From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Tue Apr 23, 2002  1:16 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Roy Orbison
 
ROY ORBISON (By Shaun Mather)

Born Roy Kelton Orbison, 23 April, 1936, Vernon, Texas
Died 6 December, 1988, Madison, Tennessee

Described by Elvis Presley as "the world's greatest singer", Roy Orbison,
the Big O, achieved worldwide fame through a series of aching, operatic pop
ballads that told of heartaches and loneliness. It was always like that
though, he'd started his career as a rockabilly singer, when he cut Ooby
Dooby and Trying To Get To You at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis and
released on the Je-Wel label. He moved to Memphis in early '56 on the advice
of Johnny Cash and got a shot on Sun Records and watched as his re-cut
of Ooby Dooby made the lower reaches of the charts. Further pounders
like Rockhouse, Mean Little Mama and You're My Baby failed to click
and it was as a songwriter that he seemed destined to end up, especially
after the Everly Brothers scored with his composition, Claudette (1958).
After a brief spell at RCA he moved to Monument and immediately
hit the big time with his stunning 1960 classic, Only the Lonely. The scene
was set for series of big ballads like Running Scared, It's Over, In Dreams
and Dream Baby and his biggest hit, Oh Pretty Woman. A combination of the
British Invasion and a switch to MGM brought an end to the high-flying run.
Tragedies struck with his wife Claudette dying in a motorcycle accident and
two sons perishing in a house fire. He returned to the limelight in the '80s
with the Travelling Wilburys (including Bob Dylan and George Harrison) and
cut one of his best albums, Mystery Girl in 1988. As the album was starting
to catch on with the public he died of a heart attack, the strain of a high
profile comeback had proved too much. The Big O will go down in history as
one of the great unique voices in popular music, and he wasn't a bad
song-writer either!

Recommended listening:
The Sun Collection (2CD) - Recall/Snapper.
Ooby Dooby - Encore. (A great mix of the very early and some obscure later)
The Original Singles Collection (2CD) - Monument/Sony.
Orbison - 1955-65 - Bear Family (7CD).

DVD: Black & White Night (1987 concert)
Biography : Ellis Amburn, Dark Star : The Roy Orbison Story. Secaucus, NJ:
Lyle Stuart, 1990.
Official website: http://www.orbison.com/