Leading rock and country singer Don Everly dies
American singer Don Everly, a member of the duo "Everly Brothers", has passed away, according to what the "Country Music Hall of Fame" Museum and Research Center said Sunday, describing him as "one of the most talented and influential artists in the history of popular music."
Everly passed away Saturday at the age of 84 in Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music, after forming with his brother Phil during his career a highly influential duet in the music genre of the United States. There was no explanation for the cause of his death.
Several figures in the music world mourned him after his death was announced, such as singers Carol King and Roy Orbison Jr., and Julian Lennon, who recalled in a tweet that Don Everly “written with his brother Phil,” who died in 2014 at the age of 75, “a number of unforgettable songs of all time.” ».
The Everly Brothers released their first album in 1957 and included country songs from their hometown of Kentucky, mixed with rock music.
Their music influenced a whole generation of bands and singers in the sixties of the twentieth century, most notably the members of the "Beatles" John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who were at the beginning of their artistic career nicknamed "Foreverly Brothers".
They were also influenced by the joint singing of the duo "Simon & Garfinkel" and the bands "Beach Boys" and "Birds".
Writing in Rolling Stone magazine, Paul Simon wrote that the Everly brothers' influence "goes beyond even their fame", calling them "the most important duo in rock history".
The beginnings of the brothers' career go back to Nashville, the heartland of country music, and they emerged in 1957 with "By By Love" when they were 18.
But the widespread fame achieved by the "Beatles" in the sixties obscured the success of the "Everly Brothers", whose two brother members were addicted to drugs and alcohol, and there were many differences between them outside the theater.
The couple separated in 1973 in the middle of a concert in Southern California, and did not meet specifically until 1983, when they held a concert at the "Royal Albert Hall" in London.
The brothers produced two albums in the eighties and gave some concerts in the nineties, but the estrangement between them remained.
"We're completely different, except when we sing together," Don Everly told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. "I am a liberal democrat, but he is very conservative," he added.
