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Roy Orbison was raised in Wink Texas.Formed the Wink Westerners later called the Teen Kings, while in High School.After a year of College the singer met a couple of guys who had written "Ooby Dooby". Orbison headed for Memphis and in March 1956 recorded the Sun issued "Ooby Dooby. It sold nearly half a million copies and reached number 59 on the Billboard singles chart. Which was the best postion of a Sun Lable other than the hits of the Big Four of Sun Records: Elvis Presley,Jerry Lee Lewis,Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.Orbison the singer was easly idenified by his sunglasses,black clothes and near operatic voice,high piched,ethereal voice.Orbison eventually signed with Monumental Records.In the early 1960s ascieved popularity with a series of songs that built to a powerful,dramatic,emotional crescendos:Only The Lonely,Running Scared,Crying,Pretty Women.
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Roy Orbison Pretty Women | Roy Orbison Running Scared |
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an
American singer-songwriter and musician, well known for his
distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark
emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing
in a rockabilly / country & western band in high school until
he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success
was with Monument Records in the early 1960s where 22 of his
songs placed on the Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely",
"Crying", "In Dreams", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". His career
stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs
and the use of one in a film by David Lynch revived his
career in the 1980s. He joined the supergroup The Traveling
Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff
Lynne and released an album in 1988. He died of a heart
attack at the age of 52, at the zenith of his resurgence.
Orbison was a natural baritone, but since 1961 writers have
speculated that he had a three or four-octave range. The
combination of Orbison's powerful, impassioned voice, and the
complex musical arrangements in his songs led many in rock
and roll to refer to his music as operatic, calling him the
"Caruso of Rock". Performers as disparate as Elvis Presley
and Bono stated his voice was, respectively, the greatest and
most distinctive they had ever heard. While most men in rock
and roll in the 1950s and 1960s portrayed a defiant
masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a
quiet, desperate vulnerability. He experienced tragedies in
his life including the death of his first wife and his
children on separate occasions. He was known for performing
while standing still and solitary, wearing black clothes and
dark sunglasses which lent an air of mystery to his persona.
Orbison was initiated into the second class of the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 by longtime admirer Bruce
Springsteen. The same year he was inducted into the Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone listed Orbison as No.
37 in their list of The Greatest Artists of All Time. In
2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at No. 74 in the Top
600 recording artists. Rolling Stone rated Orbison at No. 13
in their list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in
2008.
