The "The Three Octave Phenom: Roy Orbison" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Working at the gallery where I help a former high school student of mine do matting and framing of just about anything that comes in the door at Greginger Gallery.  And...I have been known to work much better when I am listening to music.  Today, the songs on the old portable CD player that was my mom's at one time, are some of my favorites from a guy known as Roy Orbison.  

Roy Orbison

Roy died over 30 years ago, but his voice and song lyrics still have meaning and inspiration for me as I work.  Songs such as "Only the Lonely" from 1960, "Running Scared" from 1961, "Crying" from 1961, "In Dreams" from 1963 and "Oh, Pretty Woman" from 1964 are some of my all-time favorites.  Not just from Roy, but from any artist living or deceased.  Roy was eight years my senior, but I just loved his singing style, song structures and dark, emotional Ballards.  He and his music has been described as operatic and gaining the nickname of "the Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O".  He didn't dance around the stage, wear flashy clothes and shout instead of sing; he performed standing still, wearing black clothes and dyed hair as well as dark sunglasses.  I often tried to sing along with him, knowing the lyrics to just about every song he ever performed, but just when I was at the top of my vocal range, Roy would top me with a note I could never hope to hit.  

Roy when he sang for Sun Records.

He began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band in high school, and was given a record contract with Sun Records in 1956.  A few years later he was signed by Monument Records where he enjoyed much of his success.  From 1960 to 1966 he had 22 singles reach the Billboard Top 40; most of those having been written or co-written by Roy himself.  Many of his records reflected on his personal life.  His distinctive three-octave voice and unorthodox songwriting technique was his unglamorous style which has been called "geek chic."  

Roy begins to wear his distinctive dark glasses.

As a child he had poor eyesight which was why he wore those thick corrective eyewear.  In 1963, while touring with the Beatles, he left his glasses on the plane which forced him to wear his unsightly prescription sunglasses for that night's show.  It later became his trademark.  From the mid-1960s he suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered.  His wife was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966 and two years later his two oldest sons died in a house fire. Roy entered a dark period in both his personal and musical life.  

Roy in 1965

In the 1980s he experienced a resurgence in popularity following the success of several cover versions of his songs.  It was in 1988 that he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys, a rock group that featured George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne.  What a group it was, but Roy only got to sing with the superstars for a few months before he died of a heart attack on December 6th of that year at the age of 52.  A month later his song, "You Got It" was released as a solo single and became his first hit to reach the U.S. Top 10 in nearly 25 years.  Roy is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987), the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1987), The Songwriters Hall of Fame (1989) and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum (2014).  Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the "Greatest Artist of All Time" and number 13 on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time."  In 2002, Billboard Magazine listed him at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.  Pretty impressive credentials!  But, what has impressed me the most about Roy is his falsetto voice which seems to come from within him.  He told Rolling Stone Magazine that he likes the sound of his voice, I like making it sing, making the voice ring, and I just keep doing it.  It was said that when Elvis Presley heard "Only the Lonely" for the first time, he bought a box of copies to pass along to his friends.  

Roy in 1987, a year before he died.

One of my all-time favorites of Roy Orbison is "Running Scared" when he hits the final high note.  Just gives me the chills.  The song was about an emotionally vulnerable man facing loss or grief, with a crescendo culminating in a surprise climax that employed Orbison's dynamic voice.  I have also read that what separates Orbison from so many other multi-octave-spanning power singers is the he can hit the biggest notes imaginable and still sound unspeakably sad at the same time.  All his vocal gymnastics were just a means to a powerful end, not a mission unto themselves.  Roy Orbison didn't just sing beautifully...he sang brokenheartedly.  Roy's voice will live on forever.  It was once said that, "When you were trying to make a girl fall in love with you, it took roses, the Ferris wheel and Roy Orbison. Amen!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.