Everly Brothers legend Phil dies aged 74
Phil Everly, whose high, close-harmony singing with his older brother Don made the Everly Brothers one of the biggest rock and country acts of the 1950s and early 1960s, has died at the age of 74.
Phil Everly
1939-2014
Phil Everly, whose high, close-harmony singing with his older brother Don made the Everly Brothers one of the biggest rock and country acts of the 1950s and early 1960s, has died at the age of 74.
Everly died in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his wife Patti told the Los Angeles Tim es.
"We are absolutely heartbroken," Patti Everly told the paper. "He fought long and hard."
The Everly Brothers profoundly influenced 1960s-era artists ranging from Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney - who early in their careers called themselves the Foreverly Brothers- to Simon and Garfunkel, the Byrds, the Hollies and the Beach Boys.
"Perhaps even more powerfully than Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers melded country with the emerging sound of Fifties rock 'n' roll," Rolling Stone magazine said in placing the duo at No. 33 on its list of the "100 Greatest Artists."
Phil and Don had an onstage breakup in 1973 that led to a decade-long estrangement, but Phil later told Time magazine their relationship had endured.