Everly Brothers – "Ebony Eyes" (1961)

The plane was way overdue

So I went inside to the airline’s desk and I said,

“Sir, I wonder why flight 1203 is so late?”

Hmmmm.  

I suppose it’s possible that flight 1203 is late because there was bad weather that delayed its departure, or because there was a minor mechanical problem that had to be fixed prior to takeoff.

But I’m guessing there’s more to it than that.  

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My local cable TV provider offers no fewer than 50 “Music Choice” channels, all of which offer nothing but music – there are no announcers and no commercials.

There’s a classic rock channel, a classic country channel, a metal channel, an alternative channel, an EDM channel, a reggae channel, a contemporary Christian music channel, a classical music channel, and several hip-hop and R&B channels – not to mention the “Teen Pop” channel:

The TV in the weight room at my local community center is usually tuned to the “Solid Gold Oldies” channel when I go there to pump some iron.  Whoever programs that channel plays a wide variety of records – not just the most familiar hits.  (By contrast, the “Sixties on 6” channel on Sirius/XM satellite radio seems to play the same songs over and over.)

Today’s featured song was a #8 hit in 1961 for the Everly Brothers.  But I don’t recall ever hearing it until I heard it while I was lifting weights last week.

I knew almost immediately that “Ebony Eyes” wasn’t going to have a happy ending, and I was right.  (Spoiler alert!)

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The narrator of “Ebony Eyes” is a young soldier who wants to tie the knot with his high-school sweetheart.  A weekend pass wouldn’t give him enough time to get home and marry her, so the chaplain agrees to officiate at their nuptials if she flies to where he’s stationed.

The soldier goes to the local airport to pick up his betrothed, but her flight is late.  The ticket agent tells him not to worry, and he settles down in the gate area to wait for her to arrive.

But then there’s an announcement over the airport public-address system: those who have relatives or friends on flight number 1203 are told to report to the chapel.

The soldier knows that means bad news:

Then I felt a burning break deep inside

And I knew the heavenly ebony skies

Had taken my life’s most wonderful prize

My beautiful Ebony Eyes

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Teenage death songs were quite popular in the fifties and sixties.  

There was “Endless Sleep” by Jody Reynolds, Johnny Preston’s “Running Bear,” Mark Dinning’s “Teen Angel,” Ray Peterson’s “Tell Laura I Love Her,” “Leader of the Pack” by the Shangri-Las, and “Last Kiss” by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers – each of which was a top ten hit between 1958 and 1964.  

Most of the victims in those songs – which are sometimes referred to as “splatter platters” – died in automobile or motorcycle accidents.  “Ebony Eyes” is the only teenage death record I’m aware of that involved a fatal airplane crash.  

Besides being a top ten single in the U.S., “Ebony Eyes” made it to the #1 spot in the UK – even though the BBC initially refused to play it to avoid upsetting listeners.

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“Ebony Eyes” was written by the late John D. Loudermilk, a very successful American songwriter whose output was quite eclectic.

Loudermilk’s best-known song may be “Break My Mind,” which was first recorded by country-western singer George Hamilton IV and later covered by a host of other artists, including Glen Campbell, Sammy Davis Jr., Crystal Gayle, Jerry Lee Lewis, Anne Murray, Roy Orbison, and the Flying Burrito Brothers.  (You can click here to listen to Linda Ronstadt’s version.)  

John D. Loudermilk in 1961

Loudermilk’s “Indian Reservation” was a #1 hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1971.  He once told a radio interviewer that he wrote that song at the request of a Cherokee chief named Bloody Bear Tooth, whose people had taken Loudermilk in when he was stranded during a blizzard – but he was just pulling the dude’s leg. 

Loudermilk also wrote the garage-rocky “Tobacco Road” for the Nashville Teens – one of my personal favorites from 1964 – and “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” a lush ballad that was a pop hit for both the Casinos and a country hit for Eddy Arnold.  It’s hard to believe that the same guy wrote two such dissimilar songs.

Click here to listen to “Ebony Eyes,” which was not one of Loudermilk’s better efforts.  

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: