So why is The Very Best of The Everly Brothers on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
In thinking about The Everly Brothers, I started remembering a very specific time in my life, or pocket of times in my life during a certain era. Let me back up.
I left Long Island to attend college in Binghamton, New York and then four years later I graduated. However, within those four years there was lots of time – summers (some of them, anyway), winter and Thanksgiving and spring breaks – when I’d be back on Long Island, back living with my parents. Of these times are the times I mean.
And more specifically, during these “back from school” times during my freshman or sophomore year, a certain group of my old high school friends and I got into a kick of listening to what for us was really old music, stuff from the 1950s and early 1960s. Pre-Beatles music and pre-British Invasion is how I would have thought of it.
My friend Matt (who works for the U.S. State Department these days) made a mix tape of this kind of music that a few of us must have copied from him, myself included. One song was “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” by The Tokens.
Which is part of the reason, I think, why I found the Season 1 scene of Succession so hilarious where Kendall Roy, quite altered on numerous substances, insists on playing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” for brother Roman while singing along, of course
Anyway, there were several songs on that mix tape that are Everly Brothers classics. One was “Wake Up Little Susie,” which dates back to 1957. There’s such a pure mixture of rock, pop, and country influences here, with the acoustic guitar and harmonies sounding spot on and fresh as ever all these years later.
Another one of those mix tape songs was “Bird Dog.” It’s not my favorite Everly Brothers song, but it’s got a weirdly catchy quality to it and the guitar sounds great once again.
“All I Have to Do Is Dream” from 1958 is probably The Everly Brothers’ most famous song, and with good reason. It has that classic late 1950s crooning sound that people of my generation (especially if drenched in pop culture, like yours truly) probably associates with things like the Under the Sea dance from Back to the Future. In any event, it’s a gorgeous song.
“Bye Bye Love,” also from 1958, has a great swinging sound to it, and its opening chords feel somewhat ahead of its time. Or maybe that’s me being confused as I keep thinking that the song should be used in a Wes Anderson movie somehow?
Some stats & info about The Very Best of The Everly Brothers
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Pop Music, Country, Rock Music
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 2.5 out of 5 stars
- When was The Very Best of The Everly Brothers released? 1964
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #612 out of 1,000
The Very Best of The Everly Brothers on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Very Best of The Everly Brothers that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I’m through with romance, I’m through with love, I’m through with countin’ the stars above.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.