Roy Orbison
"Orbison" redirects here. |
Roy Orbison at a London press conference, late 1988. |
Roy Kelton Orbison (
April 23 1936 –
December 6 1988), nicknamed "The Big O", was an influential
American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of
rock and roll, whose recording career spanned more than four decades. By the mid-1960s Orbison was internationally recognized for his ballads of lost love, rhythmically advanced melodies, four-
octave vocal range, characteristic dark
sunglasses, and sometimes distinctive usage of
falsetto, typified in songs such as "
Only The Lonely", "
In Dreams", "
Oh, Pretty Woman", "
Crying" and "
Running Scared". In
1987 he was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and posthumously in
1989 into the
National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Two common misconceptions about his appearance stubbornly continue to surface about Orbison: one, that he was an
albino, and two, that he wore his trademark dark glasses because he was
blind or nearly so. Neither is correct, although his poor vision required him to wear thick corrective lenses (He suffered from childhood from a combination of
hyperopia, severe
astigmatism,
presbyopia,
anisometropia, and
strabismus). Orbison's trademark sunglasses were a fashion statement arising from an accident early in his career. Due to go onstage in a few minutes, Orbison left his regular glasses in an airplane. Unable to see without corrective lenses, the only other pair of glasses he had available were darkly tinted prescription sunglasses. "I had to see to get onstage," so he wore the glasses throughout his tour with the Beatles, and he carried on with it for the rest of his professional career. "I'll just do this and look cool."
Orbison was born in
Vernon, Texas, the second son of Nadine and Orbie Lee. After moving to
Fort Worth around 1943 to find work in the munitions and aircraft factories expanded as a result of the
Second World War, the family moved to the tiny
oil town of
Wink in late 1946. Music was an important part of his family life.
In 1949, at age 13, he organized his first band, "The Wink Westerners", and when not singing with the band he spent his time playing guitar and writing songs. The band appeared weekly on KERB radio in
Kermit, Texas. Orbison graduated from
Wink High School in 1954. He attended
North Texas State College in
Denton, Texas for a year, and enrolled at Odessa Junior College in 1955 to study
history and
English. The Wink Westerners had some success on local television, being given 30 minute weekly shows on
KMID and then KOSA. One of the guests on their show was
Johnny Cash, who advised them to seek a contract with his
record producer,
Sam Phillips, of
Sun Records. Having renamed The Wink Westerners as "The Teen Kings", Orbison left college in March 1956, determined to give music a serious try, and headed for Sun Records in
Memphis, Tennessee.
Many of the earliest songs he recorded were produced by
Sam Phillips, who also produced
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Carl Perkins,
Johnny Cash, and
Elvis Presley. Orbison achieved his first commercial success in June 1956 with "Ooby Dooby", a song written by friends of Orbison from college. His song "Claudette", named after his first wife, was recorded by the
Everly Brothers as the
B-side to their Number 1 hit "All I Have To Do Is Dream". However, the
rockabilly and
blues sounds of Sun's artists did not bring Orbison much success and his career seemed over, although fans of rockabilly music count his records among the best that this kind of music has to offer. For a time, he worked at
Acuff-Rose Music in
Nashville, Tennessee as a songwriter, and then was given a contract by
RCA, but eventually
Chet Atkins referred him to
Fred Foster, the owner of
Monument Records, where he moved after his contract with RCA ended in 1959.
At Monument, Foster encouraged him to break from his established style. Under Foster's guidance, he began writing his own songs alone or in collaboration with
Joe Melson and later
Bill Dees, developing his signature
operatic voice, and creating a sound unheard of in rock and roll at the time. His first record, "Uptown" was moderately successful. With the release of "
Only The Lonely" and its immediate rise to the top of the charts (#2 in the US, #1 in the UK), he went on to become an international
rock and roll star. His follow-up single, "
Running Scared" became a US #1. Throughout his stay at Monument Records, his backup band was a group of outstanding studio musicians led by
Bob Moore. The play of Orbison's voice against the dynamic yet uncluttered sound of the band gave Orbison's records a unique, identifiable sound.
A powerful influence on his contemporaries such as
The Rolling Stones, in 1963, Roy Orbison headlined a
European tour with
The Beatles, becoming lifelong friends with the band, in particular with
John Lennon and
George Harrison. Orbison would later record with Harrison as part of the
Traveling Wilburys. During their tour of Europe, an impressed Roy Orbison encouraged The Beatles to come to the United States. When they finally decided to try America, they asked Orbison to manage their first tour but his own schedule forced him to turn down what was to become an astounding success.
Unlike many artists, Orbison maintained his success as the
British Invasion swept America in 1964. His single "
Oh, Pretty Woman" broke the
Beatles' stranglehold on the Top 10, soaring to
No. 1 on the
Billboard charts. The record sold more copies in its first ten days of release than any
45rpm up to that time and would go on to sell more than seven million copies. The song later became the signature tune for the film
Pretty Woman, named for his song, which brought fame to actress
Julia Roberts.
He toured with
The Beach Boys in 1964, and with The Rolling Stones in
Australia in 1965. He was very successful in
England, logging three
No.1 hit singles and was several times voted top male vocalist of the year.
Orbison signed a contract with
MGM Records in 1966, and starred in
MGM Studios' western-musical motion picture
The Fastest Guitar Alive in which he would perform several songs from an album of the same name. However, due to changes in musical taste, he suddenly ceased to have hits in the United States after 1967, and although he would remain popular elsewhere, his American popularity did not recover until the 1980s.
He also suffered problems in his personal life, with the death of his first wife, Claudette (Frady), in a motorcycle accident in 1966 after 11 years of marriage. Two years later, the family home at
Old Hickory Lake in
Hendersonville, Tennessee burned to the ground while Orbison was touring in England, and two of his three young sons, Anthony and Roy Jr., died in the fire. The youngest boy, Wesley, at the time only three, was saved by Orbison's parents. He met his second wife,
Barbara, in August 1968, in
Leeds,
England, and they were married in Nashville on
May 25,
1969.
His contract with MGM ended in 1973, and he signed for
Mercury Records. Songs that had only reasonable success in North America, such as "Penny Arcade" and "Working for the Man," would go to Number 1 on the Australian charts, and "Too Soon to Know" was Number 3 in England. His popularity extended to
Germany, and he recorded his hit song "Mama" in
German. His records were in great demand on the "
black market" behind the
Iron Curtain. In
France, he was viewed as the master of the ballad of lost love in the vein of that country's most popular singer
Édith Piaf, and a cover version of Orbison's "
Blue Bayou" sung in French by
Mireille Mathieu went to the top of France's record charts. Fans in the
Netherlands founded his largest world-wide fan club. He continued to perform in
Ireland, despite the constant
terrorist activities in
Northern Ireland. A rendition of the popular ballad "
Danny Boy" on the 1972
Memphis album is considered one of the best recordings ever made of this much-recorded song.
He re-signed with Monument in 1976, but his career remained in the doldrums until the late 1980s.
In 1980, Orbison teamed up with
Emmylou Harris to win the 1981
Grammy Award for
Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their song, "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again." In 1985, Orbison recorded
Wild Hearts for the
Nic Roeg film
Insignificance, released on the
ZTT Records label, produced by David Briggs and
Will Jennings. The inclusion of "In Dreams" in the 1986
David Lynch film
Blue Velvet also aided Orbison's popular resurrection. He was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the induction speech made by
Bruce Springsteen (who had famously referenced Orbison and "Only the Lonely" in his 1975 song "
Thunder Road"). His pioneering contribution was also recognized by the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Having signed a recording contract for the first time in 10 years, with
Virgin Records, he re-recorded his 1961 hit song, "
Crying," as a duet with
k.d. lang in 1987 for the
soundtrack of the motion picture,
"Hiding Out". The song would earn the
Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.
Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night, a black and white
Cinemax television special recorded at the Coconut Grove in the
Ambassador Hotel in
Los Angeles in 1988, brought Orbison to the attention of a younger generation. Orbison was accompanied by a who's-who supporting cast, organized by musical director
T-Bone Burnett, all fans and all volunteers who lobbied to participate: on piano was
Glen Hardin, who had played for
Buddy Holly as well as working with
Elvis Presley for a number of years; lead guitarist
James Burton had also played with Presley; male background vocals, with some also playing the guitar, came from
Bruce Springsteen,
Tom Waits,
Elvis Costello,
Jackson Browne,
J.D. Souther, and
Steven Soles; and
k.d. lang,
Jennifer Warnes, and
Bonnie Raitt provided female background vocals.
Shortly after this critically acclaimed performance, whilst working with
Jeff Lynne of
Electric Light Orchestra on tracks for a new album, Orbison joined
Bob Dylan,
George Harrison,
Jeff Lynne and
Tom Petty to form the
Traveling Wilburys, achieving substantial commercial and critical success. He subsequently recorded a new solo album,
Mystery Girl, produced by Orbison,
Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty's
Heartbreakers), and
Jeff Lynne. It included one track by
U2's
Bono (who also wears trademark dark glasses and co-wrote the track
She's A Mystery to Me with
the Edge specifically for Orbison). At an awards ceremony in
Antwerp, a few days before his death, Roy Orbison gave his only public rendition of the hit "
You Got It" to the applause of a huge crowd.
Orbison had triple
heart bypass surgery on
January 18,
1978 and enjoyed smoking most of his life. On
December 6,
1988, at the age of 52, he suffered a fatal
heart attack while visiting his mother in the
Nashville, Tennessee suburb of
Hendersonville.
[Escott, Roadkill on the Three-Chord Highway.] At the direction of his second wife, Barbara, Roy Orbison was interred on
December 15,
1988, in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in
Westwood, California. His two sons and their mother, Claudette, who predeceased him, had been laid to rest at his request in the
Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.
His new album,
Mystery Girl, and the single from it, "You Got It", were posthumous hits, and are generally regarded as Orbison's best work since his success of the 1960s. He was the posthumous winner of the 1991
Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and in 1992, the popular "
I Drove All Night" and "Heartbreak Radio" appeared on the posthumous album,
King of Hearts, produced by
Jeff Lynne.
Orbison is most remembered for his ballads of lost love, and within the music community he is revered for his song-writing abilities. Record producer and Orbison fan
Don Was, commenting on Orbison's writing skills, said: "He defied the rules of modern composition." Songwriter
Bernie Taupin, composer of many lyrics for
Elton John, and others referred to Orbison as far ahead of the times, creating lyrics and music in a manner that broke with all traditions. Roy Orbison's vocal range was impressive (three
octaves) and his songs were melodically and rhythmically advanced and lyrically sophisticated. Three songs written and recorded by Orbison, "
Only The Lonely," "
Oh, Pretty Woman," and "
Crying," are in the
Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004,
Rolling Stone named those three songs plus "
In Dreams" on its list of the "
500 Greatest Songs of All Time." In 1989, he was inducted posthumously into the
National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame.
From the stage in
Las Vegas in 1976,
Elvis Presley called Orbison "the greatest singer in the world"
[http://www.famoustexans.com/royorbison.htm], and
Barry Gibb of the
Bee Gees referred to him as the "Voice of God." Multiple
Academy Award–winning songwriter
Will Jennings ("My Heart Will Go On," from the
Titanic soundtrack) called him a "poet, a songwriter, a vision," after working with him and co-writing "Wild Hearts."
Bob Dylan, later a bandmate of Orbison's in the
Traveling Wilburys, wrote "Orbison … transcended all the genres. … With Roy, you didn't know if you were listening to
mariachi or
opera. He kept you on your toes. …
[He sang] his compositions in three or four
octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. He sang like a professional criminal. … His voice could jar a corpse, always leave you muttering to yourself something like, 'Man, I don't believe it.' His songs had songs within songs. Orbison was deadly serious–no pollywog and no fledgling juvenile. There wasn't anything else on the radio like him."
*According to the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame [
1], at a
press conference in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Sam Orbison said that his brother Roy Orbison was always "saddened by the sordid treatment of
Elvis Presley in the aftermath of his death in 1977."
*The well-known
Spider-Man villain
Doctor Octopus is supposedly based on Orbison, especially his thick glasses and multiple vision disorders.
*He was also well known in the much smaller world of
radio controlled
model aircraft as a champion modeler and flier.
*His song "
In Dreams" was used extensively in the
David Lynch film
Blue Velvet, and Lynch would later feature a
Spanish version of "
Crying" in his film,
Mulholland Drive.
*His early Sun side, "Domino", was used repeatedly in
Jim Jarmusch's
Mystery Train.
*Orbison was portrayed by Johnathan Rice in the
Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line.
*The character
Roy Koopa from
Super Mario Bros. 3 was named after Roy Orbison. The game also includes characters that are named after classical composer
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Motörhead bassist/singer
Lemmy Kilmister, and talk show host
Larry King, among others.
Koopalings*In the Adam Sandler movie
The Waterboy Coach Klein (
Henry Winkler) has a tattoo of Orbison on his rear end.
*
Van Halen covered "Oh, Pretty Woman" on their
Diver Down album.
*
Roy Orbison discography*
Roy Orbison Songs Catalog *Video and televised feature performances:
*
Roy Orbison - Live from Australia - 1972
*
Roy Orbison - Live at Austin City Limits - 1982
*
Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night - 1987
*
In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story - 1999
*Colin Escott,
Roadkill on the Three-Chord Highway. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-93783-3 — has a chapter devoted to Orbison.
*
Biography from the official website
*
Biography from the
Songwriters Hall of Fame*
Biography from the
hotshotdigital.com*
Roy Orbison Official Website*
Roy Orbison Danmark*
Roy Orbison at Legacy Recordings{{Persondata
NAME=Orbison, Roy Kelton | ALTERNATIVE NAMES= | SHORT DESCRIPTION=American country and rock singer | DATE OF BIRTH=23 April 1936 | PLACE OF BIRTH=Vernon, Texas, USA | DATE OF DEATH=6 December 1988 | PLACE OF DEATH=Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA
|
