Artist: The Everly Brothers
Album: A Date with the Everly Brothers
Year: 1960
The Everly Brothers make such sweet pop music and deliver it with aplomb and aching harmonies. This music is just, for lack of a better word, precious. "Made to Love" sets the tone well as an cute opener, "Lucille" is the most rockin' cut in this mix, while "Love Hurts" and "It's All Too Much" (is that jew's harp I hear?) are classic ballads. The real champ in this set is "Cathy's Clown," which has two distinct fantastic hooks, strong harmonies, and clever lyrics. It's definitely the most unique song on the album.
It really is remarkable how influential the Everly Brothers were. In listening to this 28-minute album, I can hear pretty much the entire careers of Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds, at least the first couple Beatles albums, the Paisley Underground movement of the 1980's, Simon & Garfunkel's harmonies, you name it. I'd be lying if I said all the songs here were memorable, but I don't hear any filler, the album has a nice little flow to it, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and about half the album is absolutely stellar. A famous film director (I forget which one, maybe Howard Hawks) once said something along the lines of "a great film is one having at least three great scenes and no bad ones." Applying that logic to this album certainly renders it a classic.
I just wish more of the Everly's classic stuff ("When Will I Be Loved," "All I Have to Do Is Dream," "Wake Up Little Susie") was included here. But that doesn't prevent this from being a great pop album.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
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