Don and Phil Everly had something most singers never find — a harmony so natural it didn’t need rehearsal. When they sang “Let It Be Me” in 1960, two voices on one microphone, it didn’t sound like a hit song. It sounded like something private — two brothers saying what they never could out loud. But behind the sharp suits, these two were slowly destroying each other. By 1973, Phil smashed his guitar on stage at Knott’s Berry Farm and walked off mid-show. Don told the crowd: “The Everly Brothers died ten years ago.” They didn’t speak for a decade. Then in September 1983, at Royal Albert Hall in London, Phil walked out from the left. Don from the right. They met in the middle, hugged — and started singing like those ten years never happened. Don once said, “I always thought about him every day, even when we were not speaking to each other.” Both brothers are gone now. But play “Let It Be Me” today, and you’ll hear it — two voices that couldn’t exist apart, no matter how hard they tried.
The Everly Brothers and the Song That Sounded Like a Private Promise Don and Phil Everly had something most singers…