Customer Reviews

All-Time Original Hits

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Buying Everly Brothers CDs can be tricky, as lots of the compilations have remakes, live versions, etc. This fabulous CD has nothing but the original versions of 16 great hits, with superb sound quality. "Cadence Classics" is right up there too but it unforgiveably leaves out what could be the best Everly song of them all, Cathy's Clown. No such omission here. Listening to the Everlys' harmonizing and their unique style of acoustic guitar playing, it isn't hard to detect the powerful influence on Paul Simon, at least musically speaking. Lyrically, the Everlys are pretty basic, but it sure works. No rock collection can be complete without at least one Everlys' album, and this one is as good if not better than any.

Rhino Records maintained its usual impeccable high standards in putting together this latest collection of the Everly Brothers hit years (1957-1962). This is every Top 20 single the duo ever recorded. And if you don't already own "Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits," this release also contains all five Top 10 hits from their tenure at Warner Brothers as well as the Cadence hits.

With their tight harmony singing, Phil and Don Everly set the standard for duo acts to follow--especially Simon and Garfunkel who frequently included "Bye Bye Love" in their act.

The Everlys were responsible for many early rock 'n' roll classics like "Wake Up Little Susie," "All I Have To Do Is Dream," "Bird Dog," Devoted to You," "Problems" and "Take a Message to Mary"--all written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant.

The Everlys would also be responsible for writing some of their own most memorable songs. Phil wrote "When Will I Be Loved," which would be a huge hit again in 1975 by Linda Ronstadt. Don wrote "Cathy's Clown," "So Sad(To Watch Good Love Go Bad)" and "('Til) I Kissed You." Ironically, after "That's Old Fashioned" in 1962, the Everlys would have only two minor hits in the wake of the British Invasion. But this is not to imply the Everlys are old fashioned. Their music is timeless and no serious music collection is complete without these Everly Brothers classics. If you can't afford the "Heartaches and Harmonies" box set, this is an excellent single-disc alternative. ESSENTIAL

This is not the most comprehensive collection of the Everly Brothers. But it sure is a one-stop one-disc overview with the best remastered sound to date.

The 16 tracks selected are absolute classics, every one of them, and they're collected here regardless of the original labels these sides were on.

If you want comprehensive, there's an abundance of Cadence collections, and Warner Archive's Walk Right Back is a 2-disc retrospective on their Warner years. And then there's the box set.

For anyone who doesn't know, the Everly Brothers were among the most successful pop/rock artists of the late 1950's-early 1960's (pre-Beatles) era. They had a string of hits during this period featuring their trademark two-part harmonies. This CD release features MOST of their biggest and best-known hits. One might quibble about an omission or two ("Claudette", which was actually the B-side of "All I Have To Do Is Dream", comes to mind), but this collection is pretty complete. If you were around then, these great old songs will bring back some memories. If you weren't, the beautiful two-part harmonies these guys recorded are a treat for the ears and a style of music not heard much these days. Either way, they're well worth having.

I'm not a big fan of "greatest hits" collections. If all I had was the Beatles or Stones "greatest hits", I'd have missed the boat. Pre-Beatles, though, the emphasis was much more on 45-rpm single records and much less on albums (I have a stack of old singles as evidence). The Beatles and Stones changed the focus of the recording industry by recording albums of uniformly high quality and originality that music buyers wanted to own. With other artists following suit, singles declined in prominence. Greatest hits collections are, however, a good way to get the best recordings from the era when singles dominated music sales. This collection is an excellent example of that.

Whether you remember the Everly Brothers music fondly, or you just want some catchy rockabilly tunes and pretty ballads, you can't go wrong with THE EVERLY BROTHERS ALL-TIME ORIGINAL HITS. I recommend it highly.

This is not the most exhaustive collection of Everly Brothers songs but, it has all their essential hits. What makes this a particularly good cd is that includes their hits after they changed labels in 1960. Often, Everly Brothers cds have excluded their biggest seller, "Cathy's Clown," because that song was their first release after they switched labels. This cd, however, has all their best singles and at a budget price, this is a five star plus.

The Everly Brothers epitomize American music at its best. This is the best of the best. A must have for any music lovers collection.

My first Vinyl album was the very best of the Everly Bros, purchased in 1966. I still have that album, but this collection has a better display of their resume`, hitting all of their great songs except "Claudette" and "Bowling Green".There is another collection entitled " Definitive Everly Bros", which is a more complete Anthology of 50 songs(Import from England),but at a greater expense.This is a very worthy addition to any collector of 50`s and 60`s Country-Rock, and "Rock a billy"sound.Steve D

It was always hard to get the entire hits by the Everly Brothers on one CD because their 50's records were on Cadence then they switched to Warner Bros. in 1960. This one has them all! They were born to sing. Their harmonies are a blueprint for the early Beatles sound and countless other groups to follow. They had something like 15 Top Ten hits and they're all here. The only slight omission is "Claudette" which was the flip side to "All I Have to do is Dream". But that's a minor quibble when you realize that this is the finest greatest hits collection by the Everlys ever. The sound is excellent! Every hit on this CD is a favorite.

I know I remember listening to Don and Phil the first time around. Most kids will pass on these guys as really old, but most of the seminal rockers list the Everly Brothers as prime influences. Great music sung by two guys that had it all together in the 50's and 60's.

The Everly brothers were raised on country music but easily adapted to rock'n'roll. They were one of the most popular acts in the world during the late fifties and early sixties and were a major influence on the Beatles. If you listen to the early music of the Beatles, it isn't very different from some of the music you can find here.

This collection is for people who just want the obvious classics including Bye bye love, Wake up little Susie, All I have to do is dream, Till I kissed you, Let it be me, Cathy's clown, So sad, Walk right back, Ebony eyes and Crying in the rain. With one exception (That's old-fashioned, a hit in America but not the UK), all the tracks were major hits in Britain and America. Expatriate Brits should note that several major UK hits are missing including Temptation and Price of love, but they didn't do well in America.

So this compilation should satisfy those who just want the big American hits. There are plenty of other compilations for those who want to explore further, or who want the major British hits not included here.