When I was in 7th grade, two events occurred which have loomed large in the history of the 20th Century: In November of 1963, President John F Kennedy was assassinated, and in February 1964, just a month after I Wanna Hold your Hand became the number one pop song in America, the Beatles made their initial appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Beatlemania had arrived.

Like many who were teenagers when the Beatles first became popular, my favorite Beatles are Lennon and McCartney, but probably for reasons far different than most people who would pick them as their favorites.  I'm not a diehard fan of the Beatles, though their 1964 recordings of I Wanna Hold your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There were the first songs, as a 13 year old, I can consciously remember singing and dancing to at my first jr. high dance. The wonder of the discovery that a teenage girl could be an object of desire, will for me, be forever linked to those two songs. So I can't totally dismiss the Beatles; I did eventually win one of those objects of my desire and have managed to hold on to her for 35 years. Ah, but I digress...

Lennon and McCartney were the singers in the Beatles, and it is their singing style, more importantly their vocal influences that draw me to them. In my heart, I am lost in the high lonesome vocals and the frenetic beat of the music of an American musical genius, Bill Monroe and his self invented bluegrass music. I love his music on a multitude of levels and am fascinated by the influence which this singular, aloof Kentuckian has had on American musical culture. Virtually every aspect of Rock 'n Roll and all the derivatives descended it have been profoundly influenced by the music of Bill Monroe. It is a subject worthy of a serious analytical effort, but for today, I'll just explore the influence on the Beatles which Bill Monroe had— although, there is no evidence I have found that leads me to believe they were even aware of Bluegrass Music, and were therefore surely unaware of the influence this uniquely American music had on their own.

Lennon and McCartney were keenly aware however, of two young  Kentuckians who preceded them in the music business by a decade: Don and Phil, the Everly Brothers. These two brothers perfected a vocal styling and harmony arrangement that was consciously and deliberately copied by the Beatles as their own, and was just as deliberately copied by the Everly Brothers from the great brother duets of southern rural music who preceded them, chief among them,  Charlie Monroe and his younger brother Bill. 

That the Everly brothers influenced The Beatles cannot be disputed. The Beatles themselves have acknowledged it: Of I Saw Her Standing There Lennon later observed "We were just writing songs a la the Everly Brothers a la Buddy Holly..."

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/ten_great_beatles_moments.php

As a duet, Charlie Monroe sang the lead and Bill sang a harmony part, usually a third above, sometimes soaring to a fifth above, what in Bluegrass we call the high Baritone. The Everly Brothers followed this classic bluegrass harmony structure, Lead sung by Don, Tenor, a third above sung by Phil, It is no secret that Lennon and McCartney copied this structure.


"Lennon and McCartney consciously copied Don and Phil Everly's distinctive two-part harmonies. Their vocals on two recordings, Love Me Do and Please Please Me were inspired by the Everlys' powerful vocal innovation on Cathy's Clown,  (1960) the first recording to ever reach number one simultaneously in the USA and England. Two of Us the opening track on Let It Be is overtly composed in the Everly style and McCartney acknowledges this in the recording with a spoken, 'Take it Phil.' "

http://www.liverpoolcityportal.co.uk/beatles/beatles_influences.html 

So the influence of the Everly Brothers is clear.—but were the Everlys influenced by Bill Monroe? Absolutely!
Ricky Skaggs, in Bill Monroe, The Father of Bluegrass Music is described as "convincingly traces the vocal harmonies of Monroe's early bands through the Delmore Brothers, The Blue Sky boys and the and the Louvin Brothers to the Everly Brothers, 
http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Monroe-Father-Bluegrass-Music/dp/B00000IREE


And in the New World Encyclopedia, Monroe is cited as having "influenced musicians as diverse as the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, George Jones Emmy Lou Harris, Dolly Parton and Jerry Garcia.
So there you have it easily verifiable proof of the Monroe's influence on the Everly Brothers and their influence on the Beatles.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bill_Monroe

But Bill Monroe had some pretty profound influences on other aspects of modern popular music. In Texas, at about the same time the Everly Brothers were copying his vocal style, a skinny dark haired boy with thick glasses, was running around his home town performing in his own bluegrass band, featuring  banjo and mandolin,  and singing in the high keening and hiccupping style often used by Monroe. 


He was of course Buddy Holly, but that is the subject for another post.