Album: The Everly Brothers
Year: 1957
What a cool opening this song has: that acoustic guitar, played almost indifferently for a couple of measures, until Phil & Don Everly lead with their strength: the rough beauty of their voices singing in harmony.
The key, of course, is not just that their voices sound great together, but that they also just slightly rub each other wrong, like each one is double-dog-daring the other to slide his voice just wrong enough to fuck the whole thing up.
The other cool thing about “Bye Bye Love:” it starts with the chorus. Which is the right thing to do in this case.
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
With Chet Akins adding licks after the title phrase, that chorus is total and utter justification for the entire song. The verses are almost an afterthought, just a way of marking time until that timeless chorus reappears.
“Bye Bye Love”