Classic Pop Icons

Today marks the 21st anniversary of the death of one of the great pop icons, Roy Orbison. The ‘Big O’ died of a heart attack aged 52, just as he was experiencing a career resurgence.

Roy Orbison was born April 23rd 1936 in Vernon, Texas. Roy had terrible eyesight and wore thick glasses from an early age, which later became a trademark of his.

The Wink Westerners

At the age of six, Roy received a guitar as a birthday present from his father and in high school he formed the Wink Westerners band, which played mainly country standards and Glenn Miller songs.After high school, Orbison enrolled at North Texas State College to study geology in order to work in the oil fields. However, his dream was to make a living playing music and it was during this period that he formed The Teen Kings.

In 1955, Roy was inspired and stunned by the stage antics of Elvis Presley during a show in Dallas. A subsequent appearance by Johnny Cash on the same radio show as the Teen Kings led Roy to head for Memphis to audition at Sun Records. On hearing the Teen Kings recording of ‘Ooby Dooby’, head of Sun Records, Sam Phillips, offered the band a contract.

The Teen Kings

A new recording of ‘Ooby Dooby’ peaked at number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 and other rockabilly records such as ‘Rockhouse’ followed. His success at Sun Records was limited though and there was friction between Roy and Phillips over choice of material and direction. The band soon split.

In 1957, Orbison sold the song ‘Claudette’ to the Everly Brothers and this appeared on the B-side of their monster hit ‘All I Have to Do is Dream.’ He followed this up with a brief stint as a songwriter at Acuff-Rose, before moving on to Monument Records. This was when things began really happening for the singer, not least because he began his association with songwriter Joe Melson. They first collaborated on the moderate chart hit ‘Uptown’ which, much to Roy’s liking, featured strings. They followed up with one of Orbison’s biggest selling and most well known songs, ‘Only the Lonely’. After unsuccessfully pitching the song to Elvis Presley, Orbison recorded it himself and it became a worldwide hit, reaching number two on the Hot 100 and number one in both the UK and Australia.

‘Only the Lonely’ was Orbison’s first number one hit

The success of ‘Only the Lonely’ was not repeated by the next three singles, ‘Blue Angel’, ‘Claudette’ and ‘I’m Hurtin’, but Orbison and Melson were soon back on form and back at number one with the melodramatic ‘Running Scared’, which really showcased his voice with the startling crescendo at the end.

Orbison’s next single, ‘Crying’, reached number two on the Hot 100 and became one of his best loved hits. This was followed in 1962 by ‘Dream Baby’, ‘The Crowd’, ‘Leah’ and ‘Workin’ for the Man.’ The following year saw Roy charting with ‘In Dreams’,’ ‘Falling’, ‘Mean Woman Blues’ and ‘Blue Bayou’. Another highlight of 1963 was a UK tour with The Beatles, who as yet were not known in the US. This led to a friendship with George Harrison that would later result in the two appearing together in the highly successful ‘Traveling Wilburys’ (see below).

During 1964 and 1965, Orbison busied himself with touring, including Australian tours with The Beach Boys in 1964 and The Rolling Stones in 1965. There was also significant chart success in this period, resulting from collaborations with his new writing partner, Bill Dees. ‘It’s Over’ hit number one in the UK and ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ became his biggest ever hit, selling seven million copies. This success is particularly impressive, given that it occurred in the context of the explosion of the British bands.

Performing ‘It’s Over’ live in Laren, Holland in 1965

The remainder of the 60s was less successful for Roy. He moved from Monument to MGM, with a view to expanding into films and television, but his first album, ‘Goodnight’, was only a moderate success, and his film ‘The Fastest Guitar Alive’ was a critical and commercial failure. This period was also beset with tragedy as Roy’s wife Claudette was killed in a road accident in June 1966 and two of his three children died in a house fire in 1968.

Orbison’s career was floundering in the 70s, although he continued to tour and had occasional chart success, such as with ‘Penny Arcade’ and ‘Too Soon to Know.’ There were also several highly successful cover versions of his songs, including ‘Blue Bayou’ by Linda Ronstadt. A compilation of Roy’s greatest hits also went to number one in the UK in 1977.

The 1980s began well for Orbison as he received his first Grammy for his duet with Emmylou Harris on ‘That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again.’ His success over the next few years was patchy, but there were some interesting projects, including ‘The Class of ’55’ LP with his old Sun Records stablemates. The use of the song ‘In Dreams’ in the movie ‘Blue Velvet’ was also important in introducing Roy’s music to a new generation.

The real career resurgence began in 1987. In this year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen. Shortly after this, Springsteen joined Orbison on stage for the now classic ‘Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night’ special, which also featured stars such as Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Waits and KD Lang.

In 1988, Roy was working on an album with Electric Light Orchestra frontman, Jeff Lynne, who was also working with George Harrison. Roy was invited to sing on George’s album and the recording was scheduled to take place at Bob Dylan’s studio. A meeting with Tom Petty to pick up a guitar led to the idea that the five men should jam together. That evening they wrote the song ‘Handle with Care’ and it was decided that they should record an entire album together under the name ‘The Traveling Wilburys’. The result was ‘Traveling Wilburys Vol 1’ which hit number three on the US charts and won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

Roy with his ‘Traveling Wilburys’ bandmates

Roy Orbison died on December 6th 1988 in Hendonville, Tennessee after suffering a heart attack. In the last months of his life, Orbison thankfully had time to complete a new solo album called ‘Mystery Girl’, which was released posthumously. This featured the hits ‘You Got It’ and the Bono-penned ‘She’s a Mystery to Me’ and went on to be the best selling album of his career.

Music video for Orbison’s great comeback hit ‘You Got It’

It’s tragic that Roy died just as he was entering a new phase of his career, particularly after he had spent so long not achieving the success that his talent warranted. However, we can be grateful for the large number of classic performances that this great artist left us with. Roy Orbison had one of the best voices in the history of popular music, and his music and influence lives on.

If you don’t yet have any Roy Orbison in your collection, I highly recommend: