Music Legend : Roy Orbison

While Texas lays claim to more than its fair share of musical talent, the cream of this musical class was Roy Orbison. Even on a national level, few can compare. Born in Vernon, Texas in 1936, Orbison asked for a harmonica for his sixth birthday and thanks to fatherly wisdom, received a guitar instead. His father and an uncle then taught him how to play it. At the time, no one could have imagined history in the making.

After the war, in 1946, Orbison’s family moved to Wink, Texas. Three years later, at the age of 13, Orbison had formed his first band, The Wink Westerners. Soon, the west Texas spotlight slowly began to shine on Orbison and the band, although not bright enough for him to quit his summer jobs with the county and in the oil fields. Regular appearances on KERB radio in nearby Kermit led to various gigs throughout the area, including Friday night jamborees, dances, and in 1953, tours of west Texas, thanks to R. A. Lipscomb, who was running for the Lion’s Club district governor.

After high school graduation in 1954, Orbison enrolled in college at North Texas State College, in Denton. His musical roots in western music, planted by his father and uncle, began to grow in the college environment. In 1955, at the Big D Jamboree, Orbison saw Elvis Presley for the first time. Around the same time, Pat Boone, his college buddy who had just hit the big time, encouraged Orbison to take his songwriting into a more pop-oriented direction.

It was around this time that Wade Moore and Dick Penner, Orbison’s college friends, wrote “The Ooby Dooby”. Eventually Orbison acquired the song, where he and the Wink Westerners played it for over a year before recording it on the small Je-Wel label. In search of a recording contract, he found out that Columbia wasn’t interested, thanks to the mentality of rock being a passing fad. Still, the band played on.

Enrolling at Odessa Junior College in the fall of 1955, Orbison and his band moved into a duplex in Odessa. With the addition of two new members, the band renamed itself “The Teen Kings” and began the cross-over from western music toward rock, landing somewhere in the genre of rockabilly. With the young rock and roll audience came new and enthusiastic fans. The band landed a weekly TV show in Odessa, part of the CBS network. Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley appeared on the show and this eventually opened the doors for Orbison and his band.

At Cash’s suggestion, Orbison called Sam Phillips at Sun Records, who rejected Orbison. Taking another route, Orbison took a copy of “The Ooby Dooby” to west Texas record dealer “Poppa” Hollifield. Hollifield was drawn to the recording and ended up playing it over the phone to one of his Memphis connections, Sam Phillips, of Sun Records. Shortly thereafter, The Teen Kings arrived in Memphis, re-recording “The Ooby Dooby” and landing a booking and management contract with Bob Neal of Starts, Inc. The song hit the national charts in June of 1956 and the band found itself touring with the likes of Johnny Cash, Faron Young, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and other rockabilly and country music stars of that era.

The follow-up single to “The Ooby Dooby” failed to make the charts, and The Teen Kings split up in December 1956. Orbison began concentrating on his songwriting skills and started using studio musicians for upcoming recording sessions.

He was offered a spot on the Everly Brothers show in March 1958. This led to Orbison’s newest composition, “Claudette”, being recorded to the B-side of the Everly Brothers great hit “All I Have To Do Is Dream”, which peaked at number one, while “Claudette” peaked at number 30. Orbison’s songs had now been recorded by Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rick Nelson, and many more.

A short contract with RCA Victor ended in mid-1959 and Orbison soon found himself with Monument Records, a new indie label. Soon, “Uptown” hit the charts, peaking midway up the Hot 100. The unique sound, including strings rather than fiddles, soon became an Orbison signature.

Orbison’s relationship with Monument shows the importance of teamwork, where members rely on the strengths of one another, protecting the weaknesses. His third single with Fred Foster’s Monument Records was “Only The Lonely”.  The song peaked at number one in the UK and number two on the Billboard Charts.  More than any previous work, this song showed the vocal range of his voice and helped cement his unique talent and approach to music.  

This sound was new to the rock music industry.  While Orbison’s voice was instrumental to his success, so were several other factors.  Original in structure and style, the songs combined with production and performance to determine success.  Orbison once commented on his writing style:  "I'm sure we had to study composition or something like that at school, and they'd say 'This is the way you do it,' and that's the way I would have done it, so being blessed again with not knowing what was wrong or what was right, I went on my own way....So the structure sometimes has the chorus at the end of the song, and sometimes there is no chorus, it just goes...But that's always after the fact—as I'm writing, it all sounds natural and in sequence to me."  Foster’s belief in quality over quantity, along with a belief in non-conformity to market trends,  was the perfect complement to Orbison’s style. 

Soon came “Crying”, “Candy Man”, “Dream Baby”, “In Dreams”, and, over the course of four years, an unbroken series of 22 songs making Top 40 hits, helping establish Orbison as one of the world’s biggest names and the top American artist of the time.   

Orbison began a tour with the Beatles in 1963, who at that time were unknowns to the U.S. market. The tour sold out in a single afternoon and on the first night, Orbison performed 14 encores before The Beatles could take stage. It was at this time that Orbison’s signature sunglasses made their mark.

Then the British invasion hit the U.S. market, changing forever the way America listened to music. Still, Orbison held his ground and was, in fact, one of the few American artists to match The Beatles in popularity. He did this with his ongoing commitment to quality, originality, structure, and rhythm. Then came “Oh Pretty Woman”. Released in the U.S. on August 1, 1964, and in September in the UK, it became Orbison’s biggest hit, and one of the most popular of all time. By the end of that year, in a short five month span, the song sold about 7 million copies, racing to number one in every country of the world.  Soon came tours with the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones.

Orbison ended his successful relationship with the Monument label in 1965 by signing a monumental contract with MGM Records. This took him from being a big fish in a little pond to the exact opposite, placed in a stable full of superstars. His contract demanded quantity over quality, and as could be expected, his performance suffered. Then came darkness. Less than a year after signing with MGM, his wife, Claudette, lost her life in a motorcycle accident. She and Orbison were out riding when a truck pulled out in front of her. Two years later, two of Orbison’s three boys lost their lives when the family home burned to the ground. It was around this time that he recorded a cover of the classic "Unchained Melody".

Personal tragedy and mismanagement combined to keep Orbison in the shadows for most of the ’70’s, but he never lost his world-wide appeal. The MGM contract ended and Orbison signed a one-year deal Mercury Records in 1974. Australia made his “Penny Arcade” number one and “Too Soon To Know” reached number three in England. Re-signing with Monument in 1976, he began a heavy tour schedule in Europe, Asia, and Australia. In 1977, he opened concerts while touring with The Eagles. The fast life on the road took its toll, resulting in open heart surgery in 1978. Even with that, his inner drive allowed him to get back on the road in three weeks.

The rejuvenation process had begun. Linda Ronstadt’s cover of “Blue Bayou”, Van Halen’s cover of “Oh Pretty Woman”, and Don McLean’s cover of “Crying” all helped with his U.S. rebirth. He teamed with Emmylou Harris in 1980 on “That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again”, winning a Grammy in the process.

Full speed ahead was the game in 1987, when Orbison was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later that year came the filming of “Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night”, the classic music video filmed in black and white at the Coconut Grove Ballroom in Los Angeles. Joining Orbison in this stellar performance were Bruce Springsteen, T-Bone Burnett, Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Jennifer Warnes, k.d. lang, Jackson Browne, Steven Soles, J.D. Souther, and Tom Waits.

Another team of all-stars gathered in 1988, forming the super-group The Traveling Wilburys. Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and George Harrison shared lunch one day, discussing an ongoing project. By nightfall, as creative minds go, a completely different concept had emerged. By chance, these three were joined with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The team enjoyed instant success with Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, a triple-platinum album that won a Grammy in 1989 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

Two days after a concert in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 6, 1988, Orbison spent time with his family, flying model airplanes with his sons.  Shortly after dinner at his mother’s home, he died of a massive heart attack.  The album Mystery Girl was released posthumously in 1989, topping out at #5 on the Billboard 200.