FILE - In this Jan. 4, 1984 file photo, Phil, left, and Don Everly, of the Everly Brothers joke around for photographers in New York City. Don Everly, one-half of the pioneering rock ‘n’ roll Everly Brothers whose harmonizing country rock hits impacted a generation of rock music, has died. He was 84. A family spokesperson said Everly died at his home in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Ray Stubblebine, File)

The world has lost a music legend. Don Everly, half of the iconic Everly Brothers duo, has passed away at 84. In the wake of the death of the elder half of the Everly Brothers, suddenly, people from across the generation who grew up and came of age listing to classic songs like “Bye-Bye Love,” “Wake up Little Susie,” “Cathy’s Clown,” and “All I Have to do is Dream” feel old. In their time, Phil and Don Everly stood alone at the top of the rock ‘n roll mountain. They were, in their halcyon days, the most popular and highest paid vocal duo in music history. In the 21st century, the Everly Brothers now belong to a time that has slipped away into the long ago and far away mists of music history.

They came out of Kentucky in the 50’s during that hazy and half-forgotten period of our country’s days of innocence; the days when “Gun Smoke,” “Leave it to Beaver,” and “Father Knows Best” were America’s top TV shows. The iconic guitar-strumming brothers whose perfect fraternal harmonies and musical stylings inspired the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Simon and Garfunkel slipped into the American music scene in 1957 like a soft southern dream to become the stardust of which musical dreams are made. With their songs often sitting atop of both the rock and country charts simultaneously, the Everly Brothers were at the vanguard of what would over time evolve to become the country-rock genre.

When Phil Everly died in 2014, Paul McCartney paid tribute to him and Don on his Facebook page writing, “Phil Everly was one of my great heroes. With his brother Don, they were one of the major influences on the Beatles. When John and I first started to write songs, I was Phil and he was Don.” There is some irony to be found in the fact that so great was the influence of the Everly’s on the Beatles that when they were an unknown Liverpool band trying desperately to get signed by major record labels in London, they were turned down by many executive producers because the collective feeling was that they simply sounded too much like the Everly Brothers.

As I sit here writing this piece, the distant sounds of the Everlys’ pitch-perfect harmony is drifting through my ears. It’s all around me. For the unique way in which their vocal harmonies blended together seamlessly was as pure and pristine as a blanket of new-fallen snow on a cold and clear winter morning. As I say, across a wide gulf of time, I can hear their beautiful voices so clearly: Don carrying the melodies of their songs that were always complimented by Phil’s high harmonies.

Inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in its first year, 1986, alongside Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, Rolling Stone magazine described the brothers as “the most important vocal duo in rock.”

Isaac Donald Everly was born on Feb. 1, 1937, in Brownie, Kentucky, the son of Margaret Everly, a talented singer, and her coal miner husband, Ike Everly, who was himself a gifted guitar player. Younger brother Phil was the duo’s prolific songwriter, who in addition to writing many of their own songs for top-tier music artists, also penned the classic Linda Ronstadt 70’s hit “When will I be loved.” However, it was Don who wrote their first single, “Keep a-lovin me” in 1956, one year before their breakout hit, and signature song, “Bye-Bye Love” came along in 1957.

Across their star-studded career, Don and Phil Everly were always very different people. Phil chose to live a quiet and private life away from the harsh glare of the public spotlight, while Don was the flamboyant wild child who ran with the exclusive pack of music celebrities, ultimately developing a serious drug addiction. He became addicted to Ritalin in the early 60’s after a doctor prescribed it for exhaustion and a failed suicide attempt in London. Through a regime of shock treatments he was finally able to overcome the addiction.

As was the case with Ray and Dave Davies, the brothers who founded the legendary British band, the Kinks, what also plagued Don and Phil during their career was a titanic sibling rivalry. In 1973, the brothers had an infamous on-stage blowup that saw Phil smash his guitar and storm off the stage in the middle of a sold-out show. They did not speak to each other for nearly a decade before they finally reconciled. In 1986, Don told Rolling Stone that the 1973 breakup was “one of the saddest days” of his life.

I think that there are many of us who hang on to some of those ancient albums that are stored in the basements, attics and “junk” rooms of our homes. We just can’t part with them. I’m one of those people. For me, one of those precious albums that I can’t let go of is my well-worn Everly Brothers album “Stories We Could Tell” from 1973. I actually bought it in the early 2000’s when I stumbled upon it in a used record store in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Yep, it’s a vinyl record that bears a host of indelibly etched scratches and hisses across certain tracks from my having played them repeatedly. To this day it remains one of the most treasured items in my music collection.

There have been many times when, in the hushed quiet of a late night, I’ve pulled it out of the pile and given it a spin. The songs on it feature the participation of a host of music stars that include Graham Nash and John Sebastian, who wrote and sang backup on the title track. Each and every time I play that old album, it still leaves me in awe of how achingly beautiful two voices can sound together when they are a genetic match to each other. “Stories We Could Tell” is a case in point, as it amplifies the unique way in which Don and Phil Everly married that plaintive country lilt to rock music that was always so rich and fluent in its tone. Time can never erase the purity of those voices.

Now, with Don’s passing, the Everlys have both slipped away and left us. They are gone, and they will be missed by people who love music; people who now might be feeling just a little bit older having had their own mortality reinforced to them by the loss of a music legend.

Paul Collins is a freelance writer from Southborough, Massachusetts.

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