Even before I could read, I was fascinated by the fine print and the graphics on record labels and wondered what it all meant, especially the tiny letters in parenthesis. By the time I was fairly literate, the Everly Brothers had stormed into my life, taking their rightful place alongside Elvis. Hearing “Bye Bye Love,” for the first time on radio had the same effect on me as it did on Paul Simon and his singing pal Artie Garfunkel. Simon got on a city bus in Queens, rode an hour to a record store, spent a dollar for the 78, then started rapidly wearing it out. He soon had to go back and get another one. By the time I had saved up enough of my allowance to get my copy, the Everly’s had a 45 EP (4 songs) out that included their followup hit “Wake Up Little Susie,” and I saw the names in parenthesis on those two songs: F. Bryant and B. Bryant.

Several months later, when the whole world started dreaming and slow dancing along with Don and Phil, the Bryant’s initials were replaced with their first names, Felice and Boudleaux. I wondered about who had that strange name, one I had no idea how to pronounce. My best shot was BOWED-LEWUCKS . Reading this book, which is packed with fine details, revealed I was not alone in my wonderment. Many iconic musicians and songwriters like Eric Clapton, Peter Asher, Tim Rice, Graham Nash, Elvis Costello and Keith Richard also were drawn into the exotica of Boudleaux’s name. I learned to pronounce it by the time the Everly’s Best album was released, with the Bryants’ names on seven of the twelve songs.

This biography covers the entire trailblazing lives of this couple and their legacy of everlasting songs they gave us. From their childhoods, their fairytale first meeting, the early hard times when Boudleaux was a road musician, to their life-changing decision in 1950 to move to Nashville in a house trailer, with their two toddlers and pursue songwriting as a sole occupation. They were the first, and laid the groundwork for all who would follow them to 16th Ave.

Felice, who was one very feisty and outspoken Sicilian, often had to keep quiet and let Boudleaux do the talking in the good old boy network that was already entrenched in Nashville’s fledging music industry. Their highly unique method of writing and brilliant, yet natural, way they pitched their songs to recording artists, is covered in great detail. So are the shady sides of the song publishing industry, that they learned to work around and in doing so established The House Of Bryant, where they controlled not only their future copyrights, but those monster hit songs they had written for the Everly’s and others, which were originally published by the eight-hundred-pound gorilla Acuff-Rose.

Their songwriting story could be summed up in two of their songs. “We Could” and “Devoted To You.” Their songs are a living testament to what they could do, with the talents they had and the persistence to make it work. They were certainly devoted to each other and their two boys, Dane and Del, who, as they grew, were of great assistance to them. The book explores the profound effect Boudleaux and Felice had on so many, be they listeners, learners or both.

In the spring of 1987, I pursued my dream of moving to Nashville to get my name in parenthesis under song titles. I had planned, once I got situated and perhaps made some inroads on 16th Ave, on making the 500 mile pilgrimage to Gatlinburg, TN, aka “Rocky Top,” where the Bryants now resided, if only to say how much their songs meant to me, though I knew they had probably heard that a million times before. That plan had to be laid to rest two months after I arrived. Instead, I found myself attending Boudleaux’s funeral in Nashville, which truly moved me. He was a fantastic violinist and as I listened to the string quartet play a medley of Bryant songs, I thought about my own past, when I sang “Devoted To You” as I proposed marriage. The Bryants were beautifully intense and this book covers many of their personal moments.

Keith Richard summed them up succinctly when he said. “I don’t think you’ll ever find another pair that can match them.”

—Ken Spooner

During their career, the Bryants earned 59 BMI country, pop, and R&B music awards. They were inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Boudleaux Bryant is the third most successful songwriter of the 1950s on the UK Singles Chart, and Felice Bryant is the 21st.