THE EVERLY BROTHERS - THE PRICE OF LOVE

 THE PRICE OF LOVE

THE EVERLY BROTHERS

SONGWRITERS: DONALD EVERLY & PHIL EVERLY

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: IN OUR IMAGE

LABEL: WARNER RECORDS

GENRE: COUNTRY ROCK

YEAR: 1966

 

           The Everly Brothers were an American country rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly(February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly(January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014), the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock.

       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 promote 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 Nº 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.

          In Our Image is an album by The Everly Brothers, originally released in 1966.

          Several of the songs had appeared on singles in 1965, where their biggest success came in the United Kingdom off the back of "The Price Of Love" (present on this album) and "Love Is Strange" (from Beat & Soul), the former of which ascended to Nº 2 on the UK Charts, but only Nº 104 in America.

          Included on the album also was the flipside for "The Price Of Love", "It Only Costs A Dime", a self-written piece.

          In December of that year, the final single "It's All Over" appeared, in an arrangement containing harpsichord and vocals. In a break from the usual routine, however, this song would feature Phil singing the principle vocal line and Don singing the harmony line a third lower. The song would later be covered by Cliff Richard.

        Revisiting their classic style of singing, they recorded the Sonny Curtis-written "I Used To Love You". Curtis, former member of The Crickets, had previously written another Everly Brothers hit single, "Walk Right Back".

          For the first 45 release of 1966, they visited the songwriting partnership of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, with a rendition of "Glitter And Gold". This arrangement, featuring fuzz guitar and harpsichord, was backed with another Brill Building number, the Howard Greenfield and Jack Keller-written "Lovey Kravezit".

          With hardly enough time to gauge the success of this single "(You Got) The Power of Love" (written by Delaney Bramlett and Joey Cooper), containing Motown influences aplenty and backed with "Leave My Girl Alone", was to hit the stores.

           Filling out the album, "The Doll House Is Empty" (later to become Warner Brothers single 5689 in February 1966), the mainstream-orientated "(Why Am I) Chained To A Memory" (Edward A. Snyder/Richard Ahlert) and "June Is As Cold As December" from Marge Barton.

Wine is sweet and gin is bitter

You drink all you can but you won´t forget her

You talk too much, you laugh too loud

You see her face in every crowd

 

That´s the price of love, the price of love

The debt you pay with tears and pain

The price of love, the price of love

Costs you more when you´re to blame

 

Kiss one girl, you kiss another

You kiss themall but you won´t recover

You´re dancing slow, you´re dancing fast

You´re happy now but that won´t last

 

That´s the price of love, the price of love

The debt you pay with tears and pain

The price of love, the price of love

Costs you more when you´re to blame

 

That´s the price of love, the price of love

The debt you pay with tears and pain

The price of love, the price of love

Costs you more when you´re to blame

 

That´s the price of love, the price of love

The debt you pay with tears and pain

The price of love, the price of love

Costs you more when you´re to blame

 

Wine is sweet and gin is bitter

You drink all you can but you won´t forget her.