Roy Orbison

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Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and performer known for his vivacious performing style, intricate song arrangements, and tumultuous emotional ballads.

Many commentators characterized his opera as operatic, nicknaming him "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O."

Although most male rock-and-roll acts in the 1950s and 1960s predicted a male defiant masculinity, several of Orbison's songs displayed vulnerability.

He stood around in black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses. Orbison began singing in a high school rockabilly and country-and-western band.

In 1956, Sam Phillips, a Sun Records singer, was signed to him, but Monument Records saw his best success.

"Only the Lonely" (1960), "In Dreams" (1961), "Molly" (1961), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). 22 of his singles made it to the Billboard Top 40 from 1960 to 1966, and he wrote or co-wrote almost all of those that made it to the Top ten, including "Under Fire" (1961).

He was struck by a string of personal tragedies shortly afterward, just as his record sales plummeted. Following the success of several cover versions of Orbison's hits in the 1980s, the band saw a revival in fame.

With George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys, a rock supergroup.

Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988 at the age of 52.

Orbison's album "You Got It" (1989), co-written with Lynne and Petty, was released as a solo single and became the first American Top ten in nearly 25 years. Orbison's awards include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014.

Rolling Stone ranked him at 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" and number 13.

Orbison was ranked at number 74 in the top 200 recording artists in 2002 by Billboard magazine.

Early life

Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas, the middle son of nurse Nadine Shults (1913-1992), and Orbie Lee Orbison (1913–1984), an oil-well driller and car mechanic. The family migrated to Fort Worth in 1942 to find jobs in the aircraft factories, according to Authorized Roy Orbison. He attended Denver Avenue Elementary School until a polio scare prompted the family to return to Vernon.

On his sixth birthday, Orbison's father bought him a guitar. By the time he was 7, he recalled, "I was finished, you know, for something else"; and music became the focus of his life. Country music was his main musical influence as a youth. During his stay with the Traveling Wilburys, he was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzell's singing with its slurred syllables, and he went by the name "Lefty Wilbury." Hank Williams, Moon Mullican, and Jimmie Rodgers all enjoyed them. Ernest Tubb, one of the first musicians to perform live in Fort Worth, was one of the first performers to hear live. He was introduced to rhythm and blues in West Texas, Tex-Mex, Mantovani's orchestral arrangements, and Cajun music. "Jole Blon" was one of the first songs he performed in public, and it was one of the cajun favorites. He started playing on a local radio show at the age of 8, and by the late 1940s, he was the show's host by the late 1940s.

According to The Authorized Roy Orbison, the family moved back to Wink, Texas, in 1946. Orbison characterized life in Wink as "football, oil fields, oil, grease, and sand" and expressed sadness that he was able to leave the desolate town. All Orbison children had poor eyesight, and Roy used thick corrective lenses from an early age. When he was still young, he was hypersensitive about his appearance and began dying his almost-white hair black. He was quiet, self-effacing, and incredibly polite and obliging. He was always keen to sing, but not good.

Orbison and some classmates formed the band Wink Westerners in high school. They performed country standards and Glenn Miller songs at local honky-tonks and also had a weekly radio show on KERB in Kermit, Texas. They were invited $400 to attend a dance, and Orbison realized that they could make a living off music. He enrolled at North Texas State College in Denton, Texas, in the hopes of studying geology so that he could find jobs in the oil fields if music did not pay. Pat Boone, his schoolmate, had signed a record deal, which strengthened his resolve to become a professional musician. He first heard a song called "Ooby Dooby" while in college, composed by Dick Penner and Wade Moore, and when he returned to Wink with "Ooby Dooby" in hand, he continued performing with the Wink Westerners in his first year. He later enrolled in Odessa Junior College. Two members of the band, as well as two new ones, were hired, and the company won a talent competition and gained their own television show on KMID-TV in Midland. The Wink Westerners survived on local television, performed dances on weekends, and attended college during the day.

Orbison performed at a festival in Odessa, Orbison. Johnny Cash toured the region in 1955 and 1956, appearing on the same local television show as the Wink Westerners, and he suggested that Orbison approach Sam Phillips at Sun Records. "Johnny Cash does not own my record company," Orbison said. They gained a new show on KOSA-TV as a result of their KMID television show, and they renamed them Teen Kings. In 1956, they released "Ooby Dooby" for the Odessa-based Jew label. Poppa Holifield, the owner of a record store, took it over Sam Phillips' phone call, and Phillips offered the Teen Kings a contract.

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1965–1969: Career decline and tragedies

In November 1964, Claudette and Orbison divorced due to her infidelities, but they reconciled ten months later. In June 1965, Monument's employment came to an end. Wesley Rose, Orbison's rep, moved him from Monument Records to MGM Records (though in Europe, he stayed with Decca's London Records), with the understanding that his empire would extend into television and film as Elvis Presley did. Orbison was a film lover, and when not touring, writing, or recording, he spent time every day to see three films a day.

Rose also became Orbison's producer. Orbison's commercial demise was partially caused by Rose's resignation, according to Fred Foster later. Orbison's best work, according to engineer Bill Porter, could only be achieved with RCA Victor's A-Team in Nashville. Orbison's first collection at MGM, called There Is Only One Roy Orbison, has sold fewer than 200,000 copies. With the onset of the British Invasion in 1964–65, popular music shifted dramatically, with Orbison's generation being pushed from the charts.

Orbison broke his foot falling off a motorcycle in front of thousands of screaming supporters at a race track in the United Kingdom in 1966; he appeared on stage that evening in a cast. Claudette went to the United Kingdom to support Roy for the remainder of the tour. Since the couple had remarried and were back together, it was now official (they had remarried in December 1965).

Orbison was captivated by machines. He was known to follow a car he liked and make the driver an appointment on the spot.

Orbison and Claudette expressed a passion for motorcycles; she had grown up around them, but Roy claimed Elvis Presley had introduced them to motorcycles. Orbison and Claudette were riding home from Bristol, Tennessee, on June 6, 1966, when she struck the door of a pickup truck that had pulled out in front of her. She died instantly.

A bemoan Orbison threw himself into his work, collaborating with Bill Dees to produce music for The Fastest Guitar Alive, a film in which MGM had arranged for him to star as well. It was initially intended as a dramatic Western but was later rewritten as a parody. Orbison's character was a spy who robbed and had to protect and deliver a cache of gold to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and he was sent with a guitar that turned into a rifle. According to biographer Colin Escott, "I could kill you with this and march your funeral march at the same time." Orbison was delighted with the film, but it was also a critical and box office loss. Although MGM had five films in his deal, no more were made.

Don Gibson's album was dedicated to Don Gibson's music as well as another of Hank Williams' covers, but it was not well received. Orbison sounded lost and directionless during the counterculture period, with charts dominated by musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, and the Doors, eventually saying: "I] didn't get a lot I could relate to, so I guess I did not stay where the winds blow and the seasons change, and you bloom."

He heard that his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, had burned down, and that his two eldest sons had died on Saturday, during a tour of Britain and playing Birmingham. Firefighters confirmed that the fire may have been caused by an aerosol can, which may have contained lacquer. Johnny Cash, the owner of the property, demolished it and planted an orchard on it. Orbison married German teenager Barbara Jakobs on March 25, 1969, whom he had known several weeks before his sons' deaths. Wesley (born 1965), his youngest son with Claudette, was raised by Orbison's parents. Orbison and Barbara had a son (Roy Kelton) in 1970 and another (Alexander) in 1975.

1980–1988: Career revival

Don McLean began "Crying" in 1980, first in the Netherlands, then to number five in the United States, and then stayed on the charts for 15 weeks; it was number one in the UK for three weeks and also topped the Irish charts. On an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, he appeared on "Pretty Woman" in 1981. Orbison was practically forgotten in the United States, but in 1982, he rose to fame in less known countries, such as Bulgaria. He was shocked to learn that he was as popular there as he had been in 1964, and he had been pushed to remain in his hotel room because he was compelled to stay in his hotel room because he was mobbed on Sofia's streets. He and Emmylou Harris received a Grammy Award for their duet "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again" from the 1981 comedy film Roadie (in which Orbison appeared in a cameo role), and things were picking up. It was Orbison's first Grammy, and he was hopeful of returning to popular music. In the meantime, Van Halen released a hard-rock version of "Oh, Pretty Woman" on their 1982 album Diver Down, further exposing a younger generation to Orbison's music.

Orbison has denied David Lynch's offer to film "In Dreams" for the film Blue Velvet (1986), but Lynch has said to the contrary that he and his producers obtained permission to use the song without visiting Orbison in the first place. Lynch's first pick for a song was actually "Crying"; the album was one of a number of a psychopathic character named Frank Booth's obsessions (played by Dennis Hopper). After Booth demanded that the song be played over and over, it was lip-synched by an eminate drug dealer played by Dean Stockwell, who later demanded that it be replayed and over, once beating the protagonist while the song was playing. Lynch begged for the song to be repeated repeatedly during recording in order to create a surreal atmosphere. Orbison was initially shocked at its use: he saw the film in a theatre in Malibu and later said, "I was mortified because they were discussing the 'candy-coloured clown' in connection with a dope deal." "What in the world? "What in the world?" I wondered. But later, when I was touring, we got the video out and I really had to appreciate what David gave to the song and how the film brought this otherworldly quality to 'In Dreams'."

Orbison issued In Dreams: The Greatest Hits in 1987. In the film Less than Zero (1987), he co-wrote with his friend Glenn Danzig and recorded "Life Fades Away," a song he co-wrote with his friend Glenn Danzig and recorded. He and k.d. Lang performed a duet of "Crying" for inclusion on the soundtrack to the film Hiding Out (1987); the pair was given a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals following Orbison's death.

Orbison was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 and was introduced by Bruce Springsteen to his own album Born to Run: "I wanted a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector." Now, everybody knows that no one sings like Roy Orbison. Orbison requested Springsteen for a copy of the speech, and said he felt "validated" by the honor after being welcomed during his induction.

Orbison and Springsteen were paired together a few months later to film a concert at Los Angeles' Cocoanut Grove nightclub. Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, James Burton, and k.d. lang. Lang later shared how humbled Orbison had been by the outpouring of so many talented and busy musicians: "Roy looked at all of us and said, 'If there's anything I can ever do for you, please call on me." He was very serious. It was his way of thanking us. It was very emotional." The performance was shot in one take and broadcast on Cinemax under the title Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night; Virgin Records' Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night; the concert was broadcast on television by Virgin Records, selling 50,000 copies.

Orbison began seriously working with Electric Light Orchestra bandleader Jeff Lynne on a new album in 1988. Lynne had just finished post production on George Harrison's Cloud Nine album, and the three of them had lunch together on Monday, when Orbison accepted an invitation to perform on Harrison's new single. They contacted Bob Dylan, who in turn permitted them to use a recording studio in his house. Harrison paid a visit to Tom Petty's house to get his guitar; Petty and his band had supported Dylan on his last tour. The group had written "Handle with Care" by that evening, which led to the idea of recording a complete album. They referred to themselves as half-brothers with the same father. They gave themselves stage names; Orbison chose his from his musical hero, "Lefty Wilbury" after Lefty Frizzell. Orbison wrote a review of the group's foundation in honor, "Some people believe Daddy was a cad and a bounder." I remember him as a Baptist minister."

"Everybody was just sitting around talking about the recording sessions; it's Roy Orbison," Lynne said later. ... Even though he's become your pal and you're having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [mic] and his company, it's shudder time." Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 is the band's debut album. 1 (1988), a one-year-old fisherman, was born on October 25, 1988. On the album, Orbison was given one solo track, "Not Alone Any More." The media had lauded his contributions.

Orbison remained determined in his second attempt at fame, but he expressed surprise at his triumph: "It's nice to be wanted again, but I can't quite believe it." He shed some weight to suit his new image and the increasing demand of touring, as well as the newer demands of making videos. He gave Rolling Stone magazine extensive access to his daily life; he intended to write an autobiography and wanted Martin Sheen to play him in a biopic.

In November 1988, Orbison released Mystery Girl, a solo album. Jeff Lynne co-produced Mystery Girl. Lynne was rated by Orbison as the best producer with whom he had ever collaborated. Elvis Costello, Orbison's son Wesley and others performed their songs to him.

Orbison said in Johnny Cash that he was suffering chest pains around November 1988. He went to Europe and was given an award there and appeared in Antwerp, where the video for "You Got It" was shot was shot. A day in a tumultuous schedule, he conducted multiple interviews. A few days later, a Boston manager was worried that he looked sick, but Orbison delivered the program to a standing ovation.

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