Roy Orbison - "Only The Lonely", charted #1, 1960

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his powerful voice, wide vocal range, impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. The combination led many critics to describe his music as operatic, nicknaming him "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O". While most male rock-and-roll performers in the 1950s and 1960s projected a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed vulnerability. His voice ranged from baritone to tenor, and music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. During performances, he was known for standing still and solitary, and for wearing black clothes, to match his dyed jet-black hair and dark sunglasses, which lent an air of mystery to his persona.

Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band in high school. He was signed by Sam Phillips, of Sun Records, in 1956, but his greatest success came with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of his singles reached the Billboard Top 40, and he wrote or co-wrote almost all that rose to the Top 10, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). Soon afterward, Orbison was struck by a number of personal tragedies while his record sales declined. In the 1980s, he experienced a resurgence in popularity through the success of several cover versions of his songs, and in 1988, co-founded the Traveling Wilburys, a rock supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. He died of a heart attack later that year, at the age of 52. One month later, his song "You Got It" (1989), co-written with Lynne and Petty, was released as a solo single and became his first to break the U.S. Top 10 in 25 years.

His honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the same year, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 13 on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time'. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.

In high school, Orbison and some friends formed a band, the Wink Westerners. They played country standards and Glenn Miller songs at local honky-tonks and had a weekly radio show on KERB in Kermit. When they were offered $400 to play at a dance, Orbison realized that he could make a living in music. After graduating from Wink High School, he enrolled at North Texas State College in Denton, planning to study geology so that he could secure work in the oil fields if music did not pay.[15] Orbison heard that his North Texas State schoolmate Pat Boone had signed a record deal, which further strengthened his resolve to become a professional musician. While at North Texas State College, Roy heard a song called "Ooby Dooby", composed by Dick Penner and Wade Moore in mere minutes atop a fraternity house at the college, and after his first year of college, he returned to Wink with "Ooby Dooby" in hand and continued performing with the Wink Westerners. Orbison moved to Odessa, Texas, and enrolled in Odessa Junior College. As two members of the band quit, one to attend school elsewhere and one to join the Navy, two new members were added to the group who won a talent contest and obtained their own television show on KMID-TV in Midland, Texas. The Wink Westerners kept performing on local TV, played dances on the weekends, and attended college during the day.

While living in Odessa, Orbison saw a performance by Elvis Presley, who was only a year older and a rising star. Johnny Cash toured the area in 1955 and 1956, appearing on the same local TV show as the Wink Westerners, and suggested that Orbison approach Sam Phillips at Sun Records, the home of rockabilly artists Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis (in late 1956), and Cash. Orbison telephoned Phillips and during their conversation was curtly told, "Johnny Cash doesn't run my record company!"

The success of their KMID television show got them another show on KOSA-TV, and they changed their name to the Teen Kings as they were appealing more and more to a younger audience. Due to the initial rejection from Sam Phillips, the Teen Kings recorded "Ooby Dooby" for the Odessa-based Je–Wel label. According to the official Roy Orbison discography by Marcel Riesco this was the first release by Orbison in March 1956. Phillips was impressed with the song, after the local record store owner Poppa Holifield played it for him over the telephone, and offered the Teen Kings a contract in 1956.

Orbison was one of the first recording artists to popularize the "Nashville sound", doing so with a group of session musicians known as the A-Team: guitarists Grady Martin, Harold Bradley, Fred Carter, Jr., and Ray Edenton; bassist Bob Moore; pianists Floyd Cramer or Hargus "Pig" Robbins; drummer Buddy Harman; and backup vocals by the Jordanaires or the Anita Kerr Singers. The Nashville sound was developed by producers Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley (who worked closely with Patsy Cline), Sam Phillips, and Fred Foster. In his first session for Monument in Nashville, Orbison recorded a song that RCA had refused, "Paper Boy", backed by "With the Bug", but neither charted.

According to musician and author Albin Zak, the studio (with sound engineer Bill Porter, who experimented with close miking the doo-wop backing singers), the production by Foster, and the accompanying musicians gave Orbison's music a "polished, professional sound ... finally allow[ing] Orbison's stylistic inclinations free rein". To augment the Nashville sound, Orbison requested a string section in the studio. With this combination, he recorded three new songs, the most notable of which was "Uptown", written with Joe Melson. Impressed with the results, Melson later recalled, "We stood in the studio, listening to the playbacks, and thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world." The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll states that the music Orbison made in Nashville "brought a new splendor to rock", and compared the melodramatic effects of the orchestral accompaniment to the musical productions of Phil Spector.

"Uptown" reached only number 72 on the Billboard Top 100, and Orbison set his sights on negotiating a contract with an upscale nightclub somewhere. His initial success came just as the '50s rock-and-roll era was winding down. Elvis Presley was serving in the US Army, Jerry Lee Lewis had become disgraced after marrying his 13-year-old cousin, and Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash. Starting in 1960, the charts in the United States came to be dominated by teen idols, novelty acts, and Motown girl groups.

"Running Scared", charted #3, 1961

"Blue Bayou", charted #3, 1963

"Working For The Man", charted #50 in US and #1 in Australia, 1962

 

 

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