Felice & Boudleaux Bryant: A Weekend Playlist

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When I first started digging into the Great American Songbook, it seemed every other song I learned on guitar or ukulele bore the same prosaic credit: “F. + B. Bryant”. I discovered that it stood for the much more exotic names Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, a married couple who went from peddling songs out of their mobile home to the very peak of Nashville songwriting in the 1950s.

And it turned out their names were even more extravagant than that. She was born Matilda Genevieve Scaduto, an Italian girl from Milwaukee. He was born Diadorius Boudleaux Bryant to an aristocratic Old South family in Georgia. His parents wanted him to play violin in the symphony. He wanted to saw the fiddle in a country band.

When his combo took him through Milwaukee, 19-year-old Matilda was working the elevator in their hotel. She “recognized” 24-year-old Boudleaux as the man she’d been dreaming of all her life. He nicknamed her Felice, and it stuck. They eloped two days later, and stayed married for more than 40 years, until his death in 1987.

With a dramatic story like that, no wonder they were able to channel such yearning and joy in their songs. You may never have heard of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, but if you’ve ever had ears, you’ve heard their songs. Here are 12 of the best, also compiled in a YouTube playlist.

The Everly Brothers - “All I Have to Do is Dream” (1958)
The Bryants found their greatest commercial success with the two dozen or so songs they wrote for the Everly Brothers - and, if you ask me, their greatest artistic success with this winsome masterpiece. Word is that Boudleaux wrote it for Felice.

Leona Douglas - “Too Many Chicks” (1962)
This Leona Douglas record has been called the first country recording by an African-American woman. Personally, I can’t hear what makes it any more country than any other early '60s pop-r&b number. And personally, I don’t care. It’s all American music.

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris - “Love Hurts” (1973)
Tough call between the Everlys’ original, the razor-lunged Nazareth cover, or this take. It’s nigh impossible to record a bad version of this aching plaint, which is all the more amazing since Felice & Boudleaux didn’t seem to be drawing from any actual heartache in their lifelong happy marriage.

The Osborne Brothers - “Rocky Top” (1967)
The famed University of Tennessee fight song, and probably the only college fight song with lyrics as clever as “That’s why all the folks on Rocky Top get their corn from a jar”.

Robert Wyatt - “Raining in My Heart” (2003)
The British prog/jazz/art godfather paid his respects to the Bryants with a straight instrumental piano version of this Buddy Holly hit, putting all the focus on its exquisite melody.

Ray Charles - “Bye Bye Love” (1962)
More brassy “country” as Ray swings through his version of another Everlys classic.

Little Jimmy Dickens - “Country Boy” (1948)
No finger-quotes necessary this time. The Bryants’ first songwriting success is pure 100% corn and I don’t mean that as an insult.

Fairport Convention - “Some Sweet Day” (1969)
Folk-rock longhairs were just as susceptible to the Bryants’ charms as pompadoured Nashville crooners. Slide guitar meets pop-psychedelic bounce.

Red Foley - “Midnight” (1952)
The Bryants could do shadowy and bluesy, too, as on this wee-small-hours stroller written with Chet Atkins.

Suzi Quatro - “Wake Up Little Susie” (1976)
Rock ‘n’ roll may have gotten louder and heavier, but the Bryants’ classic songs still fit right in.

Charley Pride - “We Could” (1974)
The Bryants’ ode to their love gets a heartfelt interpretation by Charley Pride, 20 years after they wrote it.

The Everly Brothers - “Radio & TV” (1964)
Yes, the Everly Brothers get two entries on the list, and limiting it to two is an act of heroic restraint on my part. I picked this one, instead of another one of the big hits, to show how catchy and clever even little-remembered Felice & Boudleaux Bryant songs can be.

The Bryants wrote a lot of great songs, but they didn’t write them all. Hear more in our past weekend playlists: