Don Everly Passes Away August 21st, 2021

 

Don Everly

Isaac Donald Everly known to all as Don Everly passed away on August 21, 2021. Along with his brother Phil Everly, this iconic duo were the most iconic rock vocal duo in recent history. Their familial vocal blend of close harmony singing influenced many vocal groups. 

Don and Phil Everly

The duo began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit No. 1 in the spring of 1957. 

Additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems". 

Cathy's Clown

In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single. The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit. 

The Everlys

Don and his younger brother Phil grew up in a musical family. Their father, Ike Everly, was a respected guitarist. Along with their mother, Margaret Everly, the began performing on the radio in the early 1940’s as The Everlys, and billed their sons as "Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil".  They got their talent honestly. 

The Everlys with Chet Atkins

When the brothers were still in high school, they gained the attention of prominent Nashville musicians like Chet Atkins, who began to groom them for national attention. The family moved several times before settling in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

While the family was living in Knoxville, the brothers caught the attention of family friend Chet Atkins, manager of the RCA Victor studios in Nashville. 

The Everlys with Wesley Rose
 and Boudleaux Bryant 

The brothers became a duo and moved to Nashville. Despite affiliation with RCA Victor, Atkins somehow arranged for the Everly Brothers to record for Columbia Records in early 1956. Their "Keep a-Lovin' Me", which Don wrote and composed, flopped, and they were dropped from the Columbia label. Atkins introduced the Everly Brothers to Wesley Rose, of Acuff-Rose music publishers. 

Rose told them he would secure them a recording deal if they signed to Acuff-Rose as songwriters. They signed in late 1956, and in 1957 Rose introduced them to Archie Bleyer, who was looking for artists for his Cadence Records. The Everlys signed and made a recording in February 1957. "Bye Bye Love" had been rejected by 30 other acts. Their record reached No. 2 on the pop charts, behind Elvis Presley's "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear", and No. 1 on the country and No. 5 on the R&B charts.The song, by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, became the Everly Brothers' first million-seller. 

Phil and Don Everly

Working with the Bryants, they had hits in the United States and the United Kingdom, the biggest being "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", "Bird Dog", and "Problems". 

The Everlys, though they were largely interpretive artists, also succeeded as songwriters, especially with Don's "(Till) I Kissed You", which hit No. 4 on the US pop charts. 

The Everlys with Buddy Holly 

The brothers toured with Buddy Holly in 1957 and 1958. According to Holly's biographer Philip Norman, they were responsible for persuading Holly and the Crickets to change their outfits from Levi's and T-shirts to the Everlys' Ivy League suits. Don said Holly wrote and composed "Wishing" for them.

Long-simmering disputes with Wesley Rose, the CEO of Acuff-Rose Music, which managed the group, and the brothers growing drug usage in the 1960s, as well as changing tastes in popular music, led to the group's decline in popularity in its native U.S., though the brothers continued to release hit singles in the U.K. and Canada, and had many highly successful tours throughout the 1960s. 

Phil and Don Everly 1964

Though their US stardom had begun to wane two years before the British Invasion in 1964, their appeal was still strong in Canada, the UK and Australia. The Everly's remained successful in the UK and Canada for most of the 1960s, reaching the top 40 in the United Kingdom through 1968 and the top 10 in Canada as late as 1967.  

The 1966 album Two Yanks in England was recorded in England with The Hollies, who also wrote many of the album's songs. The Everly's final US top 40 hit, "Bowling Green", was released in 1967.

The Everlys' Final Performance 

In the early 1970s, the brothers began releasing solo recordings, and in 1973  the brothers officially broke up and made the announcement at their final on July 14, 1973, at Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, California.  During the show tensions between the two.

Don told a reporter he was tired of being an Everly Brother. During the show, Phil smashed his guitar and walked off, leaving Don to finish the show without him, ending their collaboration. The two would not reunite musically for more than ten years. 

1983 Reunion Concert

The Everly Brothers reunited for a reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London on September 23, 1983, which ended their ten-year-long solo careers, was initiated by Phil and Don alongside Terry Slater, with Wingfield as musical director. This concert was recorded for a live LP and video broadcast on cable television in mid-January 1984. 

On The Wings Of A Nightingale 

Afterwards the brothers returned to the studio as a duo for the first time in over a decade, recording the album EB '84, produced by Dave Edmunds. The lead single, "On the Wings of a Nightingale", written and composed by Paul McCartney, was a success and returned them to the US Hot 100 (for their last appearance) and the UK charts. Phil and Don Everly would continue to perform periodically until Phil's death. 

Phil Everly

Phil Everly died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, on January 3, 2014, 16 days before his 75th birthday, of lung disease. Phil's widow Patti blamed her husband's death on his smoking habit, which caused him to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and recounted Phil's spending his final years having to carry oxygen tanks with him wherever he went. 

Don Everly

Don Everly attended the Annual Music Masters as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid homage to the Everly Brothers on October 25, 2014. Don took the State Theater stage and performed the Everly's classic hit "Bye Bye Love". 

On most recordings, Don sang the baritone part and Phil the tenor harmony.  Although Don was mainly low, and Phil was mainly high, their voices overlap in a very intricate and almost subtle fashion. 

Don Everly

Don Everly was born on February 1, 1937 and died at age 84. He was married three times. HIs wife was Adela Garza, who he wed in 1997. Prior to that he had married Venetia Stevenson in 1962. They divorced in 1970. His first wife was Mary Sue Ingraham. That marriage lasted from 1957 to 1961. 

Don Everly leaves behind his wife, Adela, and four daughters;  Erin Everly, Stacy Everly, Edan Everly, Venetia Everly.  No cause of death has been announced.

Gibson J-200's  

Based on their father, Ike Everly's suggestion, Phil and Don originally played matching Gibson J-200 guitars with dual pickguards that Don Everly designed. 

1964 Gibson
Everly Brothers Guitar

In 1962, Gibson collaborated with the Everly Brothers to produce the Everly Brothers Flattop. This flat top guitar was different than the large J-200. It featured a thinner J-185-style body and an adjustable bridge. 

This guitar was also unusual in that it featured star-shaped inlays on the rosewood fretboard, and it had a large double tortoise grain pickguard, which covered most of the top of the body. 

As the pickguard covered most of the top of the guitar, it limited the vibration of the top, thus limiting the sound of the guitar. The standard finish on the guitar was black, though a few models were natural or sunburst finish. 

1987 Gibson J-180

The Everly Brothers Flattop was discontinued in 1972, but was reissued as the Gibson J-180 in the mid-1980s.

1963 Gibson
 Everly Brothers J-180

The Gibson Everly Brothers flattop featured a thin J-185-style body and an adjustable bridge. It also featured five-point star inlays on the rosewood fretboard and a double tortoiseshell pickguard, which covered most of the top of the body. The standard finish on the guitar was black, though a few models were natural or sunburst finish. 

Don Everly devised the double tail-fin pickguards that extended below the bridge, to protect the top from his vigorous strumming. 

1963 Gibson
Everly Brothers J-180 

The bridge on the Everly Brothers was actually designed by father Ike Everly, at the suggestion of Phil, a perpetual string breaker.  Interestingly, it was Ike Everly who reputedly taught Merle Travis the fingerpicking guitar style for which he became famous. Ike, and Travis possibly picked this style up from Kentucky thumb-picker Mose Rager.

The bridge on the J-180 was also an ‘oversized’ rosewood design and pinless - the strings ran through the bridge instead of using bridge pins. 

Phil’s string-snapping habit would ultimately lead to his 1995 formation of the Everly Music Co., a business dedicated to the production of long-lasting strings. 

From 1962 to 1971, only 488 Everly Brothers models were made. Depending on condition, sale value of one of these can reach $15,000. 

Albert Lee with Everly's J-200

Albert Lee is now the owner of Don Everly's original Everly Brothers model. The English session guitarist was Musical Director on the duo’s 1983 reunion concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Lee was presented with the guitar by Don Everly himself.  Though some sources say the guitar Lee was given was actually Don's first Gibson J-200.

Elvis' Everly Brothers Guitar 

Elvis Presley was the owner of a late ‘60s Everly Brothers guitar, but one with a natural finish and with only one pickguard. Auctioned by George Gruhn guitars for $25,000 in the 1990s, it was previously in the possession of Elvis expert Jim Curtin, who was given the instrument by Vernon Presley, Elvis's father, in 1975 in appreciation for another guitar Curtin had made for Elvis. 

Curtin said that he was at a jam session at Graceland in 1968 unbelievably, Elvis didn't have a guitar. So, Elvis sent an aide out to buy a new Gibson Everly Brothers. Elvis used it at Graceland through 1969. 

Jimmy Page owns an early black 1962 Gibson Everly Brothers, but he says he has never played it on a recording or live - it is just for home use. 

The Everly Brothers model was reissued by Gibson in 1986 under the name J-180. 

1993 Everly Guitar

In 1992 it was again designated The Everly Brothers guitar until 1994 when the name went back to the J-180.  The bridge was changed to have pins locking the strings.

Serial numbers will give you an exact year of manufacture, of course, but as a rough guide, 1960s Everly Brothers signatures with tortoiseshell pickguards are pre-’68. Black pickguard models are from ’68 onwards. 

Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Roger Daltrey and even Madonna have played an Everly Brothers J-180 live in concert.

Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.

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