Don Everly Net Worth

About Don Everly

Don Everly, together with his brother Phil, formed one half of the Everly Brothers, one of the greatest close harmony duos in the annals of American music. The siblings’ parents, Ike and Margaret Everly, both had musical careers, and the four of them made their radio debut as “The Everly Family” in the 1940s. The brothers began receiving national attention from established musicians like Chet Atkins in Nashville when they were still in high school.

Don Everly predated his brother Phil by two years; the elder Everly was born on February 1, 1937 in Brownie, Kentucky. They were raised by Ike Everly, a coal miner and singer. His mom, Margaret, married his dad, Ike, when she was only 15. At 14, Ike began working in the coal mines, but his father pushed him to follow his passion for music, so he and Margaret started performing as a duo.

After spending a year at Longfellow Elementary School in Waterloo, Iowa, the Everly children returned to Shenandoah in 1944 and stayed there through the beginning of high school. In 1945, Ike’s two sons, Don (then 8) and Phil (then 6), joined him on a local radio show, performing morning harmony with their father for the 6 a.m. broadcast before they went to school. The brothers were a growing component of the show by 1955, when they moved to Nashville from their native Kentucky.

Don had finished high school in 1955 and Phil had finished his education at Peabody Demonstration School in Nashville. Both were free to concentrate on recording from this point on, and from here until 1973 they released albums that successfully fused country music with pop songwriting and rock and roll swing, garnering critical acclaim and economic success along the way.

Atkins managed to get the Everly Brothers to record for Columbia Records in early 1956 despite the fact that they were already signed to RCA Victor. After the failure of Don’s written and composed “Keep a-Lovin’ Me” the group was dumped from the Columbia label. They inked the deal before the end of 1956, and in 1957 Rose brought them to Archie Bleyer, who was scouting talent for his label Cadence Records. In February of 1957, the Everlys got a contract and recorded their debut album.

Throughout 1957 and 1958, the brothers accompanied Buddy Holly on his concert tours. Some accounts have Phil Everly serving as a pallbearer during Holly’s 1959 funeral, however in 1986, Phil clarified that while he did attend the service and sit with Holly’s family, he was not a pallbearer.

Don typically sang baritone and Phil tenor on recordings. There is, however, “Since You Broke My Heart” which stands out from the rest (1958). Although Don spoke predominantly in the low register and Phil in the high register, their voices merged in a complex and nuanced way.

The Everlys recorded for Warner Bros. for a decade, beginning in 1960 after spending the previous three years with Cadence. “Cathy’s Clown” released in 1960, was their first big success for Warner Bros. After then, further hit singles from Warner Bros. were released in the States, including “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)” (1960).

There are reports that by 1962, the Everlys had made $35 million from record sales. The brothers and Wesley Rose had a fight during the “Temptation” sessions in 1961. Reportedly, Rose was peeved that the Everlys were about to record a song that he hadn’t published and hence wouldn’t get any royalties from. Rose tried to prevent the record from being released. The Everlys refused to budge from their viewpoint, and Acuff-Rose songwriters stopped working with them in the early 1960s.

A large band instrumental rendition of Edward Elgar’s first “Adrian Kimberly” march, orchestrated by Neal Hefti and recorded by Don under the alias “Pomp and Circumstance” reached the top 40 in the United States in the middle of 1961. The Everly Brothers saw declining record sales in the US over the years after their initial success. In October of 1961, they disappeared from public view when they enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve. During their time in the Marines, they had very few opportunities to perform publicly.

When Don fainted in England around the middle of October 1962, his wife and brother said he was suffering from physical and nervous weariness rather than an overdose of medications, as had been reported in the tabloids.

Don’s ill health forced him to return to the United States, ending their British tour. Phil and the band’s bassist, Joey Page, continued without him. Of their 27 singles on Warner Bros. from 1963 through 1970, only three hit the Hot 100, and none peaked higher than No. 31. The sales of albums dropped as well. Although the first two albums the Everlys recorded for Warners (in 1960 and 1961) reached No. 9 on the US album charts, just one of the Everlys’ subsequent dozen LPs for Warner Bros., 1965’s “Beat & Soul” charted in the top 200.

In spite of the fact that their popularity in the United States had began to decline two years before to the British Invasion in 1964, it remained high in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. In 1964, the brothers’ legal battle with Acuff-Rose was still ongoing. Many of the songs on the 1966 album Two Yanks in England were written by members of The Hollies, with whom the band recorded. Bowling Green, the Everlys’ final top 40 hit in the United States, was released that year.

The brothers eventually found their way back to country rock towards the end of the ’60s, with their 1968 album Roots being called “one of the finest early country-rock albums” by several critics. The brothers started producing solo albums in the early ’70s, and they officially split up in 1973. The reunification of the brothers began in 1983. As part of the first class, they entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and they were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Until Phil’s death in 2014, they occasionally performed together. Seven years later, Don passed away. Between 1956 and 1998, they put out a total of 75 singles and 21 studio albums, 2 live albums, 29 compilation albums, and 2 soundtrack albums.

Album Raise the Roof (produced by T-Bone Burnett, 2022) featured Alison Krauss and Robert Plant‘s rendition of The Price of Love by the Everlys.