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Back in Business - The Everly Brothers

I have been away from this blog for way too long. I have been busy trying other things and even while doing those other things, I kept feeling the tug of number1project. Music is my main love in life (after my family and church). It is my passion. I think it’s time to follow my passion. I’ve been writing little e-books for the Kindle. I think everyone’s heard of the Kindle, but if not, then it is an e-book reader that Amazon sells. They are great in that you can carry it with you anywhere you go and it holds up to 3000 or so books. Imagine carrying 300 books around with you and being able to read one anything you want.

So, I decided to write an e-book about the Everly Brothers. Now, since I don’t know the Everly Brothers and really have no way to contact them personally, I compiled all the data I could find on the web and wrote up a biography of their lives up to this point. It’s not very long, but it’s cheap. And I think you will find out just about all you need to know about the Everly Brothers.

If you’d like to buy the book from Amazon, you can go to this page: Legends of Rock & Roll - The Everly Brothers and download it for your Kindle.

As a teaser, here is the first chapter of the book. There is much more in the actual Kindle book.

Introduction

The Everly Brothers were one of the most important and influential of the early rock and roll bands. They set the standard high with close two-part harmonies and were the first of the rockers who combined country with rock and roll and, surprisingly, impressed both sides of the fence.

When I was a boy in High School, the Everly Brothers were one of my favorite groups. Like most teenagers in those days, rock and roll was the center of my life, and the Everly Brothers were at the center of that movement; at least for me. The Everly Brothers were different in that the kids liked them, but so did the parents. Most parents in those days hated Rock and Roll, but the Everlys were mellow enough that my Mom, at least, liked them too.

I remember when you could go into a record store and actually play a record. They were 45 rpm in those days, (the record with the big hole in the middle). The store had little rooms that were like telephone booths. You could take the record into the booth and listen to it on a turntable, something that doesn’t happen anymore.

When “All I Have to Do Is Dream” came out in 1958, I listened to it in the record store and bought it immediately. It has since become one of my all-time favorite songs. This is the kind of song that you would put on a desert island list. You know the kind of list I mean, if I could take a hundred records to a desert island, which ones would I take. “All I Have to Do Is Dream” would definitely be on that list for me. I took it home and immediately called my girlfriend. We were not going steady (yet), but we both had a love of music and so I played the song on a little 45 rpm turntable I had. I held the receiver of the phone up to the speaker of the record player. She thought it was a great song. It was especially great dancing with her to “All I Have to Do Is Dream” at the next school dance. That song eventually became a number one song for the Everly Brothers.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You picked up this book to learn about the Everly Brothers. So, let’s get into their life and music.

Here is a grainy old black and white video of the Everlys singing “All I Have to do Is Dream” and “Cathy’s Clown”. The link is to YouTube.

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Mormon Tabernacle Choir

This post is a little different than others I have written. One reason I stopped posting was I felt the posts were too formulaic. I like putting all of the information in the posts, but I think I’d like this blog to be more personal.I love music, especially pop, top 40 music from the 20th Century. So that’s what I want to talk about. I hope you like it.

Anyway, last night, we saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. They are celebrating 100 years of recording music. Their first recording, which was recorded on a wax cylinder was recorded in 1910, just 100 years ago. They are the longest running recording performers in the world.

One song they did last night which is also my favorite by them was “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. This song did not reach number one (which is what this blog is all about and why I’m saying I may not stick strictly to that standard anymore). It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The significant thing about this song was it was the first song (and may be the last, I’m not sure) that is considered classical to hit the pop charts.

The other record it broke (and still holds), was that this is the largest group of people singing on a record to have hit the charts. At the time the choir was made up of 375 people. It was then conducted by Richard Condie. He died in 1985. The choir goes on today with the longest continuously running radio chow in history. They showed a film of some of the early days of the choir and showed a picture of an album they did in the last 40’s called “The Lord’s Prayer”. I leaned over to my wife and said “I have that album!”.

It was a great concert. We enjoyed it very much and hope the choir can go for many years to come. If you haven’t heard this lately, here is an opportunity thanks to YouTube:

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Bill Haley - The Start of Rock and Roll

Let’s begin this journey through the music of the 20th Century with a song that is looked on by most people as the first Rock and Roll record. I’m talking about “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets. The song hit number one on the Billboard charts on July 9, 1955. I was just about to enter 8th grade and basically didn’t have a clue what Rock and Roll was about. I grew up in Michigan which was not the center point for the music revolution. I might have felt differently if I had been raised in New York City or even in Chicago or L.A. The song was first released early in 1955, but didn’t do too much. It wasn’t until it was used in the movie “Blackboard Jungle” that it had a resurgence of popularity and rose to number one in July.

A headline in a Michigan paper for that day says “Congressman is indicted on $154,000 Conspiracy Charge”. It doesn’t look like some things have changed all that much. The paper cost 7 cents. A lumber yard is offering to build a complete 2-bedroom ranch style home (on your lot) for $3950.00. Coffee was 69 cents a pound. Popular comics in the paper were “Priscilla’s Pop” and “Freckles and His Friends”, not to mention “Alley Oop” and “Captain Easy”.

The term “Rock and Roll” is pretty much attributed to Allen Freed, a New York disk jockey who later made several cool Rock and Roll movies and was later indicted in the famous “payola” scandals that hit the late 50’s.

Bill Haley never wanted to be a rock singer. He started out as a country singer and had several groups in the late 40’s and early 50’s. The group that eventually became the Comets were called the Saddlemen up until 1952 when they officially became the Comets. His first hit under the new name was “Crazy, Man, Crazy” in 1953, but “Rock Around the Clock” in 1955 was his only number one.

If you haven’t heard the song lately, here is a link to an audio of the song over some scenes from the movie American Graffiti,  Bill Haley “Rock Around the Clock”

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