I'll be yours through endless time, I'll adore your charms sublime, guess by now you know that I'm...(twelve days--yowza!) late again....
My introduction to this week's tune originally came in the form of a cover version by Simon and Garfunkel on their Bridge over Troubled Water (which, truth be told, I only have the vaguest of memories of) album. I've heard the original many times through my many years, but it really hit me how good it was when--surprise, surprise!--I found a greatest hits CD of this week's artist at our local library sale and had a chance to listen to them for weeks on end. Where oh where would Friday Night Jukebox be without our local library sale?
I wrote about the Everly Brothers in Vol. CDXCIX, and as they have both been performing at the Great Rock and Roll Concert in the Sky for many years now, and had won or been honored with just about every award or induction possible, I'll just leave the original bio as is.
"Bye Bye Love" was the first single ever released by the Everly Brothers, and was featured on their 1957 debut album, the ever so artfully named The Everly Brothers. The single would reach #2 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the country singles chart, and #5 on the R & B singles chart. The album peaked at #16. The song is also ranked at #210 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Fun Fact #1: Though I made my usual rather lamely sarcastic comment above about the album's title, it should be noted that the album is sometimes called They're Off and Rolling or They're Off and Rolling, Says Archie because of the blurb on the album's cover.
Fun Fact #2: "Bye Bye Love" was written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, a husband-and-wife songwriting duo. A check of our records shows that this is the first time that someone named either Felice or Boudleaux has appeared in a Friday Night Jukebox post. For the record, let it be known that Boudleaux is actually the gentleman's middle name--his first name is Diadorius, which surprisingly enough would also have been the first time that name has been seen here on FNJ.
"Bye Bye Love" was rejected by over thirty artists before the Everly Brothers agreed to record it--that's thirty rather large fuck-ups. Opening with a nifty acoustic guitar part (that was not originally in the song, Don Everly added it), the song starts right in on the chorus, and over the course of the next two minutes and twenty-six seconds gives us a master course in just about every attribute a pop song can have. Wondrous harmonies, wondrously played instruments, wondrous vocal solos, wondrous lyrics, a wondrous chorus, and a wondrous theme. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the two second guitar burst after each time the words "bye bye love" are sang--my favorite part of the song where I always flic my wrist up and down like the guitar virtuoso I am (not). Just an absolutely magnificent pop song, one that sounds every bit as good and relevant today as it did in 1957.
Lyric Sheet: "I'm through with romance, I'm through with love/I'm through with counting the stars above/And here's the reason that I'm so free/ My lovin' baby is through with me..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
