Though half the tunes on Don and Phil Everly's fourth album were penned by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (the hitmeisters who'd already provided the Everlys with huge hits like "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Bye Bye Love"), A Date with The Everly Brothers finds the Everlys asserting both their own identity and their eclecticism more than ever before. The duo were the first to record the heart-rending ballad "Love Hurts," one of the greatest songs either they or the Bryants ever touched; this version set the standard for all that followed. Meanwhile, the boys also tackle everything from hard-edged blues (Jimmy Reed's classic "Baby What You Want Me to Do") to gentle ballads ("Always It's You") and contribute several of their own songs. The most powerful of these (and one of the most stirring in the entire Everly Brothers catalog) is the closing cut, "Cathy's Clown." The first Don/Phil cowrite on an Everlys album, it finds the duo graduating from teen pathos to a more mature longing, matched with melodic brilliance.