The Everly Brothers were an American country-influenced rock and roll duo, … Read Full Bio ↴The Everly Brothers were an American country-influenced rock and roll duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014), the duo was raised in a musical family, first appearing on radio singing along with their father Ike Everly and mother Margaret Everly as "The Everly Family" in the 1940s. When the brothers were still in high school, they gained the attention of prominent Nashville musicians like Chet Atkins, who began to promote them for national attention.

They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with "Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit No. 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, including "Wake Up Little Susie", "All I Have to Do Is Dream", and "Problems". In 1960, they signed with the major label Warner Bros. Records and recorded "Cathy's Clown", written by the brothers themselves, which was their biggest selling single. The brothers enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1961, and their output dropped off, though additional hit singles continued through 1962, with "That's Old Fashioned (That's the Way Love Should Be)" being their last top-10 hit.

Long-simmering disputes with Wesley Rose, the CEO of Acuff-Rose Music, which managed the group, a growing drug usage in the 1960s, as well as changing tastes in popular music, led to the group's decline in popularity in its native U.S., though the brothers continued to release hit singles in the U.K. and Canada, and had many highly successful tours throughout the 1960s. In the early 1970s, the brothers began releasing solo recordings, and in 1973 they officially broke up. Starting in 1983, the brothers got back together, and would continue to perform periodically until Phil's death in 2014. Don died seven years later.

The group was highly influential on the music of the generation that followed it. Many of the top acts of the 1960s were heavily influenced by the close-harmony singing and acoustic guitar playing of the Everly Brothers, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, and Simon & Garfunkel. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked the Everly Brothers No. 1 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the inaugural class of 1986, and into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Don was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2019, earning the organization's first Iconic Riff Award for his distinctive rhythm guitar intro to the Everlys' massive 1957 hit "Wake Up Little Susie".

Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Everly_Brothers

I Want You To Now
The Everly Brothers Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I want you to know-ow
I love her so well
I love her so much
I can never, never tell her
Oh boy, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh boy, whoa, oh

I love to hug her in the mornin'

Kiss her till the dawnin'
Don't you know-ow, whoa, oh

Can't you see
What she does to me?
She keeps my poor heart in misery
Oh boy, yeah-eah-eah
Oh boy, whoa, oh

I love to hug her in the mornin'
Kiss her till the dawnin'
Don't you know-ow, whoa, oh

I want you to know-ow
I love her so well
I love her so much
I can never, never tell her
Oh boy, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh boy, whoa, oh

I love to hug her in the mornin'
Kiss her till the dawnin'
Don't you know-ow, whoa, oh

Can't you see
What she does to me?
She keeps my poor heart in misery

Oh boy, yeah-eah-eah
Oh boy, whoa, oh

Overall Meaning

In this song, The Everly Brothers express their deep love for someone, but they cannot seem to express their feelings to her openly. The repetition of the lyric, "I want you to know-ow, I love her so well, I love her so much, I can never, never tell her," highlights that the singer wants to share their love, but for some reason, they are unable to do so. It could be fear of rejection or not having the right words to express their emotions. The second verse does not deviate from the theme of love, intimacy, and longing. The lines "I love to hug her in the morning, Kiss her till the dawnin'" emphasize the singer's desire for physical and emotional closeness with their significant other.

The chorus "Can't you see What she does to me? She keeps my poor heart in misery" shows that the singer is vulnerable and deeply affected by their love interest's actions. She could be ignoring them, or they might not know how she feels, leaving them in a state of heartache. Overall, this song showcases the universal theme of love and the inability to express it, prompting listeners to reflect on their own emotional experiences.

Line by Line Meaning

I want you to know-ow
I'm telling you this because it's important to me

I love her so well
I care for her deeply

I love her so much
My affection for her is immense

I can never, never tell her
I struggle to express my feelings to her directly

Oh boy, yeah, yeah, yeah
My emotions are intense

Oh boy, whoa, oh
I am overcome with feeling

I love to hug her in the mornin'
Physical touch is important to me in showing my affection

Kiss her till the dawnin'
I want to show her my love throughout the night

Don't you know-ow, whoa, oh
This is just how I feel, can't you understand it?

Can't you see
I wish people understood my emotions better

What she does to me?
She has a powerful effect on my feelings