Customer Reviews

Two Yanks in England

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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This is the infamous album that resulted from a chance meeting between The Everly Brothers and The Hollies. The Everlys were searching for material, and The Hollies were on an upswing with their hit formula, so naturally the two collaborated on this project. 8 of the 12 tracks are Hollies tunes, with slightly different arrangements. "Have You Ever Loved Somebody" is particularly effective, with Don's vocal delivery a delight. Excellent studio players involved, apparently Jimmy Page and a couple of Hollies were in the studio for these sessions. The whole album plays through very smoothly. The Everlys' sole self-penned tune, "Kiss Your Man Goodbye" shows that they hadn't lost their touch. Bossa Nova rhythms permeate "Like Everytime Before", a great Hollies song that got limited release back in the '60s (as a B-side and on a "Greatest Hits" compilation in Germany only), despite being a superior tune. "The Collector", another of the 4 non-Hollies tunes, is quite beautiful. Very good listening here.

I'd always passed over this album because I assumed it was too far out of the Everly's range, stylistically, that perhaps it was a reach for them. But nothing is amiss here. I was pleasantly surprised by the strength of the material as well as the performances on this album. I believe this ranks up there with some of their better material ("It's Everly Time", IMHO, being the penultimate vision).

"Kiss Your Man Goodbye" is a classic. "So Lonely", and "Somebody Help Me" are the Brit rockers - but there are plenty of plaintive moments here too: "Hard, Hard Year"; even comi-tragedies, "Fifi The Flea". Some of the other songs are filled with some dated sixties imagery (with a touch of Petula Clark uptown swank - shudder, shudder): "Pretty Flamingo" and "Signs That Will Never Change", although the latter has a great structure. "The Collector" is also a great tune.

The best of the Everly's material utilized backing musicians who understood the songs, and this is most definitely the case here - the musicianship encourages repeated listenings. Great arrangements, magnificent sound engineering and overall production quality.

I'm very pleased that this album is currently available on CD - if you are a Hollies or Everly fan, snatch it up while it's hot. If you are new to the Everly's, or looking for their hits, perhaps this isn't the place to start. If you've heard a couple of their better known albums, give this a spin.

Although it is a cohesive album, the material here isn't as strong lyrically as it is melodically, falling to the safety of genericism at times, but never cliche. Even if the Everly's were it's disciples, this whole album reeks faintly of playing to a trend, following it and not leading. But overall their message here transcends the time that has passed since it was recorded.

This is a very rare and good Everly CD; buy it while you can !
The style is not country, it's a rocking one it's also quite unique (no other Everly record has such a sound) It was NOT recorded in USA but in UK during the musical Bristish "invasion" (early sixties).
The Everlys had deeply inspired the Beatles and, at this period of time, the beatles had inspired the Everlys in return.
It includes one master piece sung by Don only "The collector" but almost all tracks are very good anyway !
Rush ! Thierry Cordonnier from France.

Great harmonies, great musicians, poor songs, specially (very) poor lyrics.

I've given it about four chances and only half of the songs have some merits. Nevertheless Pretty Flamingo (I think) it's a real gem.

Now, when we look back to the sixties, we can see that The Beatles were so much greater than the others, and I mean The Hollies in this occassion because theirs is most of the material the Everlys offered in this album.

Anyway, nothing to match neither to be compared with the Everlys hail day back in the fifties.

TWO YANKS IN ENGLAND was released in 1966. According to the cd notes, Don Everly had previously met Graham Nash, and The Hollies already had a bunch of songs to submit to the Everly Brothers. Eight of the 12 songs on the album were written by Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash, under the collective pseudonym "L. Ranford".

"Somebody Help Me" had been a recent #1 in the U.K. for The Spencer Davis Group, and "Pretty Flamingo" by Manfred Mann, hit #1 just two weeks after "Somebody Help Me" vacated the spot. "So Lonely" was the B-side to The Hollies' "Look Through Any Window" in 1965. "Signs That Will Never Change" would become B-side to "Carrie Anne" in 1967 and "Don't Run and Hide" was the B-side of "Bus Stop" in 1966. Other "L. Ranford" songs were album tracks or rare B-sides for The Hollies.

One of my favorite songs is "Fifi The Flea", which was released by The Hollies on their 1966 album WOULD YOU BELIEVE? It's a story of two fleas in a flea circus. Sounds silly, but it's a very effective love story, which pulled at my heart the first time I heard it.

The recording and production are very good, and the musicians sound great. According to Phil Everly, The Hollies played on the album, which is obvious to me, just from listening. I almost expected them to come in with some background vocals. The album is filled with great songs, and the Everly Brothers trademark vocal style and harmonies are in top form. For some reason, the album didn't sell very well. After this record, the Everly Brothers changed direction, and recorded a series of critically acclaimed country rock albums. I really like this album. It has some interesting sounds along the way, and if you're a fan of The Everly Brothers, I think you'll enjoy it.

1. "Somebody Help Me" (Jackie Edwards)
2. "So Lonely" (L. Ransford)
3. "Kiss Your Man Goodbye" (Don Everly, Phil Everly)
4. "Signs That Will Never Change" (L. Ransford)
5. "Like Everytime Before" (L. Ransford)
6. "Pretty Flamingo" (Mark Barkan)
7. "I've Been Wrong Before" (L. Ransford)
8. "Have You Ever Loved Somebody?" (L. Ransford)
9. "The Collector" (Sonny Curtis, Don Everly, Phil Everly)
10. "Don't Run and Hide" (L. Ransford) -
11. "Fifi the Flea" (L. Ransford)
12. "Hard Hard Year" (L. Ransford)

You need this if your an Everly's or brit invasion fan. It's an interesting record in that the 2 camps pay homage to each other. The Everly's were clearly into the Brithish sounds & you can tell they had fun making this LP which was made available by Collectors Choice. Phil & Don practically launched the Brit invasion & then paid wonderful tribute to thier backing band (The Hollies) on most of the cuts. It's amazing to hear that nothing is lacking in the Everly's classic 2 part harmony when they take thier turn on Hollies 3 part harmonies. In fact, I like some of the Everly's versions better ( I consider myself a Hollies fan too!). This LP seems to cover it all, rockers, ballads, and country ish tune as well. Highly recommended.

This album was not easy to find even when it was new in the 60's. By the mid 60's the Everly's were out of US charts but still doing well in the UK where they still charted reguarly and toured quite a lot. Picking up on the feel and style of the British Invasion era bands that they so often worked with, Don and Phil got together with the Hollies and created an album that really works. It has a 60's feel but it is also very much an Everly Brothers sound. If you already have a good collection of Everly Brothers Cadence era hits and near hits, you can't go wrong with this. I am very pleased to have it and am sure it will get quite a bit of play. (For a really great Everly Brothers album get their EB'84 reunion. It's a five star collection.)

Great album! Eight of the twelve songs are Hollies covers, which is pretty great since I love both The Hollies and The Everly Brothers. The Hollies covers include "So Lonely", "Signs That Will Never Change", "Like Everytime Before", "I've Been Wrong Before", "Have You Ever Loved Somebody", "Don't Run And Hide", "Fifi The Flea", and "Hard Hard Year". This album also has a Manfred Mann cover, "Pretty Flamingo". This is a fantastic album that The Everly Brothers did in the UK. They made the songs different from the originals with their unique voices and though it's not really The Everly Brothers' "style", it's still a wonderful album to own.