Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison April 23 1936 December 6 1988 was an American singer songwriter and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice complex song structures and dark emotional ballads Orbisons most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s Many of Orbisons songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male performers projected strength He performed with minimal motion and in black clothes matching his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses Born in Texas Orbison began singing in a countryandwestern band as a teenager He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956 after being urged by Johnny Cash Elvis Presley was leaving Sun and Phillips was looking to replace him His first Sun recording Ooby Dooby was musically akin of Presleys early Sun recordings He had moderate success at Sun but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records From 1960 to 1966 22 of Orbisons singles reached the Billboard top 40 He wrote or cowrote almost all of his own top10 hits including Only the Lonely 1960 Running Scared 1961 Crying 1961 In Dreams 1963 Oh Pretty Woman 1964 I Drove All Night 1987 Shes a Mystery to Me 1988 You Got It 1988 and California Blue 1988 After the mid1960s Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s following the success of several cover versions of his songs In 1988 he cofounded the Traveling Wilburys supergroup with George Harrison Bob Dylan Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne Orbison died of a heart attack that December at age 52 One month later his song You Got It 1989 was released as a solo single becoming his first hit to reach the top 10 in both the US and UK in nearly 25 years Orbisons honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987 the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014 He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and five other Grammy Awards Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on its list of the Greatest Artists of All Time and number 13 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time In 2002 Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top 600 recording artists Description above from the Wikipedia article Roy Orbison licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia