DON Everly, whose close-harmony singing with his brother, Phil, generated dreamy, chart-topping hits about teen romance in the late 1950s and early ’60s and influenced groups from The Beatles to Simon and Garfunkel, has died, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday. He was 84. Mr. Everly, whose hits with his brother included “Wake Up Little Susie” and “Bye Bye Love,” died on Saturday at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, a family spokesperson told the newspaper. His brother died in 2014 at age 74. The New York Times once described the brothers’ voices as “dipped in country sugar,” and it was said that “if they sing country in heaven, then there’s a good chance the angels sound like the Everly Brothers.” “Perhaps even more powerfully than Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers melded country with the emerging sound of Fifties rock & roll,” said Rolling Stone magazine in putting the brothers at No. 33 on its list of the “100 Greatest Artists.” The Everlys’ success faded in the 1960s amid the advent of guitar-driven rock, tension between the brothers and drug problems. They split up for 10 years but their harmonies proved timeless. — Reuters
