DHAKA: US musician Phil Everly, one half of the Everly Brothers, has died, aged 74, in California, his family says.

Everly died in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank of complications from lung disease, his wife, Patti, told the Los Angeles Times.

"We are absolutely heartbroken," she said, adding that the disease was the result of a lifetime of smoking, reports BBC.

Phil Everly and his brother Don made up the Everly Brothers, one of the biggest pop acts of the 1950s and early 1960s.

They had a string of close-harmony hits including Wake Up Little Suzie, Cathy`s Clown, Bye Bye Love, and All I Have To Do Is Dream.

"It`s a terrible, terrible loss - for me, for everybody," US rock pioneer Duane Eddy, a friend of Everly, told BBC Radio 5live.

BDST: 1304 HRS, JAN 04 , 2014
RS