influence in my writing. I loved the fact that one note was being held with another melody descensing underneath it. I used that idea in ‘For Your Love’ for the Yardbirds.” KL Resources: FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 68. 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 67. SG Stereogum (2/23/2018). “The Number Ones” by Tom Breihan WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/12/2022.

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.

50 years ago: The Everly Brothers “Bye Bye Love” charted

Bye Bye Love The Everly Brothers

Writer(s): Boudleaux Bryant, Felice Bryant (see lyrics here) Released: March 1957 First Charted: May 13, 1957 Peak: 2 US, 3 HP, 11 CB, 11 HR, 17 CW, 5 RB, 6 UK, 2 CN, 14 AU, 2 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 3.0 radio, 13.0 video, 40.5 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: By 1957, rock and roll had become “ a vehicle for the banal contrivances of camera-friendly faces singing songs about teenage romance.” RY The term “rock and roll” had become a catchphrase for corporate-sponsored teen music with a beat.” RY There were exceptions, however. The Everly Brothers were one of the acts that “brought something new and innovative to their music.” RY They were the first to introduce lead-vocal harmony to the genre. RY The Everlys came from a musical family. Their parents sang country music on the radio and brought the kids up “with the traditional country style of picking and singing.” AC Once Phil and Don Everly graduated from high school, they moved to Nashville and almost immediately were landing gigs in clubs, thanks to their father’s connections.Dad also asked his musician friend Chet Atkins to introduce his boys to Wesley Rose, a publisher, who convinced Archie Blyeyer to sign them to Cadence Records. SS Meanwhile, the writing team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, who married five days after they met, had more than 80 songs and were seeking a publisher. A musician friend suggested they contact Fred Rose, a new publisher in Nashville. They found some success with a few country and pop hits over more than a decade of writing, SS but really hit gold when Cadence Records bought the song “Bye Bye Love” for the Everly Brothers after more than thirty other artists turned the song down. SS Despite the absence of traditional country instruments such as fiddle or steel guitar, it was “a very country-sounding cut.” AC The Everlys took it to the top of the country charts and #2 on the pop chart. It was the first taste of success for the Everly Brothers, who would go on to have more than thirty more hits. “The unearthly combination of Don and Phil Everly’s voices was so perfect, so pure, that it seemed to emanate from a single source.” RY They also had songs, which – thanks to the Bryants in many cases – were infused “with thoughtful lyrics that spoke to the hearts and minds of teenagers.” RY Resources: AC Ace Collins (1996). The Stories Behind Country Music’s All-Time Greatest 100 Songs. New York, NY; The Berkley Publishing Group. Pages 111-13. RY Thomas Ryan (1996). American Hit Radio: A History of Popular Singles From 1955 to the Present. Prima Publishing: Rocklin, CA. Pages 19-20. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Pages 690-1. Related Links: First posted 8/26/2022.