Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. 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 chose to project defiant masculinity. He was known for his shyness and stage fright, which he countered by wearing dark sunglasses.
Mystery Girl is the twenty-second album by American singer Roy Orbison. It was completed in November 1988, a month before his death at the age of 52, and 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 Fastest Guitar Alive is a 1967 American Musical Comedy Western film directed by Michael D. Moore and starring singer Roy Orbison in his only starring role as an actor.
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 it, though, was "Ride Away", which reached #25 in the US charts, #12 in Australia and #34 in the UK.
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 that 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, and his tenth studio album overall. 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 #4 in Ireland and #27 in Australia. In Canada, the song reached just #71.
The Big O is the fifteenth music album recorded by Roy Orbison, and according to Marcel Riesco's official Roy Orbison discography, 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 of 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 new 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. The song has since been recorded by many others.
"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 1980 by Don McLean, whose version went to number 1 in the UK.
"Only the Lonely " 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 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. According to Orbison historian Marcel Riesco's research for "The Authorized Roy Orbison," personnel on the original recording included Orbison's drummer Larry Parks, plus Nashville's 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.
"In Dreams" is a song composed and sung by rock and roll performer Roy Orbison. An operatic ballad of lost love, it was released as a single on Monument Records in February 1963. It became the title track on the album In Dreams, released in July of the same year. The song has a unique structure in seven musical movements in which Orbison sings through two octaves, beyond the range of most rock and roll singers.
"It's Over" is an American song composed by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees and sung by Orbison. The single was produced by Fred Foster and engineered by Bill Porter.
Roy Orbison was an American singer-songwriter who found the most success in the early rock and roll era from 1956 to 1964. He later enjoyed a resurgence in the late 1980s with chart success as a member of the Traveling Wilburys and with his Mystery Girl album which included the hit single "You Got It". At the height of his popularity, 22 of Orbison's songs placed on the US Billboard Top 40 chart, and six peaked in the top five, including two number one hits. In the UK, Orbison scored ten top-10 hits between 1960 and 1966, including three No. 1 singles.
"Distant Drums" is a song which provided US singer Jim Reeves with his only UK No. 1 hit – albeit posthumously – in the United Kingdom in 1966, some two years after his death in a plane crash on 31 July 1964. The song remained in the UK Singles Chart for 25 weeks. The single also topped the US country chart for four weeks, becoming his most successful posthumous single.
"Oh, Pretty Woman" or "Pretty Woman" is a song recorded by Roy Orbison, written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in on August 29th, 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from September 26, 1964, the second single by Orbison to top the US charts. It was also Orbison's third single to top the UK Singles Chart.
Jeff Lynne is an English rock musician who founded the Electric Light Orchestra and has performed with and produced other artists, including Tom Petty and Roy Orbison. He has collaborated on various projects with former members of the Beatles.
Roy Orbison's Sun Recordings were made by Roy Orbison at Sun Studio with producer Sam Phillips. Sun Records was established in 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee, and during an eight-year period Sun Records signed 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.
"Not Alone Any More" is a song by the British–American supergroup the Traveling Wilburys from their 1988 album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. It was sung by Roy Orbison and serves as his main contribution to the album. The song was written mainly by Jeff Lynne, although all five members of the Wilburys are credited as songwriters.
One of the Lonely Ones is a posthumous Roy Orbison album which was released on December 4, 2015. It is his 24th and final studio album. Orbison recorded it in 1969. The album, which Orbison recorded surreptitiously in the aftermath of his wife Claudette's death in a motorcycle accident and the death of his two sons in a house fire 2 years later, was long believed lost.
link 
