Roy Orbison

One of the original, if not the most enthusiastic, Sun Records rockabilly artists, Roy Orbison went on to become one of the most distinctive singers in popular music. In his first peak period (1961-64), Roy Orbison vacillated between snarling blues rock and his mainstay, the romantic/paranoiac ballad with crescendoing falsetto and strings. With his twanging guitar and quavering bel canto tenor, Orbison scored a number of hits: “Only the Lonely” (#2, 1960), “Running Scared” (#1, 1961), “Crying” (#2, 1961), “Dream Baby” (#4, 1962), and “Oh, Pretty Woman” (#1, 1964). Orbison’s brooding loner persona was later given resonance by the personal tragedies that befell him (his wife Claudette was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966; two of his three children died in a fire in his Nashville home in 1968).

Orbison’s songwriting and his near-operatic singing have been a prominent influence on Bruce Springsteen, Chris Isaak, and k.d. lang, among others. His ostensibly placid, introverted demeanor was offset by his trademark “look”: sunglasses (contrary to popular belief, he was not blind), black leather, and a slicked-back black pompadour. Despite limited success through the late ’60s and ’70s, Orbison never quit, and he was in the midst of a major commercial and critical comeback when he died suddenly in 1988.

Like many other early rockers, Orbison came to rock from country music. His father played Jimmie Rodgers songs on guitar, and an uncle played the blues. By age eight, Orbison was performing on local radio shows, and while attending high school in Wink, Texas, he formed the Wink Westerners, whose repertoire consisted mainly of country and pop standards. In contrast to many early rock stars, Orbison found rock & roll relatively late in his youth, and then almost by accident. His college buddy at North Texas State College was the newly famous Pat Boone, who urged Orbison to experiment with more pop-oriented songwriting. Orbison then formed the Teen Kings from the Wink Westerners, and they recorded “Ooby Dooby.” Though Orbison would later profess a greater liking at that time for slower country material than frenetic rock, the first song he sent Sun Records’ Sam Phillips - the rocking “Ooby Dooby” - impressed Phillips and in 1956 became Orbison’s first hit (#59). The Teen Kings soon disbanded, and Orbison remained under contract to Sun as a solo artist. But future hits eluded Orbison, who was never entirely comfortable with rockabilly and was unhappy with Phillips’ direction.

Orbison then moved to Nashville, where he wrote songs for Acuff-Rose Publishing. One of his first successes was “Claudette,” named for his wife, which became a hit for the Everly Brothers. Working with producer Chet Atkins, Orbison resumed his solo career, and by 1960 had signed with Monument Records. Then came the hits, starting with “Only the Lonely,” a song originally written for the Everly Brothers. Subsequent hits included “Blue Angel” (#9, 1960), “I’m Hurtin’” (#27, 1961), “Candy Man” (#25, 1961), “The Crowd” (#26, 1962), “Leah” (#25, 1962), “In Dreams” (#7, 1963), “Falling” (#22, 1963), “Mean Woman Blues” (#5, 1963), “Blue Bayou” (#29, 1963, later covered by Linda Ronstadt), Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper” (#15, 1963), “It’s Over” (#9, 1964), “Goodnight” (#21, 1965), and “Ride Away” (#25, 1965). He cowrote virtually all of his hits and often produced them as well. Successful in the U.S., Orbison was also a smash in Britain, where in 1963 he toured with the Beatles. Orbison’s bands during the ’60s included guitarist Bobby Goldsboro and drummer Dewey Martin (later of Buffalo Springfield).

Following his wife’s death in 1966, Orbison’s career went on hold. He remarried in March 1969 and later had another son. When he returned to the U.K. in 1969, the adulation was overwhelming. Even in the late ’60s, when his popularity in the U.S. was waning, he had a monthlong run at London’s Talk of the Town club. In 1975 he released a chart-topping greatest-hits compilation.

After steady but uneventful work through the ’70s, Orbison closed the decade with an opening slot on the Eagles’ 1980 tour and a Grammy-winning duet with Emmylou Harris (1980’s “That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again”) on the Roadie soundtrack. A 1981 comeback show in New York was a great commercial and critical success. In 1982 “Oh, Pretty Woman” was a hit for Van Halen; it would be revived again as the title theme song of the 1990 hit film Pretty Woman. Orbison’s comeback began in earnest, however, when director David Lynch used the sumptuously romantic “In Dreams” in a startling scene in his film Blue Velvet. The next year, Orbison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen. The year 1987 also saw the release of In Dreams: The Greatest Hits, which presented newly recorded versions of Orbison’s classic hits, and the taping of an all-star tribute show called A Black and White Night. Taped in L.A.’s Coconut Grove nightclub, the tribute starred Orbison with all-star backing from Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, k.d. lang, Jackson Browne, Jennifer Warnes, Tom Waits, and J.D. Souther.

In 1987 Orbison’s duet remake of “Crying” with k.d. lang hit #42 on the country chart. A chance meeting with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne resulted in the formation of the extremely successful Traveling Wilburys [see entry]. At the same time, Orbison was completing work on his next solo album, Mystery Girl, which included the hit Orbison-Lynne-Petty composition “You Got It” (#9, 1989), destined to become the singer’s first Top 20 hit in 25 years. While Lynne produced that track, several other artists, including T Bone Burnett (who had produced In Dreams), Bono, Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, and Orbison lent production assistance on various cuts. In addition, Bono and the Edge composed “She’s a Mystery to Me.”

Orbison was on the brink of a major comeback when he died suddenly of a heart attack. The posthumously released Mystery Girl (#5, 1989) became the highest-charting album of his career and was eventually certified platinum. In the wake of Orbison’s passing, a number of compilations and a collection of previously unreleased tracks (King of Hearts) were released.

from the Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)