On July 14, 1973, the Everly Brothers were playing a show at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California. That evening, Phil and Don Everly knew it would be their final show, but the audience was in for a surprise. Before the brothers’ two performances at Knott’s Berry, scheduled for July 13 and 14, Don told Phil that he needed a break from the Everly Brothers for at least two years. Phil agreed, and both informed the musical director, Bill Hollingshead, that their second show would be their last.
The first night went smoothly, but on the evening of July 14, everything between the brothers came to a head, a culmination of forced collaborations, rivalries, legal issues, substance abuse, and other internal pressures, fueled by a drunken performance by Don, who was struggling to get through the duo’s songs during their final concert.
“I was half in the bag that evening, the only time I’ve ever been drunk onstage in my life,” admitted Don in a 1986 interview. “I knew it was the last night, and on the way out, I drank some tequila, drank some champagne, started celebrating the demise. It was really a funeral. People thought that night was just some brouhaha between Phil and me. They didn’t realize we had been working our buns off for years.”
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Frustrated by Don’s performance that evening, Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off stage, and reportedly told the promoter, “I’m really sorry, Bill. I have to go. I can’t go back on stage with that man again.” Don continued barely playing, announcing, “The Everly Brothers died ten years ago.”
The Everly Brothers’ two-year break turned into a decade apart.
“We had never been anywhere without working, had never known any freedom,” said Don. “We were strapped together like a team of horses. It’s funny, the press hadn’t paid any attention to us in ten years, but they jumped on that. It was one of the saddest days of my life.”
After releasing an album consecutively for nearly 20 years, Phil and Don took their first break from the Everly Brothers after releasing their final work together, Pass the Chicken & Listen, in 1972.
In the years that followed, Don released two more solo albums, Sunset Towers in 1974 and Brother Jukebox in 1977, while Phil released four—Phil’s Diner (1974), Mystic Line (1975), Living Alone (1979), and Phil Everly (1983).
In 1983, the Everly Brothers reunited for two comeback concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London on September 22 and 23. The success of the shows pushed the brothers back into the studio in May 1984 to record their comeback album, EB 84.
The album features songs written by Don, along with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” and two more original tracks penned by Jeff Lynne and Paul McCartney.
[RELATED: The Ballad by the Everly Brothers That Turned Into a Hit for the Band Nazareth]
“On the Wings of A Nightingale”
Written by Paul McCartney
In August 1984, the Everly Brothers released their first album in 11 years, opening with a song by a former Beatle. Paul McCartney specifically wrote “On the Wings of A Nightingale” for the brothers’ return, and plays guitar on the track. The lyrics tell the story of resurrection, which is what the Everly Brothers had achieved at that point.
So hold my hand
I got a feeling that the journey has just begun
On the wings of a nightingale
And if you like
We’ll fly together to the land of eternal sun
On the wings of a nightingale of love
High above land and sea
I’ll be thinking of you and me
Couldn’t ask for a better place to be
Oh, I can feel something happening
Oh, I can feel something happening
Oh, I can feel something happening to me
When I love
I get a feeling like I’m travelling through the sky
On the wings of a nightingale
On the wings of a nightingale
On the wings of a nightingale fly
On the wings of a nightingale
Once released, “On the Wings of A Nightingale” was a hit for the Everly Brothers, peaking at No. 9 on the Adult Contemporary chart and reaching No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song was also a personal one for McCartney, since the Everly Brothers left their mark on the Beatles decades earlier. “When John and I started to write songs,” McCartney told Mojo, “I was Phil, and he was Don.”
“Story of Me”
Written by Jeff Lynne
While working on EB 84, producer Dave Edmunds presented Phil and Don with “Story of Me,” after asking Jeff Lynne if he had a song for the Everly Brothers. “Don and I are two individuals, looked at as one, and when you say the ‘Story of Me’ you can’t say the story of ‘mes,’” recalled Phil. “But the Everly Brothers are a third party, and it’s really the ‘Story of Me.’”
Don added, “The song title alone was enough to make me keep pushing for it,” said Don. “To me, it feels like pieces of me and Phil’s life in a collage.
Written by Lynne, “Story of Me” is a song of forgiveness, honesty, and reconciliation, reflecting the story of the Everly Brothers until that point.
Rescue me, before my dreams have flown away
Rescue me, take me back with you again
The lonely hours I wait for dawn’s caress
I can’t forget the silence of the loneliness
Destiny, I wrote the book about the game
Destiny, now I’ve learned how to take the pain
Try as I may, I can’t explain the way I’m feeling now
Try as I may, I can’t explain
And now I’m walking right back to you
And all along, I never really knew
That there was heartbreak ahead
And everyone but I could see
That’s the story of me
Don’t look back, to think about the things we did
Don’t look back, to pretend that’s how it might have been
I’m walking homeward through the shadows of the night again
So now the story can be told
And now I’m walking right back to you
And all along, I never really knew
That there was sorrow to come, and I thought there’d be ecstasy
That’s the story of me
The Everly Brothers released two more albums together during the ’80s, Born Yesterday (1986) and their final Some Hearts… in 1989. In the years that followed, the brothers continued performing, singing backing vocals on Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland. In 1998, the Everly Brothers also recorded “Cold” for the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman musical Whistle Down the Wind, and later joined Simon and Garfunkel during their Old Friends tour from 2003 through 2004.
By 2005, the Everly Brothers no longer made appearances together and didn’t make an official announcement of their split. The brothers had also become estranged once again until Phil’s death from COPD at age 74 in 2014. Don followed in 2021 at 84.
“I felt so bad for Phil,” Don said in 2014 of his brother and his health issues during his final years. “I’m not over it. I really feel sad. I think about him every day. I always thought about him every day, even when we were not speaking to each other. It still just shocks me that he’s gone.”
Don added, “He was a great singer, Phil. We did that all our lives — it’s almost like we could read each other’s minds when we sang.”
Photo: Ebet Roberts/Redferns
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