As the British Invasion kicked in the hits dried up for The Everly Brothers; the one bright spot was ‘The Price Of Love’ near-topping the UK charts in 1965; yet Warner Brothers kept faith and the fall of 1966 would find them in a Los Angeles studio with the session elite. Over the following two years they conjured a body of material – three albums and a plethora of singles and out-takes – staggering in both its invention and realisation. RPM bring it all together in this essential three CD collection.
The Hit Sound Of The Everly Brothers and The Everly Brothers Sing came in quick succession, mixing intelligent re-workings of rock’n’roll songs – an extraordinary slowed-down ‘Blueberry Hill’ – with contemporary covers like ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’, and two excellent Jimmy Webb songs – ‘She Never Smiles Anymore’ and ‘When Eddie Comes Home’. Equally fine were the compositions of Terry Slater – often co-writes with the Everly wives Jacqueline and Venetia. Slater and Jacqueline would conjure ‘Bowling Green’ the one chart hit of this period.
Roots had a clear concept, framed around The Everly Family radio shows of the 40s and 50s, but predominantly featured newer songs from Haggard, Glen Campbell, Randy Newman, and Ron Elliott; among the out-takes is Buffalo Springfield’s ‘Mr Soul’. Over the years Roots’ reputation has only grown; the same deserves to be true for the rest of this rich collection.
Bucketfull Of Brains 