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 music genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. He was nicknamed "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.
Donald Eugene Gibson was an American songwriter and country musician. A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, Gibson wrote such country standards as "Sweet Dreams" and "I Can't Stop Loving You", and enjoyed a string of country hits from 1957 into the mid-1970s.
Joe Melson is an American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter best known for his collaborations with Roy Orbison, including "Only the Lonely" and "Crying", which are both in the Grammy Hall of Fame and have both been included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Melson was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Roy Orbison Sings is the sixteenth album recorded by Roy Orbison and the ninth for MGM Records, released in May 1972. Around this time, Orbison's hit singles had well and truly dried up, but this album is said to be one of his finest.
Lonely and Blue is the debut studio album by Roy Orbison, released on Monument Records in January 1961.
The Orbison Way is the eighth album recorded by Roy Orbison, and his second for MGM Records, released in January 1966. Two singles were taken from the album—"Crawling Back" and "Breakin' Up Is Breakin' My Heart"—both of which were chart hits in England, the US and Australia.
Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson is a tribute album recorded by Roy Orbison for MGM Records. Released in January 1967, it is a collection of songs written by Country Music Hall of Fame singer/songwriter Don Gibson who, like Orbison, often wrote about the loneliness and sorrow that love can bring. Its one single, "Too Soon to Know", became a smash hit in the UK, reaching #3 there in September 1966, and also reached no. 4 in Ireland and no. 27 in Australia. In Canada, the song only reached no. 71.
Cry Softly Lonely One is the twelfth music album recorded by Roy Orbison, and his sixth for MGM Records. The album was released in October 1967 and included two singles: "Communication Breakdown" and the title tune, both of which were minor hits in the States early that year. "Communication Breakdown" did much better in Australia, where it reached #9 in February. According to the official Roy Orbison biography, the London Records release of this album featured the extra track "Just One Time".
The Great Songs of Roy Orbison is an album recorded by Roy Orbison for MGM Records released in the United States in February 1970.
Donald W. Gant was an American singer, songwriter and record producer.
Hank Williams: The Roy Orbison Way is the fourteenth album recorded by Roy Orbison, and the eighth for MGM Records, released in August 1970. It is a tribute album to the songs of Country Music Hall of Fame honky tonk singer Hank Williams, whom Orbison listed among his influences. The album was a critical failure and it sold poorly—Fred Foster said it was "an exercise in futility." It remained relatively unknown to Orbison fans until it was repackaged on Compact Disc in 2009 along with the popular 1967 Don Gibson tribute album Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson.
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.
Milestones is the eighteenth album by Roy Orbison, released on September 24, 1973, by MGM Records and his last album for that label. It was arranged by Joe Tanner, Rex North and Randy Goodrum. "The Morning After" was featured in the film The Poseidon Adventure.
Dan Folger was an American singer and songwriter.
I'm Still in Love with You is the nineteenth album by Roy Orbison, recorded for Mercury Records and according to the authorised biography of Roy Orbison, released in September 1975.
"Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)" is a 1960 song written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson. Orbison's recording of the song, produced by Fred Foster for Monument Records, was the first major hit for the singer. It was described by The New York Times as expressing "a clenched, driven urgency". Released as a 45 rpm single by Monument Records in May 1960, "Only the Lonely" went to No. 2 on the United States Billboard pop music charts on 25 July 1960 (blocked by Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry") and No. 14 on the Billboard R&B charts. "Only the Lonely" reached number one in the United Kingdom, a position it achieved on 20 October 1960, staying there for two weeks (out of a total of 24 weeks spent on the UK singles chart from 28 July 1960). According to The Authorized Roy Orbison, "Only the Lonely" was the longest charting single of Orbison's career. Personnel on the original recording included Orbison's drummer Larry Parks, plus Nashville A-Team regulars Floyd Cramer on piano, Bob Moore on bass, and Hank Garland and Harold Bradley on guitars, Joe Melson and the Anita Kerr Singers on backing vocals. Drummer Buddy Harman played on the rest of the songs on the session.
"I Can't Stop Loving You" is a popular song written and composed by country singer, songwriter, and musician Don Gibson, who first recorded it on December 3, 1957, for RCA Victor Records. It was released in 1958 as the B-side of "Oh, Lonesome Me", becoming a double-sided country hit single. At the time of Gibson's death in 2003, the song had been recorded by more than 700 artists, most notably by Ray Charles, whose recording reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
Glen Travis Campbell is the eponymous seventeenth studio album by American country music artist Glen Campbell, released in 1972 through Capitol Records. Recorded in Hollywood, and produced by Jimmy Bowen, the album's title refers to his full name. The record entered Billboard's Album charts November 1972, reaching a peak position of #148 and remaining on the chart for thirteen weeks.
Roy Orbison's Sun recordings were made by Orbison at Sun Studio with producer Sam Phillips. Sun Records was established in 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee, and during an eight-year period Phillips recorded such artists as Roy Orbison, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Harold Jenkins, and Charlie Rich. The musicians signed at Sun Records made music that laid the foundation of rock and roll in the 20th century.
"Run, Baby Run " is a song written by Joe Melson and Don Gant and performed by The Newbeats. It reached #4 in Canada, #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #66 in Australia in 1965. The song was also released in the United Kingdom as a single, but it did not chart on its original release. The group re-released the song as the B-side to their 1971 single, "Am I Not My Brother's Keeper", and in that year, "Run, Baby Run " reached #10 in the U.K., following extensive playing in Northern Soul clubs in England.
