Which Everly Brothers song inspired Neil Young to write “Harvest Moon”?

June 19, 2024

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Wed 19 June 2024 19:45, United Kingdom

The title song of Neil Young’s 1992 album Harvest Moon has to be a high point of the singer-songwriter’s output in his later years. In this gentle ode to a late summer evening, Young reunites with singer Linda Ronstadt, who is featured prominently on his 1972 LP harvestfor some heavenly background harmonies.

But it owes even more to a few former harmony players in the form of brothers Don and Phil Everly. Young bases “Harvest Moon” on a lilting acoustic guitar lick that is as pretty as it is simple, without which the background vocals of Ronstadt and Ben Keith would not have much traction.

This riff comes straight from the Italian jazz riff that catapulted the Everly Brothers to the top of the UK charts for a third time in 1961. While most people his age might only know the brothers’ two best-known songs, “Bye Bye Love” and “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” Young is obviously familiar with their entire catalog.

The song in particular that caught his eye is “Walk Right Back,” which starts with a nearly identical guitar riff to the one he plays on “Harvest Moon” before a piano comes in and plays the same chords. Young shortens the riff only slightly, holding a third chord, while “Walk Right Back” fluctuates between a third and a second before returning to the base chord.

Were the Everly Brothers credited for Young’s song?

The practice of stealing bits and pieces from other people’s songs has been around since music was invented, so Young’s decision to incorporate an Everly Brothers hook he liked into one of his songs is hardly worth a shared songwriting credit. Additionally, the melody and song structure of “Harvest Moon” and “Walk Right Back” are noticeably different, even though the songs share the same basic guitar hook and some of the same chord pattern.

In addition, Don and Phil Everly are not listed as songwriters on “Walk Right Back.” The duo did not write their own songs, although they played guitar on the single.

The song’s composer was actually Sonny Curtis, a guitarist in Buddy Holly’s band, the Crickets. Curtis is also the songwriter of “I Fought the Law,” a song by the Crickets released after Holly’s death. It was then covered by the Bobby Fuller Four and, more famously, by The Clash.

In an interview with the International Songwriters Association, Curtis explained that the hook that Neil Young later used on “Harvest Moon” came to him some time before he wrote the song. “I’d had the guitar riff for a while,” he said. When he went to a recording session with the Crickets in Hollywood, the Everly Brothers happened to be there and he played them his new song.

“Don called Phil and they worked out a beautiful harmony part,” Curtis recalled. He had only written one verse for the song and promised the brothers a second one so they could record it. The next morning he received a message saying they had recorded the song anyway, simply repeating the first verse, and it was already on its way to the radio stations.

It took Young a little longer to write and record his song between the fall and winter of 1991, but the gorgeous vocals and Ben Keith’s wonderful embellishments on the pedal steel guitar were definitely worth the wait.