485 Goodbye The Everly Brothers - On The Wings Of A Nightingale

Chart  entered : 22  September  1984

Chart  peak : 41

Now  who  realised  we  hadn't  said  goodbye  to  these  two  yet ?  This  was  the  duo's  first  hit  in  over  16  years.  Don  and  Phil  had  been  less  affected  by  The  Beatles  ( who  they  hugely  influenced ) than  a  crippling  legal  dispute  with  their  music  publisher  Wesley  Rose  which  meant  they  couldn't  record  their  own  compositions.  Apart  from  "The  Price  Of  Love  " ( number  2 in  1965 )  their  hits  were  smaller  and  less  frequent  as  the  sixties  progressed. By  the  time  the  dispute  was  settled  , fraternal  tension  and , particularly  in  Don's  case, drug  addiction  had  taken  their  toll  on  their  musical  partnership. They  stopped  working  together  after  a  show  in  July  1973  where  Don  got  drunk  beforehand  and  Phil  walked  off  stage  after  smashing  his  guitar. They  apparently  didn't  speak  for  a  decade  except  at  their  dad's  funeral  in  1975. As  solo  performers  each  scored  placings  on  the  US  country  charts   but  Don  effectively  stopped  recording  after  1976  and  Phil  had  no  real  success  until  1983's  "Phil  Everly"  scored  him  a UK   Top  10  hit  with  the  Cliff  Richard  duet  "She  Means  Nothing  To  Me".

Despite  this  upturn  in  his  own   career  Phil  agreed  to  a   televised  reunion  concert   at  the  Royal  London  Hall   in  September  1983. This  was  so  well  received  they  decided  to  record  a  new  album  together  "E.B.  84"  , helped  out  by  a  starry  cast  including  Paul  McCartney, Jeff  Lynne  and  Dave  Edmunds.

"On  The  Wings  of  a  Nightingale"  was  written  for  them  by  long-time  admirer  Macca  , a  rather  generous  gift  considering  the  crap  he  was  putting  out  at  the  time.  It's  a  light, melodic  country  rock  song    produced  by  Dave  Edmunds  and   unsurprisingly  therefore it  sounds  like  Rockpile  are  backing  them. The  main  point  is  that  those  wonderful  harmonies  are  still  intact  and  while  the  song  might  not  be  up  there  with  the  early  sixties  classics  it's  a  happy  reminder  of  what   a  major  talent  they  were. The  single  was  promoted  with  an  Arena  documentary   in  which  the  brothers, both  black-clad  to  deflect  attention  from  their  middle-age  spread  , re-visited  their  old  haunts  in  Iowa. Even  so , Radio  One's  refusal  to  give  air  play  to  a  pre-Beatles  act  meant  it  failed  on  the  cusp  of  the  Top  40. It  got  to  number 50 in  the  US.  

With  the  circus  having  left  town  , the  follow-up  single  , "The  Story  Of  Me"  a  dreary  Lennon  pastiche  from  the  pen  of   Lynne,  made  no  impression  at  all.  Still , Don  and  Phil  enjoyed  the  experience  enough  to  record  another  album  with  Edmunds  , "Born  Yesterday"  and  do  a  UK  tour  in  November  1985. The  single  was  a  double  side  of  "Amanda  Ruth"  and  the  title  track. The  former  is  a  cover  of  a  song  by  California  cowpunk  band  Rank  And  File  but  sounds  like  a  re-write  of  "Lucille"  and  an  attempt  at  proving  middle  aged  guys  can  still  rock  out. "Born  Yesterday"  is  a  thoughtful  Don  Everly  song  and  much  more  indicative  of  the  album's  thoughtful  country  rock  including  an  outstanding  version  of  Dylan's  "Abandoned  Love".  Alas  nobody  was  listening   anymore  and  the  album  was  a  minor hit  in  the  US  and  Canada.

They  made  one  more  album   together  ,"Some  Hearts",  in  1988, a  respectful  but  slightly  redundant  cover  of  the  Beach  Boys'  "Don't  Worry  Baby"  with  some  of  the  'Boys   on  backing  vocals. It  was  a  minor  hit  in  Australia. The  album  is  a  bit  schizophrenic  with  Don's  songs  sticking  firmly   in  the  semi-acoustic  country  rock  vein  while  Phil, writing  with  Venture  John  Durrill  , pursues  a  modern  AOR  direction  on  his  contributions. Neither  though  have  brought  a  great  song  to  the  party  or  a  voice  in  its  prime  so  it's  a  disappointing  last  effort  which  made  no  mark  anywhere.

Though  there  were  to  be  no  more  LPs,. the  brothers  continued  to  work   together  sporadically  for  the  next  17  years. In  1994  Phil  enjoyed  a  final  UK  hit  ( number  14 )  with  his  duet  with  Cliff  on  "All  I  Have  To  Do  Is  Dream"  but  it  was  actually  a  recording  of  a  BBC  performance  from  1981.

In  1998  they  sang  the  song  "Cold "  on  the  soundtrack  album   to    Lloyd-Webber's  Whistle  Down  The  Wind.  It's   passable  pop  but   its  C  &  W  stylings   still  sound  sacrilegious  to  anyone  with  memories  of  Hayley  Mills  and  Alan  Bates. Apart  from  Phil  singing  on  a  Vince  Gill  track  in  2006,  it  brought  the  curtain  down  on  The  Everly  Brothers  recording  career.

The  brothers  still  toured  during  the  next  seven  years. They  were  special  guests  on  Simon  and  Garfunkel's  Old  Friends  tours  of  2003  and  2004  . They  then  toured   the  UK  again  in  2005; their  gig  in  Ipswich   on  29.11.05   was  their  last  ever  performance. Phil's  heavy  smoking  had   damaged  his  lungs  to  the  point  where  he  couldn't  carry  on.   After  that  they  became  estranged  again , largely  it  seems  through  being  on  opposite  sides  of  the  political  fence,  with  Don  the  Democrat  and  Phil  the  Republican.

In  January  2014  Phil  died  of  lung  disease  aged  74.  Don  sang  "Bye  Bye  Love" at  a  tribute  event  some  months  afterwards  and  recently  admitted  that  he  talks  to  Phil's  ashes.