Everly Brothers Park

Everly Brothers Park, a small “pocket park” will soon be open at the corner of Kingston Pike and Forest Park Boulevard, and connected to the well-used Bearden Village Greenway. (Finally, Forest Park has a park!) The location is less than a mile from West High School, where Don graduated in 1955.

For more information, and to contribute to the still-developing project, see legacyparks.org.

Don and Phil Everly were known for their perfect brother harmonies, but made a global impact on popular music by taking chances with combining their old-time harmonies with a new form called rock ’n’ roll. Their influence on later bands like Simon and Garfunkel and the Beatles was profound. John Lennon and Paul McCartney admitted they got into music partly by way of imitating the Everlys. The early Beatles were compared to the Everlys so often that the English group joked they should be called the Four Everly Brothers. (Foreverly—get it?)

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They were not exactly from Knoxville. Elder brother Don was born in Muhlenberg County, in western Kentucky. Phil was born two years later in Chicago. They grew up mostly in Shenandoah, Iowa, singing with their parents in a family act. It was in Nashville that they became famous as successful recording artists.

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They lived in Knoxville just a couple of years, ca. 1953-1955. Although they made semi-regular appearances playing on WROL radio shows, they were rarely mentioned in the papers except as West High athletes. However, their Knoxville years marked a critical turning point in their career. It was in Knoxville that the brothers began performing as a duo. It was here that they discovered rock’n’roll, by way of new Bo Diddley records encountered at “Dougout Doug’s” record store, on Cumberland Avenue near 17th Street. And it was here that they met former Knoxvillian Chet Atkins, who encouraged them and guided their early career.

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Most of their hits were written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, a songwriting team in Nashville who wrote “Love Hurts,” “All I Have to Do is Dream,” “Bye Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Problems,” and “Bird Dog,” all songs popularized by the Everlys. Coincidentally, the Bryants later moved to Gatlinburg, where they wrote a very different song called “Rocky Top.”

However, the brothers wrote some of their own songs, including “(Till) I Kissed You,” “When Will I Be Loved” and their biggest American hit, “Cathy’s Clown,” which is known to be loosely based on a relationship one of the brothers had at West High.

Two of their hits, “All I Have to Do is Dream” and “Wake Up Little Susie,” rose to Number One on the pop, country, and R&B charts, an extraordinary feat.

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Surprisingly, though they sometimes remarked that they considered Knoxville home, they rarely performed in the area. Their biggest Knoxville show may have been in 1998, when they performed a sellout show at the Tennessee Theatre. That show celebrated the launch of the then-new Cradle of Country Music Tour, which marked the site of their first radio broadcasts, at the Mechanics Bank Building at 612 South Gay Street. A self-guided tour brochure and markers have been refurbished by Visit Knoxville.

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Interested in reading more about Knoxville’s musical history? Join Friends of KHP and receive a copy of KHP’s book, Knoxville Blues: Stories of Knoxville’s Lively Musical Past for a donation of $50.00 and above.  Donate online or chat with us about joining at an upcoming KHP talk (see Events for information.)