Latest Release
- JUL 5, 2024
- 12 Songs
- Oh! Pretty Woman · 1964
- Christmas Eve · 1963
- Mystery Girl (Bonus Track Version) · 1989
- Crying · 1962
- Lonely and Blue · 1960
- One of the Lonely Ones · 2015
- In Dreams · 1963
- In Dreams · 1963
- Oh! Pretty Woman · 1964
- Mystery Girl (Bonus Track Version) · 1989
Essential Albums
- Roy Orbison was nothing if not a dreamer; this 1963 album, cut during a particularly fertile period, makes that thrillingly clear. He's the brokenhearted lover subsisting on fantasy in the title track, a prisoner trapped in memories of better times on "Blue Bayou," and a man blissfully blind to the border between dreams and reality in an ethereal take on The Everly Brothers’ "All I Have to Do Is Dream." Orbison's graceful, near-operatic tenor vividly brings all that dreaming to life.
- 1976
Artist Playlists
- One of rock's founding fathers, blessed with a soul-shattering tenor.
- His emotional brooding inspired power ballads and The Beatles.
- The darkly passionate singer/songwriter's brightest obscurities.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
Appears On
About Roy Orbison
Between his panoramic vocal delivery and operatic build-ups—not to mention those signature dark glasses—Roy Orbison still cuts a singular figure in the rock ‘n’ roll landscape. Born in Vernon, Texas in 1936, he devoted himself to playing and singing country music from a young age, forming rockabilly bands as a teen before ending up at Sun Records. From there, he migrated to Nashville, eventually finding his long-sought niche with 1960’s “Only the Lonely,” an aching reverie elevated by melodramatic strings, backing vocals, and Orbison’s haunting licks of falsetto. “Running Scared” and “Crying” followed suit, offering a darker, more adult alternative to the quaint teen-idol ballads of the day. Quivering with feeling, his voice made delicate leaps close to the microphone while escalating to resounding emotional payoffs. That romantic intensity earned Orbison his biggest hit with 1964’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” which balances its instantly familiar hook and snappy drumbeat with more idiosyncratic touches like his coy aside of “mercy” and the parting swath of ominous vocal echo. The previous year’s “In Dreams” revelled in similarly unusual choices, eschewing pop’s favored verse/chorus structure entirely. Orbison’s commercial appeal slipped in the late ’60s and ’70s, before covers of his songs (or songs he popularized) by Nazareth, Linda Ronstadt, Don McLean, and even Van Halen recast him as eternally cool, while his outsized passion made him a pop-culture touchstone in Blue Velvet and continues to inspire persona-driven retro fetishists like Lana Del Rey and Orville Peck. By the late ’80s he was collaborating with Glenn Danzig and k.d. lang, and founding the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Sadly, he died in late 1988 of a heart attack at age 52, though his posthumous album Mystery Girl—and its ubiquitous anthem “You Got It”—gave him the proper comeback he’d been chasing for decades.
- HOMETOWN
- Vernon, TX, United States
- BORN
- April 23, 1936
- GENRE
- Rock