McCartney had previously shown his affection for the Everly Brothers when he wrote a song for the siblings to sing in the early Eighties. The track, “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” was the first track on the duo’s 1984 album EB84, their first record of new material after an 11-year break. The Beatle played guitar on the recording, and the single ended up reaching Number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. It spent three months on the charts.
Author Mark Lewisohn documented the Beatles’ interest in the Everlys in his recent book Tune In. CNN found an entry in which the group, who had just added George Harrison, reacted to hearing the Everly Brothers’ “All You Have to Do Is Dream” in 1958. “When we first heard it, it blew us away,” McCartney said.