Search - Everly Brothers :: From Nashville to Hollywood

Another Disc For Die-Hard Everly Fans

Gerald J Reynolds | Stevenson Ranch, Ca United States | 12/04/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Lots of stuff you can probably do without, lots of unissued tracks and alternate takes that aren't all that good. On the plus side, you'll find the cleanest, crispest versions of songs like "How Can I Meet Her", "Don't Ask Me To Be Friends" , "No One Can Make My Sunshine Smile" and "So It Always Will Be", most of which have been on the hissy side in previous packages. Note: Both versions of "Nancy's Minuet" on this CD are alternate takes; the original single version is included as a bonus track on the "Sing Great Country Hits/Gone Gone Gone" reissue CD. 4 1/2 stars for sound quality, 2 1/2 for content."

Fresh insights and clear masters

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 11/05/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Listening the the Everlies on British radio in the first half of the sixties it seemed that they were at a creative peak. With pulsating singles like How Can I Meet Her?, The Girl Sang The Blues, Gone Gone Gone, The Price Of Love and Love Is Strange, and B-sides to match, such as Nancy's Minuet, Torture and Man With Money, they seemed to have pulled off the trick of looking forwards and backwards at the same time, embracing the arrival of the British bands like the Beatles while retaining the sophisticated harmonies and structures that came from their country roots.



I was completely unaware of the painful legal and management wrangles that had led to a label change and the lack of access to the Acuff-Rose publishing company, in particular the songs of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant that they had proved so adept at interpreting. Since they were themselves contracted to the same publishers, they were also in the unenviable position of not being easily able to record their own songs. Had I heard either of their 1961 albums, I would have been startled to hear renditions of standard tunes such as Hi-Lili Hi-lo, Bye Bye Blackbird and others too horrible to mention, as they struggled to find a way forward.



The Everly Brothers Warner re-issue programme has done a great job of pairing up albums and mopping up stray singles and other debris onto single discs, but plenty of treasures apparently remain, and so From Nashville To Hollywood is the first of several promised collections from the archives, this one offering an instructive peep behind the scenes at Everlies recording sessions in both Nashville and Hollywood between 1961 and 1963. There are three A-sides and three B-sides otherwise uncollected in the programme. Ten other re-mastered tracks though unreleased at the time subsequently turned up on collector's compilations. The rest are previously unreleased.



It isn't clear why sure fire successes like Chains (which they recorded before the Cookies) or Little Hollywood Girl, another superbly evocative Gerry Goffin/Carole King song, never came out; or why Don Everly's own Nancy's Minuet, which was re-worked over and over in the studios for over a year and should have been an Everlies classic alongside Cathy's Clown, finally limped out on a forgotten flipside and was left off their albums.



It is illuminating also to see how talented and visionary they were in the studios as auteur producers, in addition to being performers, arrangers and writers, which this collection, whilst clearly not for those just wanting a greatest hits collection, ably shows."

Yeah, like he said!

Greg McGarvey | Bucks County, PA, USA | 12/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Here's a great review of this disc.



http://www.spectropop.com/recommends/index2005.htm#EverlyBrothers"