Don Everly of chart-topping Everly Brothers duo dies aged 84

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.

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, the tension between the brothers and drug problems. They split up for 10 years but their harmonies proved timeless.

Isaac Donald “Don” Everly was born on Feb. 1, 1937, in Brownie, Kentucky, the son of two country musicians, Ike and Margaret Everly. Phil was born two years later and they were still boys when their musical careers began.

With Ike Everly on guitar, the family was a travelling act and had its own radio show, on which Don and his younger brother would sing between commercials for XIP rat poison and Foster’s 30-minute Wonder Corn and Callus Remover.

In the mid-‘50s the brothers set out on their own and their breakthrough hit, Bye Bye Love, came in 1957, rising to No. 2 on the US Billboard pop charts. It was the first of many Everly tunes written by Boudleaux Bryant and his wife, Felice, including All I Have to Do Is Dream, Wake Up Little Susie and Devoted to You.

‘EVERY SYLLABLE CAN SHINE’

In 1960 the brothers signed with a new record label, Warner Bros., agreeing to a 10-year, $1 million contract and making their debut with their own song, Cathy’s Clown.

As the 1960s advanced, the brothers grew increasingly out of step with the tumultuous era. Their squeaky-clean image and innocent lyrics marked them as dated even as their sound carried on through The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, in particular, who recorded Bye Bye Love on their 1970 hit album, Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Art Garfunkel told Rolling Stone that the brothers’ harmonizing had taught him that “every syllable can shine.”

Personal problems took their toll as their popularity waned, with both brothers becoming addicted to speed and Don suffering a nervous breakdown and attempting suicide, according to Rolling Stone.

In 1973 the Everlys finally broke up during a concert – Don had taken the stage drunk – at Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in Buena Park, California.

“Phil Everly threw his guitar down and stormed off the stage during a performance of Cathy’s Clown, leaving Don to tell the stunned audience the group was finished,” Rolling Stone said.

The brothers reportedly did not speak for almost a decade and pursued solo careers.

In September 1983, they reunited at a concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Their performance was critically acclaimed and produced an album and a DVD.

In 1997 the Everlys received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.