SHG: The Everly Bros.: "Bye Bye Love"

Everly Bros.: “Bye Bye Love”
Entered the chart on: 5/27/1957
Peaked on: 6/17/1957
Weeks at #2: 4 weeks
Songs at #1: “Love Letters in the Sand” by Pat Boone and “Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear” by Elvis Presley



It’s like someone cloned Buddy Holly, corrected his eyesight, and had him sing close-formation harmonies with himself.

Well, can’t you imagine that being the selling point of these guys? They have a bit of Holly’s hiccuping vocal style and, hailing as they did from Tennessee, a bit of that Southern twang to their vocals.

This is one of those songs that’s so familiar to anyone and everyone it’s a little hard to imagine the impact this had to have had when it first appeared on the scene. I mean, we hear, “There goes my baby, with someone new” and our minds shoot back to the last place we heard it, most likely as background music at some tcotschke-filled diner-type restaurant with retro styling. I think it deserves a little more credit. It’s more of that rockabilly sound, the kind we’ve already heard Carl Perkins and Elvis do, but here given a bit of an Appalachian folkie twist, and all wrapped up in the Everly’s gorgeous harmony vocals.

The arrangement follows the KISS principle pretty solidly; the Everlys’ guitars are front and center, everything else is support for them. Ditto their vocals, which are obviously the centerpiece.

Well, there’s not really a lot more to say about this. We’re in the center of “classic rock & roll” era, so there’s quite a lot of these songs to choose from right now, and this made me smile when listening to it.

Sometimes, you can’t ask for any more than that.

Rating: 5