SHG: Everly Bros.: "Problems"

The Everly Bros.: “Problems”
Entered the chart on: 11/24/58
Peaked on: 12/15/58
Weeks at #2: 1
Song at #1: “To Know Him Is to Love Him” by the Teddy Bears

October 27th, 1958.

That is the magical date. The date that Billboard Magazine consolidated all their various charts into the Hot 100. The magical date where my work on this feature suddenly becomes less of a confounding boondoggle. If I were to do another similar feature like this, I think I’d start it from that date instead of January 1st, 1955.

Anyway, another day, another Everly Brothers tune. “Bye Bye Love” is, of course, a classic, but this one’s not ringing a bell for me for whatever reason. Let’s investigate this one together.



God, how I love the acoustic guitar strumming on this. Like a lot of Everly Brothers tunes, there’s a real bluegrass feel to this. You can feel the link from old-timey hillbilly music to this in everything they do. At least I can. There’s not really so much separating old folk tunes like “The Cumberland Gap” to this.

The electric lead is another nice touch. Lyrically, this isn’t your typical stuff. I mean, they put it in teenager terms by making references to high school, but there aren’t many songs from that era that are basically saying, “life is confusing and I don’t know which way to turn.” Not only that, there doesn’t seem to be any clear-cut solution to the protagonist’s titular problems.

Rather existentialist for 50s rock & roll.

Rating: 5

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