In 1986 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted 10 of rock’s most influential musicians into its inaugural class: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and . . . The Everly Brothers.

Phil Everly, the younger brother of the influential Everly music duo, passed away yesterday.  The vocal group has had far-reaching influence ranging from other singing duos like Simon and Garfunkel to the harmonizing style of Rock and Roll acts like The Beatles.  The Everlys took the clean instrumentation of Nashville and turned it on its head with teenage themes and early rock arrangements.  Their music has a timeless quality and their greatness can still be heard to this day. While they produced countless hits like “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love” and “All I Have to Do is Dream,”  they also produced whole albums of brilliant and captivating songs.

I was recently reminded of this brilliance with the surprise re-recording of the Everly classic, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, by Norah Jones and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. The new album, Foreverly, manages to please the ear at every turn.  While Jones has long been known to have multi-genre vocal chops, Armstrong’s deviation from the comfort zone of his punk garage-rock scream is a true revelation.  He has a natural croon that blends masterfully with Jones’s smoky feminine sound. The album’s arrangement and instrumentation are different from the Everly’s original recording.  The record does, however, stay true to the Everly’s singing sound. The masterful harmonizing of Jones and Armstrong really sets the record apart from other cover albums. With so much music being overproduced and auto-tuned to death, it is refreshing to hear real singers singing real music, uncompromised. The album serves as a touching coda to The Everly Brothers body of work as yet another generation of musicians discovers their contribution to Rock and Roll.

So if you have time today, give thanks for the songs the Everlys taught us.  Their music is for the ages. From one younger brother to another, thanks Phil!