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| Don 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".
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| Cathy's Clown |
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.
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.
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| The Everlys with Wesley Rose and Boudleaux Bryant |
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.
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| Phil and Don Everly |
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.
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| The Everlys with Buddy Holly |
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.
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| Phil and Don Everly 1964 |
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.
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.
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| 1983 Reunion Concert |
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| On The Wings Of A Nightingale |
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| Phil Everly |
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| Don Everly |
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.
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| Don Everly |
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.
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.
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| 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.
The Everly Brothers Flattop was discontinued in 1972, but was reissued as the Gibson J-180 in the mid-1980s.
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| 1963 Gibson Everly Brothers J-180 |
Don Everly devised the double tail-fin pickguards that extended below the bridge, to protect the top from his vigorous strumming.
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.
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| Albert Lee with Everly's J-200 |
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.
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| 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.
©UniqueGuitar Publications 2021 (text only)
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