Roy Orbison Vol. 1, The Big O

Roy Orbison

Born on 23 4th 1936 in Vernon, Texas.
Died on 6.12th 1988 in Tennesse.

Roy Orbison

The man with the unmistakable voice began as a rockabilly singer, then went as a staff composer (at Acuff - Rose) to Nashville. From his contract with Sun Records, he bought himself free, signed with Monument, where he began the assembly line production fate pregnant pain ballads. Among his classics and evergreens include 'Crying', 'Only The Lonely', 'Dream Baby', 'In Dreams', 'It's Over' and of course 'Pretty Woman' (a total of 29 US-Hits 1956-1967).

1966 accident his wife Claudette deadly on a motorcycle, only two years later both Orbison's sons died in a house fire. On 25 3 1969 Roy married in Nashville, the 19 year old Barbara Anne Wellhonen from Bielefeld (two common sons: Roy Kelton Jr., born in 1970, and Alexander, born 1974). During the 70 years it has been quiet around the superstar, who had to undergo a dangerous heart surgery.

End of the 80 he received a new contract with Virgin, again bubbled the hits, and Orbison was next to George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty solid Roy ORBISON Mm member of the Traveling Wilburys. At 6:12. In 1988, he died 'in Nashville a heart attack, his designated successor at the Wilburys, Del Shannon, shot himself.

Orbison's only German-language single is the mega-Rarität- both original titles were übersungen of the production line of Wolf Kabitzky on 06.09.1963 in Hamburg Teldec studio in the Easter Road with German lyrics. 1987 was recorded 'The Big O' in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

From the Bear Family Book - 1000 pinpricks of Bernd Matheja - BFB10025 -

Roy Orbison

Historians love to write about how Roy Orbison got started in the music business on the wrong foot, being forced to cut rock 'n' roll until he found his niche with the sort of orchestrated ballads that would cement his place in the Hall of Fame. 

While it is true that Roy himself preferred the softer songs and the pop ballads, and certainly that is where he found his greatest chart success, one thing cannot be denied—Roy Orbison's veins pulsed with the blood of a rocker. Although he always denied it, he was great at rocking, and left behind some of the best-loved rockabilly tracks of all time.

 This collection is perhaps the first of its kind, the first to collect all of Roy's best 'rockin'' material from the different periods in his career—from the early days at Sun Records and at the Norman Petty studios, to the short-lived days as an RCA Victor artist in the late 50s, and the few but fertile rockers that Roy cut in his golden days for Monument Records in the early 1960s.

 When an artist finds such massive success with a radically different style such as Roy Orbison did with his pop hits in the 60s, it is easy to write off early efforts with a dismissive wave of the hand. In fact, in doing the research for these liner notes, I was shocked at how nearly every single book or article about Roy Orbison regurgitated the same details about Roy's early rocking period, usually in a few short paragraphs. The thought occurred to me that had Roy not gone on to record those massive pop hits, he would have had the sort of attention paid to his rockabilly sides as the other greats of Sun Records—Carl Perkins, Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess, Warren Smith, and others who have had every minute detail of their 1950s activities researched and obsessed over time and again.

The fact of the matter is that Roy was another teenager in the mid-1950s who traveled to see Elvis Presley play and got swept up in the fury—women, fame, attention, and Roy's own admission that his only goal was "a Cadillac and a diamond ring by the age of 21."Whether or not he was teen idol material mattered not—for deep in his soul Roy felt the calling of wild bop music known as rock 'n' roll. 

Much has also been written about how unlikely a star Roy Orbison was. True, back in the 1950s as it is today, looks mattered over talent in the pop business, and Roy Orbison was not exactly an attractive man. Born albino, he suffered the eyesight problems of albinism, and in fact in the early days (before he wore glasses on stage) many thought Roy was blind because he had to be led up to the microphone. But he dyed his hair a deep jet black, bought himself the finest hepcat clothes that money could buy, equipped himself with top-of-the-line equipment (teenage Roy had a Les Paul 'black beauty' guitar—the most expensive solidbody Gibson made—and a Ray Butts Echosonic Amp like Scotty Moore—also the most expensive custom-ordered amplifier one could own at the time), and made up his mind that he was going to be a rock 'n' roll star, looks be damned.

In the music business, there has always been a great divide between the gifted and the determined, and Roy was both. The determination paid off—in fact the stubborn Roy stuck at it through high and low times throughout his 40-year stint in the music business. How many artists can say they started off with a hit on their first record, then sank so low as to eat rolled up balls of cornmeal and water (as Roy did between his Sun days and the pop hits), found top 40 success and made a million dollars, lost his wife to a motorcycle accident and two sons to a house fire, then wound up getting inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and having a top 10 hit just as he died? The story of Roy Orbison is a story of perseverance and dogged determination more than anything else.

West Texas is precisely the sort of place to breed a determined young man like Roy Orbison. Hot, dusty, and flat—these are the only goodthings that can be said about a place like Wink, Texas, where Roy was raised. Born in April 23, 1936 to hard working parents (Roy's dad Orbie Lee was a rigger in the oilfields), Roy was the classic outcast, a subject that later permeated his hits like Only The Lonelyand In Dreams.

Roy had a good head on his shoulders...