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Roy Orbison
Lefty Wilbury
Born Roy Kelton Orbison on April 23rd 1936, he grew up in the heart of the Texan oil fields. He began playing and singing with local bands - his first was with The Wink Westerners. Roy moved on to The Teen Kings who - at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico - recorded a single which was only released locally. Acting on Johnny Cash's advice, Roy sent a copy of the song - Ooby Dooby - to Sun Records' founder Sam Phillips. Phillips liked what he heard, Roy drove to Memphis, and by June 1956 Sun had released its first Roy Orbison hit single.
Roy left Sun in 1957 and signed to music publishers Acuff-Rose, convinced his true calling was as a songwriter. Indeed, his song Claudette - written while at Sun - was a Top Thirty hit for the Everly Brothers in 1958.
Roy was soon to be moving up following a conversation between his manager Wesley Rose and a former Mercury promotion man, Fred Foster. Foster had heard a record by Warren Smith on Sun - Rock and Roll Ruby. "Fred thought I'd recorded that and so he signed me, thinking I was someone else!", said Roy.
Eight top ten hits in the four years between 1960 and 1964 paved the way for the biggest selling record of his career, Oh, Pretty Woman. Estimated to have sold over 7 million copies in 1964 alone, it topped the American charts for three weeks.
Orbison also toured Britain regularly, initially sharing a bill with The Beatles (who, at that time, were by and large unknowns in america). "I messed up the first day I got there. I walked out in this little theatre and they had Beatles placards everywhere, life-size ones. And I said, 'what's all this? What is a Beatle anyway?' and John Lennon said, 'I'm one'. He was standing right behind me".
Roy's private life was marred when - in the midst of reconciliation with his ex-wife, Claudette, she was killed in a motor-cycle accident. Two years later in 1968, two of Roy's sons were killed in a housefire. Reduced to touring clubs, Roy returned to his country roots and recorded for Mercury and Asylum in the '70's.
Signing to Virgin, and with all of his old original recordings embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings, Orbison set about re-recording his songs "just so's they would be available" and released a double-set - In Dreams.
In 1987, Roy was inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and with his career rejuvenated, Orbison fronted the extraordinary TV special recorded at the Coconut Grove in Los angeles - Roy Orbison and Friends: a Black and White Night. Roy's friends who became his backing band were indeed stellar - Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, k d lang, Elvis Costello, T Bone Burnett, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, J.D. Souther, Jennifer Warnes and more.
In December 1988, Roy died, suddenly, from a heart attack.
Posthumously released in 1989, Roy's Mystery Girl album became the biggest selling record of his career. That success was sparked by two more top ten hits, You Got It (written by fellow Wilburys' Petty and Jeff Lynne) and I Drove all Night In 1992, Virgin released King Of Hearts, a collection of previously unissued songs.
Related Sites
Roy Orbison Official
Site
The
Roy Orbison Home Page - Gtreat site with loads of sounds and pictures
