Phil Everly born 19 January 1939

Phil Everly (January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014) who along with his brother Don, were The Everly Brothers, who were an American country rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. 

Phil was born Phillip Jason Everly in Chicago, the son of Ike and Margaret Everly; Don was two years his senior. Don and Phil cut their performing teeth alongside their parents in a band called the Everly Family, and the combo performed live on radio station KVA in Shenandoah, Iowa, while touring in the south and the midwest. It was here that the brothers began to develop their unmistakable harmonies, though they owed a debt to other notable sibling acts in country music such as the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and their contemporaries the Louvin Brothers. 

The Everly Family's fortunes faded as the live radio market died, and the group dissolved in 1953. Encouraged by Atkins, to whom Ike had enthused about his two talented sons, Don and Phil branched out as a duo. Through Atkins's connections the duo then cut four tracks for Columbia records. A single, The Sun Keeps Shining, was released in February 1956, but went nowhere. It was a meeting with Rose that pushed the Everlys towards their big break. He promised them a record deal if they signed their music publishing with him, which they duly did, and Rose (also their manager) lined them up with Cascade Records. 

                              

And then he brought them Bye Bye Love after it had been turned down by a list of other acts. The brothers applied their magic vocal blend to the song – Don took the baritone part while Phil sang tenor – and added a four-guitar arrangement featuring a variety of subtle tuning tricks that left many seasoned guitar players dumbfounded when they heard it. The record's success changed everything, earning the brothers slots on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Grand Ole Opry, plus a tour with Johnny Cash. In 1957-58 they toured regularly with Buddy Holly. 

The Everlys' early-60s career slump, inevitable after they had enjoyed such an incandescent run of success, coincided with the arrival of the raunchier, rockier Beatles and the Rolling Stones, with the British invasion of the US coming along in 1964. Suddenly the brothers' mix of pop and country was outmoded, even if their influence would be glaringly obvious in a Beatles song such as Please Please Me, closely modelled on Cathy's Clown. 

However, although their stateside appeal declined they retained a faithful following in countries including Canada, Australia and Britain. They scored nine top 40 hits in the UK between 1963 and 1965, including The Price of Love and Love Is Strange. Their affinity for Britain, and an eagerly reciprocated fondness for the harmony-pop of the Hollies, prompted the Two Yanks in England album, and it was at the urging of Warner Bros records in London that they cut their classic country album Roots in 1968. 

By the early 70s, Don and Phil were touring with a band that featured star-in-the-making Warren Zevon and ace guitarist Waddy Wachtel, and their albums, Stories We Could Tell and Pass the Chicken and Listen (both 1972, on RCA), contain some excellent material, albeit marred by over-slick production. However, the pair had always been very different personalities, and the years of close proximity on the road and in the studio had taken their toll. They abruptly ended their partnership in 1973 after a gig in Buena Park, California, at which Phil smashed his guitar and stormed off the stage. They would not reunite until 1983, when they appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The resulting live album, The Everly Brothers Reunion Concert, entered the UK top 50 chart. 

In the interim, Phil cut three solo albums between 1973 and 1975 and appeared on Roy Wood's album Mustard and on Zevon's debut album in 1976. He wrote Don't Say You Don't Love Me No More for Clint Eastwood's 1978 film Every Which Way But Loose (and also performed it on screen with the actor Sondra Locke  His 1983 solo album Phil Everly, mostly recorded in London and featuring British musicians including Mark Knopfler, gave him a UK top 10 hit with She Means Nothing to Me, on which Cliff Richard shared lead vocals. 

In 1984 the re-formed Everly Brothers released the album EB 84, and had a minor US and UK hit single with On the Wings of a Nightingale, written by Paul McCartney. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year that they scored a top 20 country hit with the title track from the album Born Yesterday. Both brothers sang on the title track of Graceland, at the invitation of their long-time admirer Paul Simon. Simon & Garfunkel had recorded the Everlys' Bye Bye Love and Little Susie, and they invited the brothers on their Old Friends reunion tour in 2003-04. 

Phil set up his own Everly Music Company, which sold musical instrument accessories designed by Phil and his eldest son, Jason. Phil had been a heavy smoker most of his life and was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2011 after his last public appearance. Despite having quit smoking a decade earlier he  died from complications of the disease on January 3, 2014 in Burbank, California. 

(Edited from an obit by Adam Sweeting @ The Guardian)