Everly Brothers – Bye Bye Love

Love the intro to this song. It’s the kind of song that turns teenage heartache into pure joy. This song was my introduction to the Everly Brothers, and I have never stopped listening. 

The husband-and-wife songwriting team of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant wrote this song. Together, this talented couple wrote many hits for the Everly Brothers and other artists, including Wake Up Little Susie and All I Have To Do Is Dream. The Bryants are credited with being the first songwriters to come to Nashville and make a living only by writing songs. Almost 30 other artists had previously rejected this song before The Everly Brothers recorded it. It became their first hit in both the UK and the US.

Behind the scenes, the recording session was minimal: two voices, a couple of guitars, Floyd Chance on upright bass, and Buddy Harman on drums, but the sound was huge. The Everlys blended country, pop, and rock ’n’ roll, and it gave teenagers something they hadn’t quite heard before. That ringing acoustic rhythm became very influential, later inspiring everyone from The Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel, The Hollies, and countless power-pop bands down the road.

This song was more than just a hit; it opened doors. The Beatles modeled their early vocal style after Don and Phil. Keith Richards once said that hearing the Everly Brothers changed everything for him. The song has been covered by everyone from Simon & Garfunkel to George Harrison. It’s a rare song that never feels dated

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #1 on the Billboard  Country Charts, #2 on Canada’s CHUM charts, #1 in New Zealand, and #6 in the UK in 1957. It was recorded in Nashville at the RCA Studios.

Boudleaux: “I wrote ‘Bye Bye Love’ while traveling home one night. Felice was driving down the highway and I got the first verse and chorus right down there. I always make sure I have a pen and paper in the car for these occasions.”

“We really believed in the song and were disappointed when so many people turned it down. They said it was unsuitable, some even asked if we has anything better!”

Bye Bye Love

Bye bye love
Bye bye happiness, hello loneliness
I think I’m-a gonna cry-y
Bye bye love, bye bye sweet caress, hello emptiness
I feel like I could di-ie
Bye bye my love goodby-eye

There goes my baby with-a someone new
She sure looks happy, I sure am blue
She was my baby till he stepped in
Goodbye to romance that might have been

Bye bye love
Bye bye happiness, hello loneliness
I think I’m-a gonna cry-y
Bye bye love, bye bye sweet caress, hello emptiness
I feel like I could di-ie
Bye bye my love goodby-eye

I’m-a through with romance, I’m a-through with love
I’m through with a’countin’ the stars above
And here’s the reason that I’m so free
My lovin’ baby is through with me

Bye bye love
Bye bye happiness, hello loneliness
I think I’m-a gonna cry-y
Bye bye love, bye bye sweet caress, hello emptiness
I feel like I could di-ie
Bye bye my love goodby-eye

Bye bye my love goodby-eye
Bye bye my love goodby-eye

Bye bye my love goodby-eye
Bye bye my love goodby-eye

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

66 thoughts on “Everly Brothers – Bye Bye Love”

  1. My favourite of theirs is ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’. I didn’t know about the songwriting couple — and to think nearly 30 artists turned down ‘Bye Bye Love’! Crazy stuff. I can see why so many, including the greats, were in awe of the brothers’ harmonies.

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  2. The intro in this song is such an attention grabber for me. I don’t think I knew the personnel on this one so that was interesting. Seems like it was fate that brought the songwriters and the brothers together. Shame that they were separated by contracts and record labels. Because that never screwed up good music before!
    George Harrison certainly solidified the impact this song had on him, among other things.

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    1. What songwriters they were Randy. They actually wrote “Rocky Top” which floored me. I thought it was as old as time…but it was released in 1967. You may never hear it much but wear I’m located…we hear it all of the time. You posted something on Rocky Top before I think…I must have forgot.
      Contracts are always harmonious…just ask Allen Klein…and if he denies it ask Colonel Parker

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      3. I can’t keep track of most if what I wrote last month let alone last year. So I certainly wouldn’t expect you to do it. Not to mention your a hundred times busier than I am, and you can clearly manage most of it.

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      4. It’s trying! I heard a Shocking Blue song the other day I wanted to post. I took some of a Sunday…wrote it all up…checked my index…I thought I was good to go…then after I was finished…I saw that I published it 2 years ago lol… totally overlooked it…So yea…I can’t remember mine either and I have an index!

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  3. Pingback: Everly Brothers – Bye Bye Love – MobsterTiger

  8. The Everly Brothers cranked out a string of hits for Cadence Records, including ‘Bye, Bye Love’, ‘Wake Up, Little Susie’, ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’, ‘Bird Dog’ and others.  The Everly Brothers recorded 38 songs for Cadence, and they had eight gold discs and issued six albums for this label. Cadence record label owner Archie Bleyer felt like he couldn’t afford to re-sign the Everly Brothers to another contract, as he thought they had a limited shelf life and in general he felt that rock and roll was on its way out.  Bleyer decided to shop the brothers to other labels in the hopes of selling them off before they went cold.

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  11. This recording has always been magical for me. I love it.

    I think what Kristie said is classic. A great measure and they sure do live up to it.

    And at least for me, I love the love and respect McCartney gave these guys when he merely lists them to Let Em In.

    Love it.

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  12. you’re right, their sound fit in to what was going on all around at the time, the Simon and Garfunkel cover was not a surprise…..didn’t the Beatles cover that tune in the Get Back doc?……their TV show much like Johnny Cash’s attracted us kids that wanted be hip because of their style and the guests they brought on…….

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  14. Just crazy so many artists passed on this one. You hear about some famous performers skipping over a chance to participate in or take ownership of certain songs, but this was such a straight-forward hit in the wings it really surprises me it “got that far” for the Brothers to grab the opportunity.

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  15. looking at that photo again, they also looked ahead of their time. Slightly different clothes and you could have thought they might have been opening for the Smiths or Talking Heads in the ’80s

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    1. Yea…kinda before their time. I’ve seen some pictures (not the Everlys) back then of people in sunglasses and sweaters with their hair cut like many 80s guys….I think they were early hipsters…I’ve seen them in the 40s-50s. It makes you do a double take.

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    1. John, I just told Randy I had no clue they wrote Rocky Top. I thought it was a an old folk song like House of the Rising Sun…never would have thought it came out in 1967. That was a shocker. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve heard that song.

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  18. Nothing to add, everyone has said it all. (But moving to record labels I bought a couple of T shirts years back, a blue one with the London label logo, a yellow one with the yellow Epic ‘flat circle’ label. I must get a couple more, a few of the more obscure ones perhaps? )

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      1. Good point! Maybe only the old Karma Sutra label might pique the interest of some teen-aged hormonally driven music lover these days! Or Bang Records? Maybe not Virgin though.

        Sorry!

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  22. Those two Gibson acoustics playing those open chords in two triads, who thought that up? That made the song grab your attention from the first few licks. Without Don and Phil, who knows what harmonies the Beatles and the others would have come up with. Musical history, once again, thanks, Max.

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    1. I’m glad you said that. I think I read somewhere they had them in open G. Thats why its hard to closely duplicate with standard tuning.
      Oh…the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly…were completely different than the others. I agree…without the Everlys…the Beatles would not have been the same or at all.

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      1. I watched an early video of them on the Steve Allen show and you can clearly see they are playing different positions but in the same key, gives that great sound without the use of a capo, which I detest capos and will use one only when forced too.

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      3. I use one that has a thumb screw adjustment on the bottom that adjust the tension unlike most of them put so much tension on the string it grooves the frets makes it impossible to tune. One of our guitar players in church band uses a capo on every song, has to be in G position. I prefer playing the tunes in the original keys.

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      5. That’s too much work for me. I only use one now because our church band picks these crazy piano driven praise rock song in C#m7 and keys like that, it’s just to many bar chords for my old hands to make, so I use alternate chords and triads and it’s so much easier. I did invest in a good capo that doesn’t knock it out of tune like those old vice grips.

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      9. The C# is the bitch, the others I handle with open chords and upper triads. Our other guitar player’s all use capos on every tune. The capos with the bottom thumb screw for tension adjustment are the best. You put just enough tension to make it work, but it doesn’t de-tune your guitar. I use my old one for a clamp when I glue something.

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      11. make an open Amaj on the second fret and slide that position to the 4th fret, using your pinky finger or pointer finger, then you can also in the same position make it a B maj 7th, 9th or sus. I can’t do bar chords anymore because of my old hands, so I figured out the alternate jazz guitarist positions.

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  25. I like a lot of the Everly Brothers’ songs, including this. It wasn’t my first introduction to their music, though… I think that was Ebony Eyes, and I think that maybe even have been on a 78rpm (shellac, probably) record! That dates me, haha!

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