Background

Roy Kelton Orbison was born on April 23, 1936, in Vernon, Texas, United States to the family of an oil well driller and car mechanic Orbie Lee Orbison and a nurse Nadine Vesta Shults. Like many of the South’s rock pioneers, Orbison’s earliest musical influences came from the sounds of country and gospel music; his intent was to become a country music performer. His father and uncles taught him to play guitar when for his sixth birthday, Orbison asked for a harmonica, but his father gave him a guitar. Together with Clois Russell, Orbie Lee’s neighbor and workmate, they would often play and sing. The first song Roy ever played was the classic “You Are My Sunshine.” He learned very quickly, so that way he could stay up late with the grown-ups and sing.

The Orbison family moved to Forth Worth sometime in 1942. In Forth Worth, they found employment in the munitions and aircraft factories that had been expanded due to America’s entry into World War II. But due to epidemic polio in 1944, Roy and his elder brother Grady were sent back to live with their maternal grandmother, a divorcee, in Vernon. When the War was over, the family re-united in Vernon and soon moved out west to Wink, Texas, in late 1946.

Education

Roy Orbison studied at Denver Avenue Elementary School until 1944. He later attended Wink High School. Roy graduated from Wink High in June 1954 and signed up to attend the fall seminar at the North Texas State College in Denton, returned home for Christmas and played the New Year Dance on December 31st, 1954 with the Wink Westerners. He intended to study geology in order to be able to work in the oil fields if music did not pay. He dropped out after his first year of college. Orbison then entered Odessa Junior College. Orbison enrolled at Odessa Junior College in the fall of 1955 wanting to major in Geology but then changed to History and English.

Career

Roy Orbison wrote his first song “A Vow of Love,” in front of his grandmother’s house the same year. In 1945, he entered and won a contest on KVWC in Vernon and this led to his own radio show singing the same songs every Saturday. In 1946 a medicine show came to town and Orbison entered the talent contest singing “Mountain Dew” and “Jole Blon,” and tied for first place with a 15-year-old kid. The total prize was $15, so he got $7.50 and gave his buddy half of that for carrying his guitar.

When the War was over, the family re-united in Vernon and soon moved out west to Wink, Texas, in late 1946. He formed his first band when he was thirteen, in 1949. They called themselves The Wink Westerners.

In 1951 Orbison had been appearing regularly on KERB radio in Kermit. By 1953 the band, got their own show on KERB sponsored by local businessmen one day a week before school. The Wink Westerner’s first appearance was at one of the school assemblies. They were also featured on the KERB Jamboree on Saturday afternoons with local Country & Western bands. The first songs they played were “Kaw-liga,” “Mexican Joe,” “Caribbean,” and “Under the Double Eagle.” But they were not only country, little by little they began playing and making string arrangements for Big-Band standards and instrumentals like “In The Mood” or “Little Brown Jug” as well as Pop standards. During the summer, Orbison would work for the County shoving tar, or work in the oil fields chopping steel or painting water towers. He used to be part of the marching band and singing octet, and at some point or another tried to play the baritone horn. He even had become the manager of Wink High school’s Kittens football team in 1952.

At one of the band’s gigs in McCamey’s Lions Club, somebody offered them to play a dance and pay them for it. The pay for that gig was as good as a hard-working week’s pay, so they agreed to do it even though they only knew 4 or 5 songs. They learned some more tunes in a rush practicing at the Community Center, and started getting paid for what they liked doing. They were invited to tour West Texas with R. A. Lipscomb who was running for the office of district governor of the Lions Club in 1953. They attended the 36th International Lions Club Convention in Chicago from July 3rd to July 11th of that year.

ade Lee Moore and Dick Penner where two college friends of Orbison’s at Denton, and they had written “The Ooby Dooby.” Dick Penner arranged for them to record his song at Jim Beck’s studio in the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, which is South-East of Denton. Beck had been instrumental in the discovery of Lefty Frizzell and Marty Robbins for Columbia Records, so the band headed for Dallas to record “Ooby Dooby” and “Hey, Miss Fannie” which appears to be a duet of Roy Orbison and James Morrow. The session took place at some point during the summer of 1955 before the boys returned to West Texas. Orbison was convinced that they would be signed to Columbia Records, which never happened.

During the summer of 1955 the Wink Westerners regrouped back in West Texas. When not appearing at local clubs, they would play at the Saturday Night Jamboree in Jal, New Mexico. The band somehow managed to appear, along with other local Country and Western bands, on a Saturday afternoon television show on KMID-TV Channel 2, out of Midland. In addition to their regular repertoire, they began to play some Rock and Roll numbers including “That’s All Right Mama,” “Rock Around The Clock” and of course, “Ooby Dooby.” They were an instant success and as a result were given their own thirty-minute show on Friday nights on KMID.

Soon after Orbison enrolled at Odessa Junior College in the fall of 1955 the band moved in together to a duplex in Walnut Street in Odessa. With a couple of new members they renamed themselves “The Teen Kings” as they were playing more and more Rock and Roll. They got a second weekly local TV show on Saturdays from 4:30 to 5 PM on KOSA-TV, Odessa, Channel 7, which was part of the national CBS network. Johnny Cash and also Elvis Presley came in town to perform around this time and appeared on Orbison’s TV show. Orbison asked Johnny for advice on how to get a record released and Cash gave him Sam Phillips telephone number in Memphis. He called Phillips who hung up the phone saying, “Johnny Cash doesn’t run my record company.”

Orbison had been approached by local entrepreneur Weldon Rogers, who had an associate by the name of Chester C. C. Oliver. They were just starting up the Je-Wel label and wanted to record Orbison and the band. Orbison was anxious to take Rogers and Oliver up on their offer and Je-Wel’s first recording session was hastily arranged for March 4, 1956, at Norman Petty Studio in Clovis, New Mexico. This time, Orbison and The Teen Kings, recorded The Clover’s “Trying to Get to You” and “Ooby Dooby.” The single was released two weeks later circa March 19, 1956. That same day, Orbison took a copy to Cecil Hollifield in Odessa. He was a well-know record dealer in West Texas. “Poppa” Hollifield liked the record and played it on the phone to one of his connections in Memphis. The guy on the other side of the line asked him to send him a copy. His name was Sam Phillips, owner of Sun Records. A few days later “Poppa” telephoned Orbison to say that Phillips wanted the Teen Kings in Memphis in three days to record for Sun Records. Roy Orbison and the Teen Kings arrived in Memphis on Monday, March 26, 1956. The next day they re-recorded “Ooby Dooby,” “Trying to Get to You” and “Go Go Go (Down the Line).” Bob Neal, owner of Starts Inc., signed the group to a booking and management contract. They kicked off with an experimental tour of Southern drive-in movies theaters, performing on the projection house roofs between film showings. Most of the time touring with Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Warren Smith, Sonny Burgess, Faron Young, Johnny Horton and then Jerry Lee Lewis and other Country and Rockabilly stars.

“Ooby Dooby” peaked at number 59 on the national charts in June 1956 but the next Sun singles did not chart and Orbison started developing his songwriting talent. The Teen Kings split up in December 1956 and Orbison used studio musicians for the upcoming Sun sessions. He stayed at Sun until 1958.

Bob Neal offered Orbison a spot on an Everly Brothers show in Hammond, Indiana in March 1958. The Everlys needed a song for their new single, and they asked Orbison if he had anything. He sang his new composition “Claudette” and they asked him to write the words down. So he did, on the top of a shoebox. Later, Wesley Rose, from Acuff-Rose Music Publishing in Nashville, signed Roy Orbison with his Nashville publishing company. He also gave Orbison a contract with RCA Victor where he briefly worked with Chet Atkins.

The Everly’s “Claudette” was released on late March 1958 as the B-side of “All I Have To Do Is Dream.” The A side went to number 1; “Claudette” peaked at Number 30. At this point, his songs were also recorded by Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rick Nelson.

Wesley Rose rapidly got Orbison another contract with the new independent Monument Records when his RCA deal ran out in Mid-1959.

Back in Texas, Orbison had been writing with Joe Melson, and after a false start they came up with “Uptown” which was recorded and released in late 1959. “Uptown” sold better than any other Orbison record since “Ooby Dooby,” peaking half-way up the Hot 100. The sound was something different. It had strings as opposed to fiddles, which were not very common in Nashville.

The third single for Fred Foster’s Monument label was “Only the Lonely,” which became the first song that probed potential of Roy Orbison’s voice, and established his uniqueness. The song peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Charts and became number 1 in the United Kingdom.

The challenge to consolidate “Only the Lonely” was a difficult one. The follow-ups, “Blue Angel” and “I’m Hurtin,” were cloned too closely from “Only the Lonely,” and it took another few tries for Orbison and Melson to come up with something special. That next success was “Running Scared,” and it climbed all the way up to number 1 in the United States.

After that came “Crying,” “Candy Man,” “Dream Baby,” “Working for the Man,” “Leah,” “In Dreams,” “Pretty Paper,” “Blue Bayou,” “Mean Woman Blues,“ “It’s Over.” This became an unbroken string of Top 40 hits that lasted for four years. Orbison became the top selling American artist and one of the world’s biggest names.

In May 1963, and with the success of “In Dreams,” Wesley Rose eventually accepted an invitation for Orbison to tour England on a bill with The Beatles, who meant nothing in the United States at that time. The tour was sold-out in one afternoon. On the first night, Orbison did fourteen encores before The Beatles could get on stage.

Roy Orbison was one of the few hit-makers to hold his ground, and even to increase his popularity in the wake of the so-called British Invasion. He did it by maintaining a matchless quality of releases, with an original variety of content, structure, tempo and rhythm. He was also an extremely subtle song craftsman, making changes during the course of a session, or between sessions, adding the final commercial gloss to a song.

“Oh Pretty Woman” was recorded on August 1st, 1964. It was written by Orbison together with his new writing partner Bill Dees and it became his biggest hit, and in fact the most popular song of all time. Released in August in the US and in September in the United Kingdom, it went to number one in every country of the World. By most estimates, the song sold about seven million copies that same year.

Orbison toured Australia with the Beach Boys in 1964 and with the Rolling Stones 1965. Orbison also toured extensively in Europe.

Several major record companies showed interest in Orbison after his tenure with Monument. MGM made and offer of 1,000,000 dollars. The first single, “Ride Away,” was a modest success, but it would be the biggest single in the United States that Orbison would have for over twenty years. What seemed to be just a change of record labels became a huge turn in Orbison’s career. MGM was very successful at that time, but also that was about to change. Monument was Orbison’s label, but at MGM he was just one more act. Quantity was chosen over quality, and he was required to release certain amount of singles and albums per year which took it’s toll.

A dark period ensued as Orbison’s private life began to unravel as well. In 1966, his wife Claudette, who he married in 1957, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Matters turned worse two years later when two of his three children died when his Hendersonville house burned down (Orbison sold the lot to his best friend Johnny Cash. Cash’s home at the exact same location would also later burn to the ground.) Orbison found himself unable to write songs for a while, but maintained a positive outlook and continued touring. In late 1966 Orbison started filming “The Fastest Guitar Alive,” which was his only leading role. His last Top 100 entry in the United States for the rest of 1960s and 1970s was “Cry Softly Lonely One” in July 1967.

As his MGM contract came to an end in 1973, Orbison signed a one-year contract with Mercury Records in 1974 without major acclaim, but as he would say, he always had a record in the charts in some part of the World. For example “Penny Arcade” was number 1 in Australia for weeks on end and “Too Soon to Know” was number 3 in England. After that brief stay with Mercury Records, Orbison re-signed with Monument in January 1976 in an attempt to recharge his career in the midst of heavy touring on the Far East, Australia, Asia and Europe. Orbison paid the price of heavy smoking, heavy touring and life on the road when he underwent open-heart surgery at the St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville on January 18, 1978, but he was back on the road three weeks later just to prove he could do it.

But about this time things started to look a bit brighter in the United States. Orbison was always out of the shadow in Europe, mainly in England and everybody over there knew who he was, he was still popular and doing more shows overseas than at home, but when Linda Ronstadt had a huge hit with Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” which sold about 7 or 8 million copies, Van Halen had an enormous success with “Oh Pretty Woman” and Don McClean did the same with “Crying,” a rejuvenation process started.

Key factors contributed to the rebirth of Orbison’s career in the United States. A Grammy with Emmylou Harris in 1980 for “That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again,” “Wild Hearts Run out of Time” being in the film Insignificance, the Class of ’55 LP with fellow Sun record mates, his move to Malibu, California in late 1985, he re-recorded his greatest hits for an upcoming LP for Silver Eagle from Canada, and the use of the song “In Dreams” in the film Blue Velvet, but for sure helped a big deal to put Orbison’s music back in the map. Blue Velvet is considered a cult film and it helped Orbison to become very contemporary again, as he always wanted to be.

It was announced that Orbison would be inducted into the 2nd annual Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in New York on January 21, 1987. He was inducted by Bruce Springsteen who said, “In 1975, when I went into the studio to make Born to Run, I wanted to make a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector. But most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison.” Right after this, Orbison signs with Virgin Records who immediately re-releases the greatest hits tapes on an LP called In Dreams-Greatest Hits. There are a few new songwriting collaborators, among them Jeff Lynne. New material is being recorded for the upcoming Virgin LP in Los Angeles and the expectations start to grow.

Orbison wanted to do a TV Special for a long time. A couple of them were recorded, for instance Roy Orbison at the Los Angeles Country Club and Live in Birmingham, Alabama but nothing ever came close to the beautiful Roy Orbison and Friends - A Black and White Night Live. The event was taped at the legendary Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The band was filled up with familiar faces. Among them were Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, k.d. Lang, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, T-Bone Burnette, Jackson Browne, J. D. Souther, and they were backed up by Elvis Presley’s TCB band which included James Burton on guitar. This Special was going to air on Cinemax cable TV on January 1988, and subsequently released on video. This became a landmark in Orbison's career.

A duet of “Crying” with k.d. Lang was released as a single and on video. It also gave Orbison another Grammy Award. His collaboration with Jeff Lynne was becoming very prolific. Jeff had just produced George Harrison’s Cloud Nine and was working on Orbison’s and Tom Petty’s material at the same time. That led to the Traveling Wilburys project which became a huge success. The group features Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The record was released in October and entered the Top 10. This was also followed by a beautiful video for their first single “Handle with Care.”

Orbison’s new solo album was already finished and scheduled for release in January 1989. Orbison landed in Europe in mid-November and appeared on the Diamond Awards Festival in Antwerp, Belgium on November 19th as the main attraction of the evening. The show was filmed and Orbison sang to a playback of a brand new song, “You Got It.” Orbison came back to America played his last show in Highland Heights, Ohio, had big European and American tours planned out already for the next year. He headed down to Nashville on December 4 and on Tuesday, December 6, spent time shopping for model airplane parts and flying them, but during the afternoon he complained of chest pains. Orbison collapsed at his mother’s house right before midnight. He was on top of the charts again, but he was dead at 52.

Achievements

• 

  Roy Orbison is regarded as a rock-and-roll pioneer and has been cited by numerous critics as one of the genre's most influential musicians. His honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the same year. The music industry has continued to give accolades to Orbison. He was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989 and was awarded a 1991 Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In 1998, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His songs "Only the Lonely" and "Oh, Pretty Woman" received Grammy Hall of Fame Awards in 1999, and "Crying" received this award in 2002. Orbison is also an inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and West Texas Music Hall of Fame. In 2008 Sony released The Soul of Rock and Roll, a comprehensive box set containing many rare and unreleased recordings in addition to his hits. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and was inducted into the newly-established America's Pop Hall of Fame in 2014. The Roy Orbison Museum in Wink, Texas, Orbison's boyhood home, contains musical memorabilia of the famed singer, and the Roy Orbison Festival takes place in Wink each June. Rolling Stone placed him at number 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.

Works

More photos

• music

  • At The Rock House 1961
  • Lonely and Blue 1961
  • Crying 1962
  • In Dreams 1963
  • Oh, Pretty Woman 1964
  • There Is Only One Roy Orbison 1965
  • The Orbison Way 1966
  • The Classic Roy Orbison 1966
  • Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson 1967
  • The Fastest Guitar Alive 1967
  • Cry Softly Lonely One 1967
  • Roy Orbison's Many Moods 1969
  • Memphis 1972
  • Milestones 1973
  • Regeneration 1976
  • The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 1988
  • Mystery Girl 1989
  • King Of Hearts 1992
  • One Of The Lonely Ones 2015
  • The Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1 1988

Religion

The parents of Roy Orbison attended a Church of Christ congregation. Orbison testified of the conflict that he faced: "They were against dancing at my church, and I was trying to play at dances. I wasn't old enough to figure out anything for myself. So I just didn't go to church. I didn't want to attend and feel uncomfortable. I went and played the dances."

A couple of years after his wive's death, two of Orbison's three sons died in a tragic fire which destroyed his home. In the 1970s, Orbison went back to church, at first to a Church of Christ congregation, then to a Baptist church that was also attended by other famous country singers, including Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Skeeter Davis. When asked by the media about his religious faith, his testimony was as follows: "I don't have a pure statement but I believe in Jesus Christ and try to live by the rules of morality and conduct and a certain faithfulness in all things. That helps a great deal - so does common sense. It's very important to me. Your mind is created by a higher power and common sense will often tell you what to do."

Politics

Roy Orbison wasn't political and wasn't known to express his political views.

Views

As popular as Orbison’s musical style turned out to be, one of his doubters in the early days was none other than himself. Orbison had tried to record the song “Ooby Dooby” on two separate occasions, but never found success with it. Nevertheless, despite not thinking that it would lead anywhere, he eventually agreed to record the song for a third time at the insistence of legendary producer Sam Phillips. Orbison hesitated every step of the way, and still felt unsure about the project even on the very day when the recording was made.

Quotations: "People often ask me how would I like to be remembered and I answer that I would simply like to be remembered."

"Whether I'm in London, Sydney or Hong Kong, it makes no difference. There is always someone who knows me. I must be one of the most unloneliest people in the world!"

"I may be a living legend, but that sure don't help when I've got to change a flat tyre."

"Once I started singing, it was sort of a wonder. It was a great feeling, and it didn't hurt anybody, and it made me feel good, and some people even said, "Roy, that's nice"."

Membership

Orbison became a member of the Traveling Wilburys, which boasted a lineup of Orbison, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne, and their debut album in 1988 landed Orbison in the Top Ten for the first time since 1964.

• 

  Traveling Wilburys

Personality

Orbison had a strong fascination with cars, as well as machines of all kinds. In fact, he loved cars so much that, if he ever spotted a car he liked heading down the street, he would follow it, approach the driver, and offer to buy it from them on the spot. One of Orbison’s biggest passions outside of music was film. When he wasn’t too busy with his work, he was known to have frequently watched up to as many as three films a day during his spare time. Despite his seemingly effortless stage presence and charisma, Orbison’s biographers have stated that Orbison actually suffered from severe stage fright early on in his career. Roy Orbison once fell off his motorcycle and broke his foot right in front of a large crowd of shocked fans. Despite this setback, he didn’t miss a beat. He still performed a scheduled show that very evening, cast on his leg and all.

In 1966 the tragedy struck when Orbison's wife was killed in a motorcycle accident, with Roy riding just ahead of her when it happened. He found it difficult to write any more songs, but he kept touring. Two years later, a fire destroyed his house in Hendersonville, Tennessee, killing two of his three children. From that point on, he refused to attend funerals. Though he continued to perform and record he dealt with his personal pain by becoming increasingly addicted to sleeping pills, amphetamines, cocaine and fast motorcycles.

In the three months before his death, the usually private but unfailingly polite Orbison had been generous with his time, inviting Rolling Stone to his recording and mixing sessions, his concerts, his comfortable, unostentatious house high in the hills overlooking the beach at Malibu. The final session took place over breakfast at a restaurant just down the beach from the pier where he’d once spoken to actor Martin Sheen about playing the lead in the movie version of the autobiography Orbison wanted to write.

Physical Characteristics: Orbison's natural hair color was platinum blond; however, he never liked his hair and began dyeing his hair black in his teens. His identification with Wayfarer sunglasses began when he went on tour to England in the early 1960s, and forgot his regular specs. His lenses were prescription, but some fans mistook Orbison for being blind. In the last year of his life he had a ponytail. He was believed to have a three-to-four octave vocal range.

Quotes from others about the person

• With Roy, you didn't know if you were listening to mariachi or opera. He kept you on your toes. With him, it was all about fat and blood. He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop. [After "Ooby Dooby"] He was now singing 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'." - Bob Dylan
  
  "The poignancy of the combination of lyric and voice was stunning. He [Orbison] used drama to great effect, and he wrote dramatically." - Robert Plant
  
  "It was a great thrill just to know Roy Orbison, so to play, sing, write hit songs with him and have him in The Traveling Wilburys was beyond my wildest dreams!" - Jeff Lynne
  
  "I've never been more moved by a voice than I have been by Roy Orbison. I loved him personally, and I loved his voice. I think of him often and frequently listen to his songs." - Dolly Parton
  
  "Roy Orbison is singing for the lonely, hey, that's me and I want you only." - Bruce Springsteen
  
  "Roy Orbison is the greatest singer in the world." - Elvis Presley

Interests

• motorcycles

• Music & Bands

  Lefty Frizzell, Frankie Laine

Connections

Roy Orbison married his 16-year-old girlfriend, Claudette Frady in 1957. They had three sons together: Roy DeWayne, Anthony King, and Wesley. On June 6, 1966, when Orbison and his wife were riding motorcycles home from Bristol, Tennessee, Claudette struck the door of a pickup truck which had pulled out in front of her on South Water Avenue in Gallatin, Tennessee, and died instantly. During a tour in England, playing in Birmingham on Saturday, September 14, 1968, Orbison received the news that his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, had burned down, and his two eldest sons (Roy DeWayne and Anthony King) had died. His youngest son with Claudette Wesley was raised by Orbison's parents after that.

Orbison married for the second time to Barbara Anne Marie Wellhöner Jakobs in the year of 1969 and remained married to her until his death. The couple had two children together: Roy Kelton Orbison Jr. and Alexander Orbi Lee Orbison.

Father:

Orbie Lee Orbison

Mother:

Nadine Vesta Shults

Acquaintance:

Dolly Parton

late wife:

Claudette Frady

Son:

Roy DeWayne Orbison

Son:

Anthony King Orbison

Son:

Wesley Orbison

Wife:

Barbara Anne Marie Wellhöner Jakobs

Son:

Roy Kelton Orbison Jr.

Son:

Alexander Orbi Lee Orbison

Friend:

Johnny Cash

Friend:

Elvis Presley

Friend:

Martin Sheen

colleague:

Jeff Lynne

colleague:

Tom Petty

colleague:

Bob Dylan

colleague:

George Harrison

colleague:

John Lennon

colleague:

Paul McCartney

colleague:

Ringo Starr

colleague:

Mick Jagger

colleague:

Keith Richards

colleague:

Bruce Springsteen

Acquaintance:

Billy Joel

References

• Dark Star: The Roy Orbison Story
  1990
• Rhapsody in Black: The Life and Music of Roy Orbison
  2013
• Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity
  2003
• Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity
  2010
• Roy Orbison | The Official Website