About The Song
I Wonder If I Care as Much by The Everly Brothers arrived quietly in March 1957 as the B-side to their breakout single “Bye Bye Love” on Cadence Records. Cut on the very same day—March 1—at RCA Victor’s studio in Nashville during the session that launched their career, the track rode along on the wave of that monster hit, which shot to No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart and No. 1 on the country side. While the A-side got all the headlines, this flip side still earned steady radio play and became a familiar presence for anyone who flipped the 45 over. It later landed as track eight on the brothers’ self-titled debut album, released in January 1958, an LP that climbed to No. 16 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Pop LPs chart and helped cement their place as the new harmony kings of teen pop.
Don Everly wrote the song himself (sometimes credited to both brothers), one of the early originals they slipped onto a record otherwise packed with Bryant tunes and covers. It’s a short, sharp two-minute reflection on heartbreak that has already started to lose its sting: the singer wonders out loud whether he still cares as much as he did the night before, drying his eyes and facing another day. The original version keeps that bright, up-tempo energy the Everlys were known for in 1957, the kind of side that sounded just right on jukeboxes and car radios even if it never became the main event.
What makes the story interesting is what happened more than a decade later. In 1968, with their Warner Bros. years winding down and the brothers going through one of their rougher patches, they decided to revisit the song for their album Roots. This time they slowed it way down, wrapped it in dreamy reverb, fuzz guitar, and a much more fragile, introspective feel. Producer Lenny Waronker later recalled the tension in the studio—Phil was deep into Italian ballads, Don was “the scary one,” and at one point they both hated how the track turned out. Yet that 1968 version has aged into something special, now often praised as part of one of the first great country-rock records. Don kept the song close after the duo split, pulling it out for solo shows long afterward.
A set of Don’s original handwritten lyrics for the track even turned up years later at auction, a small keepsake from the very first burst of success. Alternate takes from that 1957 Nashville session have surfaced too, showing how quickly the brothers nailed the harmony on the spot.
Video
Lyric
I Wonder If I Care As Much
As I did before……..
Last night I cried myself to sleep
For the one that makes me weep,
I dried my eyes to greet the day,
And wondered why I have to pay.
The tears that I have shed by day
Give relief and wash away,
The mem´ry of the life before,
I wonder if I´ll suffer more.
I Wonder If I Care As Much
As I did before……..
My pride is made to say forgive,
and take the blame for what you did,
It´s your mistake I´m thinkin´ of,
I wonder if I´m still in love.
My heart can´t thrive on misery,
My life it has no destiny,
When things get more
Than I can bear,
I ask myself ´Do I still care?´
I Wonder If I Care As Much
As I did before……..