| "Candy Man" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Roy Orbison | ||||
| A-side | "Crying" | |||
| Released | July 1961 | |||
| Recorded | June 27, 1961 [1] | |||
| Studio | RCA Victor Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee [1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 2:43 | |||
| Label | Monument | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Fred Foster | |||
| Roy Orbison singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Candy Man" is a song by Roy Orbison, released as the B-side to his international hit "Crying" in July 1961. [2] It was later covered by British beat group Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, becoming a top-ten hit in the UK. [3]
"Candy Man" was written by Beverly Ross and Fred Neil. Ross was introduced to Neil at Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village after being suggested by publishing company Hell and Rage that they co-write. Ross had had success as a co-writer of "Dim, Dim the Lights" for Bill Haley & His Comets and "Lollipop", which became an international hit for the Chordettes. Neil, on the other hand, was yet to have such success having been writing, and also recording, for past few years. Knowing that Ross had written "Lollipop", Neil wanted to write a "candy song" with her. Determined to have another hits, Ross agreed and Neil proposed the title "Candy Man", saying that in New Orleans, where he was from, "the prostitutes, y’know, the hookers all have a pimp, and they call him their Candy Man". Whilst Ross wasn't particularly pleased with this, she liked the title, so they wrote the song, "giving the title an affectionate, cute definition lyrically rather than the sleazy actual meaning it derived from". [4]
After ending her contract with Hell and Rage, Ross went to friend Aaron Schroeder, who had recently started his own publishing company, January Music. After being played the song, Schroeder loved it and sent Ross and Neil into the studio to cut a demo. Schroeder then gave the recording to producer Fred Foster who then cut the song with country artist Roy Orbison. [4] "Candy Man" was recorded at Nashville's RCA Victor Studio B on June 27, 1961, the day after the recording of "Crying". [1] The song prominently features a harmonica, performed by the then-relatively unknown Charlie McCoy. The success of "Candy Man" helped boost McCoy's career. [5]
"Candy Man" was released as the flip side to "Crying" in mid-July 1961, whilst Orbison's previous single, "Running Scared", was still in the charts. [5] It was well-received, becoming Orbison's first B-side to make the US charts. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 in the first week of August, a week before the appearance of "Crying", and spent a total of fourteen weeks on the chart, reaching its peak at number 25 in the first week of November. [6] It entered the Cash Box Top 100 in the third week of August, spent a total of sixteen weeks on the chart and achieved its peak at number 34 in the second week of September. [7] "Candy Man" was not included on any of Orbison's studio albums, though it was included as a bonus tracks on subsequent reissues of Crying , and its first release on album was the compilation Roy Orbison's Greatest Hits in August 1962.
| Chart (1961) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 [6] | 25 |
| US Cash Box Top 100 [7] | 34 |
| "Candy Man" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Brian Poole and the Tremeloes | ||||
| B-side | "I Wish I Could Dance" | |||
| Released | January 24, 1964 | |||
| Recorded | January 8, 1964 [8] | |||
| Studio | Decca Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Beat | |||
| Length | 2:24 | |||
| Label | Decca | |||
| Songwriter(s) | ||||
| Producer(s) | Mike Smith | |||
| Brian Poole and the Tremeloes singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Brian Poole and the Tremeloes were introduced to "Candy Man" by Roy Orbison whilst they were on tour with him in the UK. Whilst in the tour coach, Orbison began playing his version of the song (described by Poole as "slower and more bluesy"), before suddenly telling the group "you can make this a dancer", playing it more quickly. [9] During the recording of the song at Decca Studios, the group wanted to have a "really dry snare drum sound" on "Candy Man", but due to the primitive multitrack recording equipment, this was hard to do. In order to get around this, they used advice give to them by Norman Petty about using a matchbox on some of the Crickets' songs. Tremeloes drummer Dave Munden taped a matchbox to his knee and drummed on it with one stick. Along with careful positioning of the microphone, this led to the desired sound effect. [9]
The single was released in January 1964 with the B-side "I Wish I Could Dance", a cover of a 1963 song by Jimmy Soul. "Candy Man" became the group's third top-ten hit in the UK and spent a total of thirteen weeks on the Record Retailer Top 50 chart. [3]
Don Nicholl for Disc wrote "there's something less dramatic about Poole and the Tremeloes this time out as they skip-beat to "Candy Man". After the weird, almost oriental twanging of the start the side provides a very catchy count. I think it has the mood for the moment, and it'll have customers chanting along in company". [10] In Record Mirror , it was described as being "much more original than his [Poole's] last", with "a crashing guitar [that] leads the way, and Brian [singing] the vocal with more than a touch of R&B in the delivery". [11]
| Chart (1964) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (Kent Music Report) [12] | 18 |
| Denmark (Danmarks Radio) [13] | 20 |
| Ireland (IRMA) [14] | 8 |
| Sweden ( Tio i Topp ) [15] | 15 |
| UK Disc Top 30 [16] | 7 |
| UK Melody Maker Top 50 [17] | 6 |
| UK New Musical Express Top 30 [18] | 8 |
| UK Record Retailer Top 50 [3] | 6 |
"Candy Man" has been covered by a number of artists, including Bobby Vee and the Ventures, Dion, the Hollies, Wanda Jackson and Brian Hyland. Co-writer Fred Neil released a version of the song on his 1965 debut solo album Bleecker & MacDougal and harmonicist Charlie McCoy covered it on his 1968 debut album The World of Charlie McCoy. [19] However, the most successful other recording was by Mickey Gilley and Charly McClain, whose duet version peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and number 3 on the Canadian RPM 50 Country Singles chart in 1984. [20] [21]
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's music is mostly in the rock genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O". Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers projected machismo. He performed with minimal motion and in black clothes, matching his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night is a 1988 Cinemax television special originally broadcast on January 3, 1988, presenting a performance by singer/songwriter Roy Orbison and the TCB Band with special guests including Bruce Springsteen, k.d. lang and others. The special was filmed entirely in black and white. After the broadcast, the concert was released on VHS and Laserdisc, and a live album was released in 1989.
Mystery Girl is the twenty-second album by American singer Roy Orbison. It was his last album to be recorded during his lifetime, as he completed the album in November 1988, a month before his death at the age of 52, and it was released posthumously by Virgin Records on January 31, 1989. It includes the hit singles "You Got It", which was co-written by Orbison and his Traveling Wilburys bandmates Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, and "She's a Mystery to Me", written by Bono and The Edge. The album was a critical and commercial success; it peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, the highest position Orbison had achieved on that chart, and number 2 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me".
Roy Orbison at the Rock House is the first album by Orbison on the Sun Records label in 1961, at a time when Orbison had already moved to the Monument label. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips had a collection of songs Orbison had recorded at Sun during 1956–1958. Phillips capitalized on the national recognition Orbison had achieved at Monument through three major hit singles in 1960 and '61 that had gone to the top of the Billboard charts.
There Is Only One Roy Orbison is the seventh album recorded by Roy Orbison, and his first for MGM Records, released in July 1965. It features his studio recording of "Claudette", an Orbison-penned song which had become a hit for The Everly Brothers in 1958. Ironically, at the time he recorded the song in 1965, he had divorced his wife Claudette, who had inspired the lyrics. Orbison later re-recorded the song for In Dreams: The Greatest Hits in 1985. The single taken from the album was "Ride Away", which reached no. 25 in the US charts, no. 12 in Australia and no. 34 in the UK. Cash Box described "Ride Away" as a "rhythmic teen-angled ode about a somewhat ego-oriented lad who cuts-out on romance."
The Big O is the fifteenth music album recorded by Roy Orbison, and according to the authorised Roy Orbison biography, his second for London Records in the United Kingdom. The music and backing vocals were provided by English group, the Art Movement on all tracks except for "Penny Arcade", which was a studio recording and was released as a single in 1969, peaking at #27 in the UK and would be Orbison's last UK chart success during his lifetime. "Penny Arcade" was also his biggest hit in Australia, spending four weeks at Number One around Christmas, 1969. The second single, "Break My Mind", was Orbison's last Australian chart success during his lifetime, reaching #24 in March 1970. The album was released in Europe in early 1970.
In Dreams: The Greatest Hits is a two-record album set by Roy Orbison songs released in 1987 on Virgin Records. It was produced by Orbison and Mike Utley, except for the song "In Dreams", produced by Orbison with T-Bone Burnett and film director David Lynch. All songs are re-recordings by Orbison from 1986, except "In Dreams" from April 1987.
"Blue Bayou" is a song written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson. It was originally sung and recorded by Orbison, who had an international hit with his version in 1963. It later became Linda Ronstadt's signature song, with which she scored a Top 5 hit with her cover in 1977. Many others have since recorded the song.
"Crying" is a song written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson for Orbison's third studio album of the same name (1962). Released in 1961, it was a number 2 hit in the US for Orbison and was covered in 1978 by Don McLean, whose version went to number 1 in the UK in 1980.
"In Dreams" is a song composed and sung by singer Roy Orbison. An operatic rock ballad of lost love, it was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. It became the title track of the album In Dreams, released in July of the same year. The song has a unique through-composed structure in seven movements in which Orbison sings through two octaves, beyond the range of most rock singers.
"You Got It" is a song from American singer Roy Orbison's 22nd studio album, Mystery Girl (1989). The song was released posthumously on January 3, 1989, after Orbison's death from a heart attack on December 6, 1988. The song was issued with "The Only One" as the B-side and was later released with "Crying". The single reached number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary chart, returning Orbison to the top 10 for the first time in 25 years. "You Got It" also reached number three on the UK Singles Chart and entered the top five in 10 other countries. Although it is an Orbison solo single, Orbison's fellow Traveling Wilburys bandmates Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne co-wrote the song and played instruments on the record.
Brian Poole is a singer and performer who was the lead singer of 1960s beat band the Tremeloes (1957–62) and then Brian Poole and the Tremeloes (1962–66).
"Do You Love Me" is a rhythm and blues song recorded by the Contours in 1962. Written and produced by Motown Records owner Berry Gordy Jr., it appeared twice on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching numbers three in 1962 and eleven in 1988.
"Oh, Pretty Woman", or simply "Pretty Woman", is a song recorded by Roy Orbison, written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in August 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from September 26, 1964, the second and final single by Orbison (after "Running Scared" to top the US charts. It was also Orbison's third single to top the UK Singles Chart.
16 Biggest Hits is a 1999 Roy Orbison compilation album. It is part of a series of similar 16 Biggest Hits albums released by Legacy Recordings.
Je–Wel, latterly renamed Jewel Records, was an independent American record label founded in Odessa, Texas, in 1955 by Weldon Rogers (1927–2004), himself a singer, and Chester Calvin Oliver (1907–2000). Je–Wel is known for having engaged, recorded, and produced fledgling artists from West Texas at the dawn of rock and roll in the 1950s.
"California Blue" is a song written by Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty. According to The Authorized Roy Orbison, Orbison recorded the song in April 1988 at Mike Campbell's garage in Los Angeles. "California Blue" was released as a single from Orbison's 22nd studio album, Mystery Girl, in July 1989, reaching the top 40 in Belgium, Ireland, and West Germany.
"Pretty Paper" is a song written by country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson in 1963. After being signed to Monument Records, Nelson played the song for producer Fred Foster. Foster pitched the song to Roy Orbison, who turned it into a hit. Nelson later recorded his own version of the song in November 1964.
"Someone, Someone" is a song by American rock and roll band the Crickets, released in March 1959 as the B-side to "Love's Made a Fool of You". However, the song is better known for the version by British beat group Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, which became a top-ten hit in the UK in 1964.
