By the beginning of the 1960s, the Everly Brothers were ready to move on. Coming from a family tradition (their parents, Ike and Margaret, had included them in the "family" show business long before Don and Phil reached Nashville and pop success), they might have felt things were too paternalistic with their manager, Wesley Rose, who refused to let them record any songs that his company, Acuff-Rose, hadn't published, and their long-term label, which had always dealt directly with Rose. A telling moment might have been during the recording of "Let It Be Me." The song, called "Je t'appartiens" in its native France, had been done instrumentally by Chet; with English lyrics, the Brothers recorded it in New York, their first session outside of Nashville. Rose, according to Don, came to the studio and just "shook his head" disapprovingly. If it wasn't on his publishing roster, it couldn't have been a good song.

Instead, it's a great song, perhaps the Everlys 'finest moment as romantic balladeers. And though Don and Phil might have felt impelled to take their chances away from Wesley and Cadence with a lucrative offer from Warner Brothers, the Rose connection did yield on this album some of… read more »