US musician Phil Everly, one half of the Everly Brothers, has died, aged 74, in California.
His family says, Everly died on Friday (Jan 3) in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank of complications from lung disease, his wife, Patti, told the Los Angeles Times.
"We are absolutely heartbroken," she said, adding that the disease was the result of a lifetime of smoking.
Phil Everly and his brother Don made up the Everly Brothers, one of the biggest pop acts of the 1950s and early 1960s.
In a statement to the Associated Press, Don said: "I loved my brother very much. I always thought I'd be the one to go first.
"The world might be mourning an Everly Brother, but I'm mourning my brother Phil Everly.''
Along with Don, Phil Everly took The Everly Brothers to the forefront of its peers, first finding success with its self-titled debut album in 1958. The duo charted 31 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including 12 top 10 hits. They claimed a No. 1 single with "Cathy's Clown" in 1960, which spent five weeks atop the chart. The act was also successful on the Hot Country Songs chart, tallying four No. 1s with "Bye Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Susie," "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Bird Dog."
Some of the Everly Brothers' other big hits on the Hot 100 include "Problems" (No. 2 in 1958), "('Til) I Kissed You" (No. 4 in 1959) and "Let It Be Me" (No. 7 in 1960).
Billboard recently ranked the duo as the 66th-biggest act in the 55-year history of the Hot 100 chart. They are the chart's third biggest duo ever, following Daryl Hall & John Oates, and the Carpenters.
Phil Everly was born to folk and country music singers Ike and Margaret Everly on Jan. 19, 1939, in Chicago, two years after his older brother. As the sons of country and western singers, they had been performing since they were children and were the most country-oriented of the early rock giants. The brothers began singing country music in 1945 on their family's radio show in Shenandoah, Iowa, and though their sound would become more cosmopolitan over time, they never strayed far from their country roots.
There is perhaps no more beautiful sound than the voices of siblings swirled together in high harmony, and when Phil and Don Everly combined their voices with songs about yearning, angst and loss, it changed the world.
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