Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988), nicknamed the Big O, was an American singer-songwriter and musician, known for his distinctive, impassioned voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. The combination led many critics to refer to his music as operatic, giving him the sobriquet “the Caruso of Rock”. Between 1960 and 1964, 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top 40, including “Only the Lonely” (1960), “Crying” (1961), and “Oh, Pretty Woman” (1964).
Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly and country and western band in high school. He was signed by Sun Records in 1956, but his greatest success came with Monument Records in the early 1960s. His career stagnated in the 1970s, but was revived by several cover versions of his songs and the use of “In Dreams” in David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet (1986). In 1988, he was a member of the Traveling Wilburys supergroup, along with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. Orbison also recorded his final solo album, Mystery Girl. He died of a heart attack shortly thereafter, at the peak of his renewed popularity.
While most male rock and roll performers in the 1950s and 1960s projected a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison’s songs instead conveyed a quiet, desperate vulnerability. His voice ranged from baritone to tenor, and music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. During performances, he was known for standing still and solitary and for wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses, which lent an air of mystery to his persona.
His honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the same year, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989. 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’. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.In 2014, Orbison was elected to America’s Pop Music Hall of Fame.
Roy Kelton Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas, the middle son of Orbie Lee Orbison (1913–1984), an oil well driller and car mechanic, and Nadine Shultz (1914–1992), a nurse. Both of his parents were unemployed during the Great Depression and, searching for work, moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, when Roy was a child. He attended Denver Avenue Elementary School until a polio scare prompted the family to return to Vernon. Later, they moved to Wink, Texas. Orbison later described life in Wink as “football, oil fields, oil, grease and sand” and expressed relief that he was able to leave the desolate town.[note 1] All the Orbison children were afflicted with poor eyesight; Roy used thick corrective lenses from an early age. It was rumoured that Roy adopted dark glasses to hide a bad squint, but this was not the case.[citation needed] He was not confident about his appearance; he began dyeing his nearly white hair black when he was young. He was quiet and self-effacing, remarkably polite and obliging—a product, biographer Alan Clayson wrote, of his Southern upbringing. However, he was readily available to sing and often became the focus of attention when he did. He considered his voice memorable if not great.