(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover / Acroterion)
Mon 15 December 2025 20:15, UK
Paul Simon and Graham Nash were never strangers to a bit of tension in the studio.
They both were enamoured with getting those perfect vocal harmonies whenever they wrote their tunes, but for as harmonious as the records sounded, it only served to disguise the real problems going on underneath the surface half the time. But whether in Crosby, Stills, and Nash or Simon and Garfunkel, they could at least rely on the ear to point in the right direction whenever structuring their voices.
Before Nash even joined his supergroup, though, The Hollies had already given him a crash course of what a great rock and roll song should sound like. They were playing the same clubs that had housed the other legends of the British invasion, but in between the different imitations of rock and roll and R&B, Nash was always interested in how his vocals meshed with his bandmates whenever they sang together.
Even though harmony singing was nothing new to artists like The Beatles, Nash wasn’t going to rely on listening to doo-wop groups when structuring his voice. He was interested in those voices that made you feel something the minute that they synced up with each other, and there was nothing more pure than listening to the Everly Brothers soar whenever they sang tunes like ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream’.
Compared to every other rock and roll harmony singer, Nash was convinced there was no competition with the Everlys, saying, “My absolute favourite harmonies came from the Everly Brothers, Don and Phil. I first saw them in Manchester in 1960. Allan (Clarke) and I were determined to meet them so we waited outside the Midland Hotel until 1:20am. The lads were very accommodating to us. I have a cassette of the Evs’ singing ‘So Sad’ with me adding my harmony live on stage.”
But if Nash had to deal with three other songwriters in CSNY, Simon had his hands full a little bit more. Bands can be strange beasts to wrangle in half the time, but it’s a lot harder trying to deal with a duo of singers. Simon may have still known what made their songs like ‘The Sound of Silence’ sound absolutely beautiful, but that came from listening to people like The Everly Brothers back before the British invasion had just begun.
Back when Simon and Garfunkel were still Tom and Jerry, the Everlys were practically their musical fathers in many respects. Both duos were interested in singing close harmonies whenever they got up to the microphone, and while they each had tumultuous relationships with each other behind the scenes, Simon would have gladly listened to his idols sing in harmony for the rest of his life.
Although the Everlys veered far closer to country music half the time they sang, Simon could never get enough of listening to them even when they came out of retirement, saying, “They unpacked their guitars — those famous black guitars — and they opened their mouths and started to sing. And after all those years, it was still that sound I fell in love with as a kid. It was still perfect.”
Because the kind of chemistry that Nash and Simon fell in love with wasn’t something that the Everlys had to necessarily learn. They may have been taught how to sing together, but hearing two brothers finishing each other’s musical thoughts half the time is the kind of telepathy that most other rock and roll bands wish they could have.
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