Search - Everly Brothers :: Two Yanks in England

Everly Brothers sing The Hollies...plus

Fredric A. Cooper | Los Angeles, CA | 08/14/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Great Sleeper Album

Chris Owens | NJ United States | 12/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

A very good and rare Everly record

T. Cordonnier | seraincourt France | 03/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."