Ive realised today that i have a guilty pleasure.......and that is i really like the mid to late 60s Everly Brothers,i have on cd Rock n Soul(65),Beat n Soul(65),In our Image(66),2 Yanks in Egland(66) The Everly Brothers Sing(67)and Roots(68),they really do make a pleasant change from listening to mind bending psych,so whenever i feel like something different The Everlys get put on,but my 2 faves are the magnificent "2 Yanks in England"and"Sing","2 Yanks" as you probably know was the album that features mostly Hollies written stuff and who also contribute to the playing on this album too,if youre a Hollies fan this is a must have,as for "Sings"this is a very good pop album with some kinda dayglo influences(for The Everlys that is)the only misstep is a cover of Procol Harums"Whiter shade of Pal"you also have an excellent cover of"Im finding it Rough"originally done by Hat and Tie(who morphed into Nirvana)"Talking to the Flowers" covered by Move man Rick Price,other tracks i really like are "Mary Jane"(an ode to marijuana maybe)"A Voice Within"and"Bowling Green",those 2 albums are well worth a listen.
Anyone else have a secret guilty pleasure whenever they feel like a change from psych and prog??You could do a lot worse than listening to some of The Everly Brothers albums from "65-"69.

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I thought this was going to be about someone like the Bay City Rollers or the Nolan Sisters! If listening to one of the greatest harmony acts in pop history going down the late 60s dayglo pop psych route is now classified as a guilty pleasure, then the world really is even more f*cked up than I thought!

Ha! I kind of thought the same thing. I have to defend my Supertramp to some of my friends, but the Everly Borthers are pretty classic! True, I've heard their harmonies described as less complex than some other bands, but they are golden. Somthing about brothers (like the Bee Gees) singing can really work well.
I have to say Stuart, I'm interested to hear some of those later sixties recordings, as I only have collections of their "classic" stuff, which I guess they recorded and then re-recorded even before the mid-sixties stuff you're talking about. But the song selection, like Hat and Tie, is interesting. Like Del Shannon, it's interesting to see how the psych sixties had an effect on the fifties acts who were open to it.

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Let's face it - if you listen to early Beatles, they slavishly copy the Everly harmonies. I say in regard to the Everlys, there's a lot of pleasure and NO guilt!

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I'm on a bit of a George Harrison kick after watching the Scorcese documentary and as I was checking out different live recordings I noticed that in addition to playing "Here Comes the Sun" with Paul Simon on Saturday Night Live (I remember watching that live at the time), they also played "Bye, Bye Love" (time hadn't kept that memory intact!). So it's clear that even in 1976 George Harrison was going back to the Everlys.

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Reading this I was inspired to listen to the Everly Brothers Sing, and it was a most enjoyable listen. The voice within was the song that really caught my attention, but the whole Lp was strong. Whiter shade of pale would always sound weak compared to the original, I wouldnt say it was a mistake to cover it, but to do it they really would have needed to change it to suit their strengths, instead they ended up with a watered down version.

A secret pleasure of mine is to listen to trashy Lps that are so bad they are good. "Uncle Bill socks it to ya" that is one I just finished. The premise is bad enough, get a WC fields imitator to do versions of pop hits of the day. Its not quite bad enough to be good, and not good enough to be bad. His version of the Mighty Quinn is possibly the worst version of that song I have heard, and I have heard some shockers. Its a pleasure I may have to retire from one day.

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