THE EVERLY BROTHERS - TIL I KISSED YOU

TIL I KISSED YOU

THE EVERLY BROTHERS

SONGWRITER: DON EVERLY

HOW: LIVE 1983

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

ALBUM: THE EVERLY BROTHERS

LABEL: HMEDIA

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1959

"('Till) I Kissed You" is a song written by Don Everly of The Everly Brothers. It was released as a single in 1959 and peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Chet Atkins played guitar on this record and Jerry Allison played drums. Recorded 7 July 1959 at RCA Victor Studio, Nashville, Tennessee, and issued as a single (Cadence 1369) July/August 1959 coupled with ‘Oh, What A Feeling’. Don Everly (guitar); Phil Everly (guitar); Chester B. “Chet” Atkins (electric guitar); Sonny Curtis (guitar); Floyd T. “Lightnin’” Chance (bass); Jerry “J.I.” Allison (drums); Floyd Cramer (piano). Producer: Archie Bleyer.

The Everly Brothers were an American country-influenced rock and roll duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (born February 1, 1937) and Phillip "Phil" Jason Everly(January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014), the duo was raised in a musical family, first appearing on radio singing along with their father Ike Everly and mother Margaret Everly as "The Everly Family" in the 1940s. When the brothers were still in high school, they gained the attention of prominent Nashville musicians like Chet Atkins, who began to groom them for national attention.

They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit number 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems". In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single. The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit.

Long-simmering disputes with Wesley Rose, the CEO of Acuff-Rose Music, which managed the group, and growing drug usage in the 1960s, as well as changing tastes in popular music, led to the group's decline in popularity in its native U.S., though the brothers continued to release hit singles in the U.K. and Canada, and had many highly successful tours throughout the 1960s. In the early 1970s, the brothers began releasing solo recordings, and in 1973 they officially broke up. Starting in 1983, the brothers got back together, and would continue to perform periodically until Phil's death in 2014.

The group was highly influential on the music of the generation that followed it. Many of the top acts of the 1960s were heavily influenced by the close-harmony singing and acoustic guitar playing of the Everly Brothers, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, and Simon & Garfunkel. The Everly Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class of 1986, and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Don was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019, earning the organization's first Iconic Riff Award for his distinctive rhythm guitar intro to the Everlys' massive 1957 hit “Wake Up Little Susie”. 

[Verse]

Never felt like this until I kissed ya

How did I exist until I kissed ya

Never had you on my mind

Now you're there all the time

Never knew what I missed 'til I kissed ya

Uh-huh I kissed ya, oh yeah

Things have really changed since I kissed ya, uh-huh

My life's not the same now that I kissed ya, oh yeah

[Chorus]

Mmm, you got a way about ya

Now I can't live without ya

Never knew what I missed 'til I kissed ya

Uh-huh, I kissed ya, oh yeah

[Bridge]

You don't realize what you do to me

And I didn't realize what a kiss could be

[Chorus]

Mmm, you got a way about ya

Now I can't live without ya

Never knew what I missed 'til I kissed ya

Uh-huh, I kissed ya, oh yeah

[Bridge]

You don't realize what you do to me

And I didn't realize what a kiss could be

[Chorus]

Mmm, you got a way about ya

Now I can't live without ya

Never knew what I missed 'til I kissed ya

Uh-huh, I kissed ya, oh yeah

[Outro]

I kissed ya, uh-huh

I kissed ya, oh yeah

I kissed ya...