Crying in the Rain: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives of the Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers – or Don and Phil, as fans intimately knew them – seemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomers during the blandly regimented 1950s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. These two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly yet comfortably settled as the sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural landscape.

Magnificent as the duo was, they have, until now, never received a definitive biography. In Long Time Gone: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives Of the Everly Brothers, the details, both small and significant, unfurl like a mighty river in a near novel-like fashion. The book reveals facts drawn from exhaustive research and first-hand interviews, tracing the character and influences of these hardy but flawed men who matured from teenagers to old men before our very eyes. Mark Ribowsky's authoritative book serves as a fitting companion to an unforgettable collection of songs – heard on countless albums, and covered literally thousands of times – whose recording was a long time gone but will never be forgotten.