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Artist News Obituaries
Don Everly dies
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 23 August 2021
Don Everly, one half of The Everly Brothers, has died aged 84, his family have confirmed.
The family’s statement read: “Don lived by what he felt in his heart. Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams … with his soulmate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother”.
Don, and his younger brother Phil, first performed as children on their father’s radio show in Iowa in the 1940s. But it was after the Everly family moved to Nashville in the mid 1950s that the brothers were able to properly launch a music career. The first hit came in 1957 with ‘Bye Bye Love’ topping the country charts, while the next single ‘Wake Up Little Susie’ topped the overall charts.
They had fifteen top ten hits in the US in the next five years, and also quickly built a following elsewhere in the world, topping the charts in places like Australia, Canada and the UK. Indeed, as the 1960s progressed, they enjoyed more chart success in the UK than in their home country.
Over the years, though, tensions built between the brothers, with their act imploding in 1972, resulting in a ten year period when they didn’t speak. Both put out solo releases during that time, before they reunited as a duo in 1983. A few more albums then followed in the 1980s, alongside collaborations with some of the other artists they had influenced, including Paul McCartney and Paul Simon.
In the following decades the brothers occasionally performed together again until Phil’s death in 2014. Meanwhile Don’s last live performance was during a Paul Simon show in Nashville in 2018.
