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Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 –
December 6, 1988) nicknamed "the big O" was an
influential United States|American
singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll
whose recording career spanned more than thirty
years.

==His life==
Born in Vernon, Texas, Orbison was raised in the
tiny oil town of Wink, Texas, with music an
important part of his family life. Two
misconceptions stubbornly continue to surface
about Roy: one, that he was an Albinism|albino,
and two, that he wore his trademark dark glasses
because he was blindness|blind or nearly so.
Neither are correct, although his myopia required
thick corrective lenses.

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.
Recognizing that a career in music was a long
shot, the group disbanded after graduating high
school and Roy Orbison went to North Texas State
College. In 1955 Orbison left college, determined
to give music a serious try. With a new band named
"The Teen Kings", he headed for Memphis,
Tennessee, and to Sun Records. There, Orbison
(along with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny
Cash, and Elvis Presley) recorded for Sam
Phillips.

Many of the earliest songs he recorded were
produced by Sam Phillips. But the rockabilly and
blues sounds of Sun's artists did not bring
Orbison much success and his career seemed over.
For a time, he worked at Acuff-Rose Music in
Nashville, Tennessee, as a songwriter but
eventually Chet Atkins referred him to Fred
Foster, the owner of Monument Records. There,
Foster encouraged Orbison 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 opera|operatic
voice, and creating a sound unheard of in Rock and
Roll at the time. With the release of "Only The
Lonely", and its immediate rise to the top of the
charts, Orbison would go on to become an
international rock and roll star.

Throughout Orbison's 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.

Orbison is most remembered for his ballads of lost
love, and within the music community, he is
revered for his song writing abilities. Master
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 (he had a
three octave range) 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 (song)|Crying", are in the Grammy Hall
of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine|Rolling
Stone named those three songs plus "In Dreams
(song)|In Dreams" on its list of the "List of
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time|500
Greatest Songs of All Time." In 1989, Roy Orbison
was inducted posthumously into the National
Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Elvis Presley called Roy "the greatest singer in
the world" (from onstage in Las Vegas, in 1976), 
Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees referred to Orbison as
the "Voice of God".  Multiple Academy Award
winning songwriter Will Jennings ("My Heart Will
Go On", from the Titanic (1997 film)|Titanic
soundtrack), called him a "poet, a songwriter, a
vision", after working with him and co-writing
Roy's song "Wild Hearts" for the 1985 motion
picture, Insignificance (film)|Insignificance. 
Bob Dylan (later a bandmate of Orbison's in the
Traveling Wilburys) writes, "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
Octave|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."

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 them both). 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.

Even as the British Invasion swept America in
1964, Orbison's single "Oh, Pretty Woman" broke
the The Beatles|Beatles' stranglehold on the Top
10, soaring to Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1964
(USA)|No. 1 on the Billboard magazine|Billboard
charts. The smash hit 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.

In 1966 Orbison signed a contract with MGM Records
and starred in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|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.

Roy Orbison wrote and recorded numerous songs
specifically for motion pictures and many of his
hit songs became part of motion picture
soundtracks, the most famous of which is the
blockbuster film Pretty Woman. Named for his song,
the music was integral to the movie that brought
fame to actress Julia Roberts. As well, his hit
song "In Dreams (song)|In Dreams" was used
extensively in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet
(Lynch also featured a Spanish version of "Crying
(song)|Crying" in his film, Mulholland
Dr.|Mulholland Drive.) 

===Other artists===
A number of other artists have recorded songs
written by Orbison, including the Everly Brothers,
Don Gibson, Linda Ronstadt, Don McLean, Mireille
Mathieu, Chris Isaak, Dwight Yoakam, and Van
Halen. Singer Sonny James would have a number 1
hit on the country music charts with a cover of
Orbison's "Only The Lonely".

===International fame===
Roy Orbison first toured Australia with the
Rolling Stones in 1963 and would build a devout
following there. A few songs that had only
reasonable success in North America, such as
"Penny Arcade" and "Working for the Man" would go
to #1 on the Australian charts. Similarly, he was
enormously popular in England, logging three List
of Number 1 singles from the 1960s (UK)|No.1 hit
singles and was several times voted top male
vocalist of the year. His popularity extended to
Germany, and he recorded his hit song "Mama" in
German. Even behind the Iron Curtain, his records
were in great demand on the "black market". In
France he was viewed as the master of the ballad
of lost love in the vein of that country's most
popular singer Edith 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. Adoring fans in the Netherlands founded
his largest world-wide fan club. Much loved in
Belgium, at an awards ceremony in Antwerp
(city)|Antwerp, a few days before his passing, Roy
Orbison gave his only public rendition of the hit
"You Got It" to the thundering applause of a huge
crowd. Adopted by intensely loyal fans in Ireland,
where he continued to perform despite the constant
terrorism|terrorist activities, his powerful
rendition of the ancient Irish folk ballad "Danny
Boy" on the 1972 Memphis (album)|Memphis album is
considered one of the best recordings ever made of
this much-recorded song.

===The 1980s===

In 1980 he 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." He was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the
induction speech made by his devout follower Bruce
Springsteen. That year, he rerecorded his 1961 hit
song, "Crying (song)|Crying" as a duet with k.d.
lang for the soundtrack of the motion picture,
"Hiding Out". The song would earn the Grammy Award
for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

Described as a cinematographic masterpiece, 1988's
black and white Cinemax television special titled
Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night,
brought Orbison a whole new generation of fans.
Put together by musical director, T-Bone Burnett,
Orbison was accompanied by a who's who supporting
cast, 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, plus master
guitarist James Burton. Male background vocals,
with some on guitar, were handled by Bruce
Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson
Browne, J.D. Souther, and Steven Soles. k.d. lang,
Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt sang the 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.  Subsequently, a new solo album
was recorded. Titled Mystery Girl, it was produced
by Orbison & Mike Campbell (of the Heartbreakers),
Jeff Lynne and one track by U2 (band)|U2's  Bono
(who copies Orbison's trademark dark glasses). The
album was released posthumously in 1989.

===Tragedies===
Roy Orbison's life was filled with personal
tragedies. His first wife, Claudette (Frady), died
in a 1966 motorcycle accident. (The Everly
Brothers hit "Claudette" had been written about
her, by Roy.)  Two years later, the family home at
Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee
burned to the ground while Roy 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 Roy's
parents. These events affected him profoundly but
after a few years he would continue to play to
loyal audiences all across the globe. Tragedy
would strike again, when, in 1973, Orbison's elder
brother Grady Lee Orbison, died in a motor vehicle
accident in Henderson, Tennessee when on his way
to visit Roy for Thanksgiving.

===His death===
Several years after having had bypass surgery,
Orbison suffered a massive myocardial
infarction|heart attack and passed away at the age
of only 52 while visiting at his mother's home in
the Nashville, Tennessee suburb of Hendersonville,
Tennessee|Hendersonville just before midnight on
December 6, 1988 before his last album Mystery
Girl could be
released.#Notes|1
Both the album and the single from it, "You Got
It", were 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 (album)|King of Hearts,
produced by Jeff Lynne.

At the direction of his second wife Barbara
Orbison|Barbara, Roy Orbison was interred December
15th, 1988 in the Westwood Village Memorial Park
Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles,
California|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.

==Achievements==
*Roy Orbison is one of only two singers to ever
simultaneously have two Top 5 albums on the
Billboard Charts (the other is Elvis Presley). 
*He has been imortalised in a popular series of
http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/karl.htm short
stories, primarily featuring Roy wrapped in
clingfilm.
*He was also well known in the much smaller world
of radio controlled model aircraft as a champion
modeler and flier.

==Video & 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

==Discography==
See Roy Orbison discography

==External links==
Spoken Wikipedia|Roy_Orbison.ogg|2005-04-21

*http://www.orbison.com The Official Roy Orbison
web site
*http://www.hotshotdigital.com/OldRock/RoyOrbisonD
isco.html A Discography
*http://roy.orbison.dk Roy Orbison Danmark

==Reference==
Colin Escott, Roadkill on the Three-Chord Highway,
Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-93783-3 — has a
chapter devoted to Roy
==Notes == 
*1 Escott