The Brook Brothers

Ricky Brook, born October 24, 1940, and his brother Geoffrey, born April 12, 1943, spent roughly five years positioning themselves as Britain’s closest counterpart to the Everly Brothers between 1958 and 1963. Despite the nearly three-year age difference, the siblings deliberately cultivated matching stage images while performing skiffle together from 1956 onward, riding the wave of that peculiarly British mix of folk, blues, jazz, and rock & roll. Success in a talent contest convinced them to go professional, after which they shaped a vocal style that echoed the fast-rising Everly Brothers and, to a lesser degree, the Kalin Twins’ single “When.”

In 1960 the pair signed with Top Rank and gained notice via their cover of the Brothers Four hit “Greenfields,” which turned into a hit in Italy. Their follow-up single paired the Everly Brothers-associated tracks “Please Help Me I’m Falling” and “When Will I Be Loved?,” yet it failed to chart. Moving to Pye Records in 1961 brought them under producer Tony Hatch; their second release for the label, “Warpaint,” reached the British Top 20. They next issued a self-titled album containing renditions of “Hello Mary Lou,” “The Trolley Song,” and assorted other rock & roll and pop standards.

Tours with Cliff Richard and Bobby Rydell raised their profile at home, though, like most British acts of the era, they made no impression in America. Further modest successes arrived with “Ain’t Gonna Wash for a Week,” “He’s Old Enough to Know Better,” “Welcome Home Baby,” and “Trouble Is My Middle Name.” The brothers appeared in Richard Lester’s first feature, the lively jukebox film It’s Trad, Dad (also known as Ring-A-Ding Rhythm), where they mimed to “Double Trouble” in an elaborately filmed and edited sequence.

By mid-1963 the Liverpool beat boom spearheaded by the Beatles dominated the charts, steering the Brook Brothers toward the cabaret circuit instead. They had vanished from public view by 1965, though they left fond memories among British audiences. At the end of the 1990s Castle Music released a double-CD set compiling the duo’s complete Pye recordings together with outtakes and rarities.