The Everly Brothers-aka Don and Phil to fans with an intimate appreciation for them-seemed to exist almost as an apparition. Emerging within the formative era for young Baby Boomer during the blandly regimented '50s, they were a ubiquitous presence, clad in snug suits and skinny ties, hair neatly Brylcreemed, never raising their voices when they sang. The two prim-looking country boys with dark, curiously penetrating eyes and perfectly merged, honey-dipped harmonies, were oddly but comfortably settled as sentimental, soothing, sometimes lovelorn voices of a still-uncharted cultural turf.

Magnificent as the duo was, they have until now never received a definitive biography. In Long Time Gone: The Perfect Harmony and Imperfect Lives Of the Everly Brothers, the details, small and great, roll along on the mighty "Mississipp," in near novel-like fashion, revealing facts drawn from exhaustive research and first-hand interviews that trace the character and influences of these hardy but flawed men who grew from teenagers to old men before our eyes. Mark Ribowsky's authoritative book serves as a fitting companion to an unforgettable collection of songs-heard on countless albums, and covered literally thousands of times-whose recording was a long time gone but that will never to be forgotten.