Roy Orbison

Born Apr 23, 1936 in Vernon, TX Died Dec 6, 1988 in Madison, TN Styles Rock & Roll, Rockabilly, Pop, Pop/Rock Biography Although he shared the same rockabilly roots as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison went on to pioneer an entirely different brand of country/pop-based rock & roll in the early ’60s. What he lacked in charisma and photogenic looks, Orbison made up for in spades with his quavering operatic voice and melodramatic narratives of unrequited love and yearning. In the process, he established rock & roll archetypes of the underdog and the hopelessly romantic loser. These were not only amplified by peers such as Del Shannon and Gene Pitney, but also influenced future generations of roots rockers such as Bruce Springsteen and Chris Isaak, as well as modern country stars the Mavericks. Orbison made his first widely distributed recordings for Sun Records in 1956. Roy was a capable rockabilly singer, and had a small national hit with his first Sun single, «Ooby Dooby». But even then, he was far more comfortable as a ballad singer than as a hepped-up rockabilly jive cat. Other Sun singles met with no success, and by the late ’50s he was concentrating primarily on building a career as a songwriter, his biggest early success being «Claudette» (recorded by the Everly Brothers). After a brief, unsuccessful stint with RCA, Orbison finally found his voice with Monument Records, scoring a number-two hit in 1960 with «Only the Lonely». This established the Roy Orbison persona for good: a brooding rockaballad of failed love with a sweet, haunting melody, enhanced by his Caruso-like vocal trills at the song’s emotional climax. These and his subsequent Monument hits also boasted innovative, quasi-symphonic production, with Roy’s voice and guitar backed by surging strings, ominous drum rolls, and heavenly choirs of backup vocalists. Between 1960 and 1965, Orbison would have 15 Top 40 hits for Monument, including such nail-biting mini-dramas as «Running Scared», «Crying», «In Dreams», and «It’s Over». Not just a singer of tear-jerking ballads, he was also capable of effecting a tough, bluesy swagger on «Dream Baby», «Candy Man», and «Mean Woman Blues». In fact, his biggest and best hit was also his hardest-rocking: «Oh, Pretty Woman» soared to number one in late 1964, at the peak of the British Invasion. It seemed at that time that Roy was well-equipped to survive the British onslaught of the mid-’60s. He had even toured with the Beatles in Britain in 1963, and John Lennon has admitted to trying to emulate Orbison when writing the Beatles’ first British chart-topper, «Please Please Me». But Orbison’s fortunes declined rapidly after he left Monument for MGM in 1965. It would be easy to say that the major label couldn’t replicate the unique production values of the classic Monument singles, but that’s only part of the story. Roy, after all, was still writing most of his material, and his early MGM records were produced in a style that closely approximated the Monument era. The harder truth to face was that his songs were starting to sound like lesser variations of themselves, and that contemporary trends in rock and soul were making him sound outdated. Orbison, like many early rock greats, could always depend on large overseas audiences to pay the bills. The two decades between the mid-’60s and mid-’80s were undeniably tough ones for him, though, both personally and professionally. A late-’60s stab at acting failed miserably. In 1966, his wife died in a motorcycle accident; a couple of years later, his house burned down, two of his sons perishing in the flames. Periodic comeback attempts with desultory albums in the 1970s came to naught.

Orbison’s return to the public eye came about through unexpected circumstances. In the mid-’80s, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet film prominently featured «In Dreams» on its soundtrack. That led to the singer making an entire album of re-recordings of hits, with T-Bone Burnett acting as producer. The record was no substitute for the originals, but it did help restore him to prominence within the industry. Shortly afterward, he joined George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys. Their successful album set the stage for Orbison’s best album in over 20 years, Mystery Girl, which emulated the sound of his classic ’60s work without sounding hackneyed. By the time it reached the charts in early 1989, however, Orbison was dead, claimed by a heart attack in December 1988. Discography (albums) 1961 At the Rockhouse 1961 Sings Lonely and Blue 1962 Crying 1963 In Dreams [Columbia] 1963 In Dreams [Monument] 1964 Roy Orbison Sings 1964 Exciting Sounds 1964 Special Delivery 1964 Oh Pretty Woman [London] 1965 There Is Only One 1966 Orbisongs 1966 Orbison Way 1967 Cry Softly, Lonely One 1967 Sings Don Gibson 1968 The Fastest Guitar Alive 1969 Many Moods of Roy Orbison 1969 Roy Orbison’s Many Moods 1970 Big O 1971 Hank Williams the Roy Orbison Way 1972 Sings 1973 Memphis 1974 Milestones 1976 I’m Still in Love with You 1976 An Original [Pair] 1976 Focus on Roy Orbison 1977 Regeneration 1979 Laminar Flow 1983 Big O Country 1989 You Got It 1989 A Black & White Night Live 1989 Our Love Song 1989 Mystery Girl 1992 I Drove All Night 2002 Love Songs [EMI] 2002 Love Album 2003 Ballads 2003 Crying [Mono] 2003 Crying [Stereo] 2003 Oh Pretty Woman & I Like Love 2003 Pretty Woman 2003 Orbison Over England: The Sixties May 9th… [live] 2003 Orbison Over England: The Seventies October… [live] 2003 Orbison Over England: The Eighties March 25… [live]