Foreverly by Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones - An Unusual Pairing, an Interesting Concept, and a Lovely Outcome

Have you ever had of an artist/band collaboration that took you by surprise? Once example for me was when I came across Foreverly by Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones. This album came out in 2013 so this isn’t anything new, but I was reminded of it the other day and really started to think about the concept.

I remember randomly coming across this album in 2013 and honestly chose it simply because it seemed so unusual. I mean think about punk rocker Billie Joe Armstrong and jazz singer-songwriter Norah Jones making a tribute album to The Everly Brothers. When I think of Billie Joe Armstrong, I think of the eyeliner wearing, Green Day punk rocker jumping around and rocking out to American Idiot. And when I think of Norah Jones, I think of smooth romantic jazz lyrics being sung alongside a piano. Then to think that The Everly Brothers were a country-rock duo from the 50s and 60s makes it even more interesting.

For some background, The Everly Brothers were actual brothers, Don Everly and Phil Everly, who grew up in a musical family and started playing music very early on with their parents as The Everly Family. In the 1950s the brothers soon started to get attention from the RCA Victor studios manger, Chet Atkins, and would eventually move to Nashville, Tennessee once they completed high school. From there they started to record music, sign with different companies and eventually even toured with Buddy Holly. They became a very famous duo in the 1950s and 1960s but would start to slow down once the 1970s hit. The Everly Brothers have been recognized as influences to big groups such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Simon & Garfunkel.

The idea for the Foreverly album came to Billie Joe after he had been on an Everly Brothers kick. He wanted to do a reinterpretation of The Everly Brother’s album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us because he felt the album needed more recognition and decided he wanted a woman vocalist to join him to add a bit of a twist to it. That’s where he brought in Norah Jones, whom he met through Stevie Wonder. She was on board with the idea and eventually they met up to record. Billie Joe has stated that him and Norah hadn’t really worked much together before this so at first it took them a bit to get comfortable but once they had the first song down, they knew it was going to turn out great.

In my opinion, the album turned out amazing. Listening to it gives you a nostalgic yet soothing feeling. When I listen to it, I feel like I am cozied up sharing old stories with my grandparents or sitting outside on a front porch sipping sweet tea in a rocking chair. The folk melodies and the lovely harmonization of Billie Joe and Norah’s vocals really pull the whole album together. His edgy sound and her smooth voice really balance each other out to create a perfect pairing. It’s funny because before ever listening to this album, I only ever listened to Billie Joe Armstrong in Green Day so I would have to sometimes sit back and remind myself that I was in fact listening to the same person sing these songs with Norah Jones. As for Norah, the album isn’t as big of a difference from her normal stuff as it is with Billie Joe, but it is different to hear her in that folk music genre and see how much more her vocals and style are capable of.

When talking about his opinion of the album, Will Hermes from Rolling Stone said "Just when you thought Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong couldn't commit a worse punk heresy than doing a Broadway musical, boo-yah! Here's a set of folk duets with the velvet-voiced Norah Jones.” Honestly, that quote right there sums up what probably a lot of people were thinking when they heard about this project coming from Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this album and it made me excited to see artists step outside their usual genres and come together to create such a lovely tribute piece to such an underrated duo. As for the concept of the album itself, it makes me hopeful that other artists will continue to bring back older songs as tributes and give them a new life for the younger generations to not only enjoy, but learn a little more about the influences behind them.

I highly recommend you give this album a listen. Maybe you will be surprised like I was or maybe you will simply enjoy the beautiful folk duets as a soothing part of your day.

What are some artists collaborations that have taken you by surprise? Let me know in the comments!