Their two albums for Cadence Records in the late 1950s had announced The Everly Brothers’ arrival on the scene as one of the most exciting acts around, but it was their big-money move to a rapidly expanding Warner Bros that would gain them mainstream credibility and firmly establish both the duo and their paymasters as major players in the rock’n’roll business.
After an amazing run beginning in 1957 at Archie Bleyer’s Cadence, where the country-rooted harmonies of Don and Phil Everly translated into rock’n’roll gold on Bye Bye Love, Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have To Do Is Dream and a long string of additional Nashville-cut smashes, the Everlys’ Cadence contract expired. Their manager, Acuff-Rose Music boss Wesley Rose, was free to place his boys with a new label. Warner Bros represented the perfect fit.
Since its launch in the autumn of 1958, the newly-minted major label, an offshoot of the legendary film production company, had enjoyed precious little success in the rock’n’roll market. Edd Byrnes, co-star of the popular Warner TV detective programme 77 Sunset Strip, gave the firm its only teen-themed hit up to that point with his novelty song Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb) in the spring of 1959 (ingénue Connie Stevens shared billing).