Two common misconceptions about his appearance stubbornly continue to surface about Orbison: one, that he was an albino, and two, that he wore his trademark dark glasses because he was blind or nearly so. Neither is correct, although his poor vision required him to wear thick corrective lenses (He suffered from childhood from a combination of hyperopia, severe astigmatism, presbyopia, anisometropia, and strabismus). Orbison's trademark sunglasses were a fashion statement arising from an accident early in his career. Due to go onstage in a few minutes, Orbison left his regular glasses in an airplane. Unable to see without corrective lenses, the only other pair of glasses he had available were darkly tinted prescription sunglasses. "I had to see to get onstage," so he wore the glasses throughout his tour with the Beatles, and he carried on with it for the rest of his professional career. "I'll just do this and look cool."
Early life and career
Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas, the second son of Nadine and Orbie Lee. After moving to Fort Worth around 1943 to find work in the munitions and aircraft factories expanded as a result of the Second World War, the family moved to the tiny oil town of Wink in late 1946. Music was an important part of his family life.
In 1949, at age 13, he organized his first band, "The Wink Westerners", and when not singing with the band he spent his time playing guitar and writing songs. The band appeared weekly on KERB radio in Kermit, Texas. Orbison graduated from Wink High School in 1954. He attended North Texas State College in Denton, Texas for a year, and enrolled at Odessa Junior College in 1955 to study history and English. The Wink Westerners had some success on local television, being given 30 minute weekly shows on KMID and then KOSA. One of the guests on their show was Johnny Cash, who advised them to seek a contract with his record producer, Sam Phillips, of Sun Records. Having renamed The Wink Westerners as "The Teen Kings", Orbison left college in March 1956, determined to give music a serious try, and headed for Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
Many of the earliest songs he recorded were produced by Sam Phillips, who also produced Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. Orbison achieved his first commercial success in June 1956 with "Ooby Dooby", a song written by friends of Orbison from college. His song "Claudette", named after his first wife, was recorded by The Everly Brothers as the B-side to their Number 1 hit "All I Have To Do Is Dream". However, the rockabilly and blues sounds of Sun's artists did not bring Orbison much success and his career seemed over, although fans of rockabilly music count his records among the best that this kind of music has to offer. For a time, he worked at Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville, Tennessee as a songwriter, and then was given a contract by RCA, but eventually Chet Atkins referred him to Fred Foster, the owner of Monument Records, where he moved after his contract with RCA ended in 1959.
Breakthrough and sudden decline
At Monument, Foster encouraged him to break from his established style. Under Foster's guidance, he began writing his own songs alone or in collaboration with Joe Melson and later Bill Dees, developing his signature operatic voice, and creating a sound unheard of in rock and roll at the time. His first record, "Uptown" was moderately successful. With the release of "Only the Lonely" and its immediate rise to the top of the charts (#2 in the US, #1 in the UK), he went on to become an international rock and roll star. His follow-up single, "Running Scared" became a US #1. Throughout his stay at Monument Records, his backup band was a group of outstanding studio musicians led by Bob Moore. The play of Orbison's voice against the dynamic yet uncluttered sound of the band gave Orbison's records a unique, identifiable sound.
A powerful influence on his contemporaries such as The Rolling Stones, in 1963, Roy Orbison headlined a European tour with The Beatles, becoming lifelong friends with the band, in particular with John Lennon and George Harrison. Orbison would later record with Harrison as part of The Traveling Wilburys. During their tour of Europe, an impressed Roy Orbison encouraged The Beatles to come to the United States. When they finally decided to try America, they asked Orbison to manage their first tour but his own schedule forced him to turn down what was to become an astounding success.
Unlike many artists, Orbison maintained his success as the British Invasion swept America in 1964. His single "Oh, Pretty Woman" broke the Beatles' stranglehold on the Top 10, soaring to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. The record sold more copies in its first ten days of release than any 45rpm up to that time and would go on to sell more than seven million copies. The song later became the signature tune for the film Pretty Woman, named for his song, which brought fame to actress Julia Roberts.
He toured with The Beach Boys in 1964, and with The Rolling Stones in Australia in 1965. He was very successful in England, logging three No.1 hit singles and was several times voted top male vocalist of the year.
Orbison signed a contract with MGM Records in 1966, and starred in MGM Studios' western-musical motion picture The Fastest Guitar Alive in which he would perform several songs from an album of the same name. However, due to changes in musical taste, he suddenly ceased to have hits in the United States after 1967, and although he would remain popular elsewhere, his American popularity did not recover until the 1980s.
He also suffered problems in his personal life, with the death of his first wife, Claudette (Frady), in a motorcycle accident in 1966 after 11 years of marriage. Two years later, the family home at Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee burned to the ground while Orbison was touring in England, and two of his three young sons, Anthony and Roy Jr., died in the fire. The youngest boy, Wesley, at the time only three, was saved by Orbison's parents. He met his second wife, Barbara, in August 1968, in Leeds, England, and they were married in Nashville on May 25, 1969.
His contract with MGM ended in 1973, and he signed for Mercury Records. Songs that had only reasonable success in North America, such as "Penny Arcade" and "Working for the Man", would go to Number 1 on the Australian charts, and "Too Soon to Know" was Number 3 in England. His popularity extended to Germany, and he recorded his hit song "Mama" in German. His records were in great demand on the "black market" behind the Iron Curtain. In France, he was viewed as the master of the ballad of lost love in the vein of that country's most popular singer Édith Piaf, and a cover version of Orbison's "Blue Bayou" sung in French by Mireille Mathieu went to the top of France's record charts. Fans in the Netherlands founded his largest world-wide fan club. He continued to perform in Ireland, despite the constant terrorist activities in Northern Ireland. A rendition of the popular ballad "Danny Boy" on the 1972 Memphis album is considered one of the best recordings ever made of this much-recorded song.
He re-signed with Monument in 1976, but his career remained in the doldrums until the late 1980s.
Resurgence in the 1980s
In 1980, Orbison teamed up with Emmylou Harris to win the 1981 Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their song, "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again". In 1985, Orbison recorded "Wild Hearts" for the Nic Roeg film Insignificance, released on the ZTT Records label, produced by David Briggs and Will Jennings. The inclusion of "In Dreams" in the 1986 David Lynch film Blue Velvet also aided Orbison's popular resurrection. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the induction speech made by Bruce Springsteen (who had famously referenced Orbison and "Only the Lonely" in his 1975 song "Thunder Road"). His pioneering contribution was also recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Having signed a recording contract for the first time in 10 years, with Virgin Records, he re-recorded his 1961 hit song, "Crying," as a duet with k.d. lang in 1987 for the soundtrack of the motion picture, Hiding Out. The song would earn the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, a black and white Cinemax television special recorded at the Coconut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1988, brought Orbison to the attention of a younger generation. Orbison was accompanied by a who's-who supporting cast, organized by musical director T-Bone Burnett, all fans and all volunteers who lobbied to participate: on piano was Glen Hardin, who had played for Buddy Holly as well as working with Elvis Presley for a number of years; lead guitarist James Burton had also played with Presley; male background vocals, with some also playing the guitar, came from Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, and Steven Soles; and k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt provided female background vocals.
Shortly after this critically acclaimed performance, whilst working with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra on tracks for a new album, Orbison joined Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty to form The Traveling Wilburys, achieving substantial commercial and critical success. He subsequently recorded a new solo album, Mystery Girl, produced by Orbison, Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers), and Jeff Lynne. It included one track by U2's Bono (who also wears trademark dark glasses and co-wrote the track "She's a Mystery to Me" with The Edge specifically for Orbison). At an awards ceremony in Antwerp, a few days before his death, Roy Orbison gave his only public rendition of the hit "You Got It" to the applause of a huge crowd.
Death
Orbison had triple heart bypass surgery on January 18, 1978 and enjoyed smoking most of his life. On December 6, 1988, at the age of 52, he suffered a fatal heart attack while visiting his mother in the Nashville, Tennessee suburb of Hendersonville. At the direction of his second wife, Barbara, Roy Orbison was interred on December 15, 1988, in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California. His two sons and their mother, Claudette, who predeceased him, had been laid to rest at his request in the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.
His new album, Mystery Girl, and the single from it, "You Got It", were posthumous hits, and are generally regarded as Orbison's best work since his success of the 1960s. He was the posthumous winner of the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and in 1992, the popular "I Drove All Night" and "Heartbreak Radio" appeared on the posthumous album, King of Hearts, produced by Jeff Lynne.
Legacy
Orbison is most remembered for his ballads of lost love, and within the music community he is revered for his song-writing abilities. Record producer and Orbison fan Don Was, commenting on Orbison's writing skills, said: "He defied the rules of modern composition." Songwriter Bernie Taupin, composer of many lyrics for Elton John, and others referred to Orbison as far ahead of the times, creating lyrics and music in a manner that broke with all traditions. Roy Orbison's vocal range was impressive (three octaves) and his songs were melodically and rhythmically advanced and lyrically sophisticated. Three songs written and recorded by Orbison, "Only the Lonely," "Oh, Pretty Woman," and "Crying," are in the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone named those three songs plus "In Dreams" on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." In 1989, he was inducted posthumously into the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame.
From the stage in Las Vegas in 1976, Elvis Presley called Orbison "the greatest singer in the world", and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees referred to him as the "Voice of God." Multiple Academy Award–winning songwriter Will Jennings ("My Heart Will Go On," from the Titanic soundtrack) called him a "poet, a songwriter, a vision," after working with him and co-writing "Wild Hearts." Bob Dylan, later a bandmate of Orbison's in the Traveling Wilburys, wrote "Orbison … transcended all the genres. … With Roy, you didn't know if you were listening to mariachi or opera. He kept you on your toes. … [He sang] his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. He sang like a professional criminal. … His voice could jar a corpse, always leave you muttering to yourself something like, 'Man, I don't believe it.' His songs had songs within songs. Orbison was deadly serious–no pollywog and no fledgling juvenile. There wasn't anything else on the radio like him."
www.royorbison.com
Crawling Back
Roy Orbison Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Can keep me crawling back
You know I can't help myself
And now I'm crawling back
After all you've done to me
The times you've turned me down
I still will be your clown
I'm crawling back
You know I would die for you
Heaven knows how I have cried for you
But what else can I do
But crawl on back to you, ooh
Crawling back to you
People stop they talk and they stare
But they don't know that you really care
That you're only lonely, and making believe
And you need me around
When the world turns you down
Whenever you might need me
I will come crawling back
Wherever you will lead me
I will come crawling back
In Roy Orbison's classic song Crawling Back, the singer is expressing their undying love for the person they are singing to. They acknowledge that despite all the times this person has turned them down and hurt them, they can't help but come crawling back to them because their love is so strong. The singer sings "Only you and no one else / Can keep me crawling back," acknowledging that this person holds some sort of power and control over them. The singer even goes as far as to say "I still will be your clown / Because I love you," potentially suggesting that they are willing to endure some level of humiliation just to be loved by this person.
The chorus of the song, "You know I would die for you / Heaven knows how I have cried for you / But what else can I do / But crawl on back to you," is an incredibly powerful expression of love, illustrating that the singer is willing to go to extreme lengths for this person. The bridge of the song, "People stop they talk and they stare / But they don't know that you really care / That you're only lonely, and making believe / And you need me around / When the world turns you down," suggests that there may be some sort of stigma around this relationship, and that the person the singer is addressing may not be seen in the best light by others. However, the singer knows that this person truly cares for them and needs them, and is willing to continue crawling back to them no matter what.
In essence, Crawling Back is a classic story of unrequited love, where the singer acknowledges the flaws of the person they love but are powerless to resist their pull. It is a song that captures the raw vulnerability and intensity of the human heart, and has resonated with listeners for decades.
Line by Line Meaning
Only you and no one else
You are the only one who has the power to keep me coming back.
Can keep me crawling back
Your hold on me is so strong that I have no choice but to come back.
You know I can't help myself
I am completely helpless when it comes to my feelings for you.
And now I'm crawling back
Once again, I find myself returning to you.
After all you've done to me
Despite all the pain and heartbreak you've caused me,
The times you've turned me down
All the times you've rejected me,
I still will be your clown
I will continue to let you toy with my emotions and make a fool out of myself.
Because I love you
My love for you is so strong that it overrides all the hurt and rejection I've experienced.
You know I would die for you
I am so devoted to you that I would be willing to die for you.
Heaven knows how I have cried for you
I have shed countless tears because of my love and pain for you.
But what else can I do
I am at a loss for what to do because my love for you is so strong.
But crawl on back to you, ooh
Once again, I find myself coming back to you despite everything.
People stop they talk and they stare
Others notice my devotion to you and wonder why I continue to come back.
But they don't know that you really care
They don't understand the true depth of your feelings for me.
That you're only lonely, and making believe
They don't realize that you are just as lonely and in need of love as I am.
And you need me around
You depend on me and my love for you to fill the void in your life.
When the world turns you down
When you feel rejected or alone, you know I will be there for you.
Whenever you might need me
No matter what the circumstances, I will always be there for you.
I will come crawling back
My love and devotion for you will always lead me back to you.
Wherever you will lead me
I am willing to go wherever you want me to go because of my love for you.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Bill Dees, Roy Orbison
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@joline2730
Joseph: I would have to agree - Pretty Woman does not define this wonderful singer ...
It's Over
Crying
Leah
The Crowd
She Wears My Ring
Cry Softly Lonely One
Heartache
. . . And so many others draw the REAL ROY out 💯
@vincentmcauley2313
Can’t understand this beautiful tune didn’t hit number one, goes to show Roy wasn’t fully appreciated for his remarkable talent, but he will never be forgotten.
@melanie19721985
Played at my dads funeral in 1993 now here we are , 2020, now and now it’s my mums funeral , together at last , RIP MUM, now go and dance together again, love you both so much 💔💔💔
@maida-vale
Roy was very kind to me when I was young and living in London. Only now in old age do I hear how fabulous that voice was.
@canuckyukyuk9164
This is my favourite Roy Orbison song, EVER!
@joline2730
Mine is The Crowd, but this is a close second 💯💯💟💜💟💜
@user-cz1rw3xk9r
Mine as well
@lvb1975
Roy had that amazing ability to sing with such a deep understanding and emotion. One of most beautiful tunes he ever made. What a pity that it was underestimated. Roy miraculously made through those tragic and dark moments of his life to give us all those thrills. He cared for his fans as much as we care for his music. And yes, Dearest Roy, we remember. We always will...
@sheilaenglish8316
This has to be the best love song I have heard in all my 72 years
@rhondalamb7053
Sheila English He always put heart into his beautiful voice.
@jackfrost2146
Also at 72----I agree!