“One of my great heroes”: The singer Paul McCartney said he would love forever
It’s hard to think of rock and roll that existed before Paul McCartney and The Beatles.
The timeline is definitely there from the days when the biggest rock shows in the world were sockhops where someone would hope to see Buddy Holly or Little Richard playing, but seeing the Fab Four on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time was like the musical version of going from black and white to colour the minute that Macca batted those doe eyes at the camera. But even with all of those incredible songs at their disposal, McCartney felt that some of his favourite bands taught him about what pop music was truly all about.
Then again, a lot of the greatest names in rock and roll at that point were still playing the typical blues chords that everyone started out with. No one strayed too far past the same rock and roll blueprint that Chuck Berry started with, and even if the doo-wop songs would occasionally throw in an augmented chord here and there, the Fabs had a lot to learn before they were ready to throw in some of those strange musical detours in any of their songs.
There are more than a few times when they weren’t exactly using proper music theory, but that’s what makes so many of their songs happy accidents in many respects. It was always a collaboration between them and George Martin whenever they went into the studio, so if Macca wanted something that sounded like a classical symphony piece that he had heard, Martin was the one who could pick out what instrument was needed and the kind of range they would be looking for.
But while their repertoire in the Cavern days spanned from rock and roll to blues songs to showtunes, there was also a fair bit of country thrown into the mix as well. Ringo Starr never bothered to hide his love of country music throughout his career, and while they could throw in the odd Buck Owens song into the mix, The Everly Brothers were the ultimate example of what it was like to blend rock and roll with Southern-style harmonies.
Phil and Don Everly had grown up singing the kind of harmonies that their father taught them, but there was a certain rub between their voices that hit home whenever McCartney heard them. This was the kind of music that opened up a new world for harmony singing, and even though Holly may have had those close harmonies, there was nothing that sounded more beautiful than Phil and Don going back and forth on songs like ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’.
And as if their mention in the song ‘Let Em In’ wasn’t enough, McCartney was the first to say that he could listen to the Everlys until the end of time, saying, “Phil Everly was one of my great heroes. With his brother Don, they were one of the major influences on the Beatles. When John and I first started to write songs, I was Phil and he was Don. I will always love him for giving me some of the sweetest musical memories of my life.”
But the most important part of The Everlys’ influence on The Beatles is where they went from there. ‘If I Fell’ is a perfect example of Lennon and McCartney doing their Everly harmonies to a tee, but with every album, it was about trying to emulate the greatest singers that they heard, whether it was girl-group harmonising on ‘You’re Gonna Lose That Girl’, the Beach Boys harmonies on ‘Here There and Everywhere’, and then getting into full-blown choral masterpieces like ‘Because’.
What the Everlys did came a lot more natural to them, but McCartney was interested in doing a lot more than simple harmonies that moved up and down. There was a certain magic that was created when his heroes sang, and he wanted to be able to tug on people’s heartstrings in the same way that the brothers tugged on his when he heard tunes like ‘Cathy’s Clown’.
