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100 Greatest Singers of All Time

90

The Everly Brothers


Hale/Getty
90/100

Born Don Everly, February 1st, 1937; Phil Everly, January 19th, 1939
Key Tracks "Bye Bye Love," "When Will I Be Loved," "Crying in the Rain"
Influenced The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel

Beginning with the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, every group for whom harmony singing is important owes a crucial debt to the Everly Brothers. Their hits in the Fifties and early Sixties seemed at once raw and pristine: When he first heard the Everlys, Art Garfunkel says, "I learned that every syllable can shine. They were Kentucky guys with beautiful, perfect-pitch harmonies and great diction. All those vowels and consonants, those s's and t's, every one of them killed me." Phil and Don Everly learned their own lessons from the great country tradition of family harmony singing. "They had a blend that only brothers could have," says Dion. "But then when Don would sing his solos on the bridges of those songs, oh, my God, they would transport you. It was brilliant."

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