They were offered $400 to play at a dance, and Orbison realized that he could make a living in music. They played country standards and Glenn Miller songs at local honky-tonks and had a weekly radio show on KERB in Kermit, Texas. In high school, Orbison and some friends formed the band Wink Westerners. He was always keen to sing, however, and considered his voice memorable, but not great. He was quiet, self-effacing, and remarkably polite and obliging. He was self-conscious about his appearance and began dyeing his nearly-white hair black when he was still young. All the Orbison children had poor eyesight Roy used thick corrective lenses from an early age. Orbison described life in Wink as 'football, oil fields, oil, grease, and sand' and expressed relief that he was able to leave the desolate town. Īccording to The Authorized Roy Orbison, the family moved again in 1946, to Wink, Texas. He began singing on a local radio show at age 8, and he became the show's host by the late 1940s. The cajun favorite ' Jole Blon' was one of the first songs that he sang in public. In West Texas, he was exposed to rhythm and blues, Tex-Mex, the orchestral arrangements of Mantovani, and Cajun music. One of the first musicians that he heard in person was Ernest Tubb, playing on the back of a truck in Fort Worth. He also enjoyed Hank Williams, Moon Mullican and Jimmie Rodgers. He was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzell's singing, with its slurred syllables, and he adopted the name 'Lefty Wilbury' during his time with the Traveling Wilburys.

His major musical influence as a youth was country music. He recalled, 'I was finished, you know, for anything else' by the time he was 7, and music became the focus of his life. Orbison's father gave him a guitar on his sixth birthday. He attended Denver Avenue Elementary School there until a polio scare prompted the family to return to Vernon. According to The Authorized Roy Orbison, the family moved to Fort Worth in 1942 to find work in the aircraft factories. He was the second of three sons born to Orbie Lee Orbison (1913–1984) and Nadine Vesta Shults (1914–1992). Orbison was born on April 23, 1936, in Vernon, Texas. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top 600 recording artists. 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'.

He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and five other Grammy Awards. Orbison's 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. One month later, his song ' You Got It' (1989) was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach the US and UK Top 10 in nearly 25 years. Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988 at age 52. In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys (a rock supergroup) with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s, following the success of several cover versions of his songs. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including ' Only the Lonely' (1960), ' Running Scared' (1961), ' Crying' (1961), ' In Dreams' (1963), and ' Oh, Pretty Woman' (1964).Īfter the mid-1960s Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies, and his career faltered. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard Top 40. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.īorn in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project machismo.

His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames 'The Caruso of Rock' and 'The Big O'. Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads.

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