Felice and Boudleaux Bryant

[3][4] Felice was born in Milwaukee in 1925 to an ethnic Sicilian family, and had written lyrics set to traditional Italian tunes.

[5] In 1945, Bryant met the 19 year-old Matilda Genevieve Scaduto (whom he called Felice), when he was performing at the Schroeder Hôtel, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, her home town, where she was working as an elevator operator.

During the first years of their marriage, the Bryants struggled financially, living in a mobile home, where they wrote more than 80 songs.

7 on the country chart in 1948 and opened the door to a working relationship with Fred Rose at Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville, Tennessee.

Beginning in 1957, the Bryants came to national prominence in both country and pop music when they wrote a string of very successful songs for the Everly Brothers[1] and hits for other singers such as Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly.

Their compositions were recorded by many artists from a variety of musical genres, including Lynn Anderson, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Sonny James, Eddy Arnold, Bob Moore, Charley Pride, Nazareth, Jim Reeves, Leo Sayer, Jerry Lee Lewis, Simon & Garfunkel, Sarah Vaughan, The Grateful Dead, Elvis Costello, Count Basie, Dean Martin, Ray Charles, Gram Parsons, Joan Jett, and Bob Dylan.

In 1962, The Bryants wrote "Too Many Chicks," a song that became a hit for Leona Douglas, the first African-American woman to record as a country music singer.

[7] The Bryants eventually moved to a house not far from Nashville on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee, near friends Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash.

They purchased the Rocky Top Village Inn in the town next to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.