When was roy orbison popular

At age 12 in , I was unaware of the past professional and personal relationships shared by my two favorite singers. In April , Roy Orbison was born in Texas, just a little more than a year after Elvis entered the world in Mississippi. Musically, both were influenced in their youths by the wide variety of musical styles being played on the radio. There was one major difference, however, in the kind of music they heard.

From his early teens, Roy play his guitar and sang for small audiences around Wink, Texas, where his family lived. After graduating from high school, his conservative values led him to enroll at North Texas State University at Denton near Fort Worth. There are a lot of people who are good actors at singing to that they make you think they sound good but, with Elvis, he lives it altogether.

At a free college concert soon afterwards, Roy heard a song that would put an end to his book learning. In Roy Orbison received his big break when Cecil Hollerfield, an Odessa record store owner, acted as a go-between with Sam Phillips. Roy would never forget what happened at one show in Memphis that summer. His musical influence began early in his life while growing up in the small Texas town of Wink. He learned to play the guitar when he was a child and was singing country songs on the radio at age eight.

As a teen, he began touring the dance halls of West Texas. In his early twenties, Orbison heeded the advice of a friend, Johnny Cash, and visited Memphis to meet Sam Phillips, the proprietor of a hot independent recording firm, Sun Records, who had already produced hits for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.

Orbison recorded a number of single releases for Sun, including his first significant hit in , "Ooby Dooby. That was less than a year after the surgery. Triple-bypass heart surgery. I had blockage of ninety percent, seventy percent and sixty percent. Had you just gotten out of shape? Always traveling and playing, and then trying to get rest. And no workouts in between, and eating road food.

So it was that, I think, and probably stress. If there comes an obstacle in your life, either move it or go around it. Do you feel healthy now? Yeah, yeah. And working out here with the trainer from time to time. Was it ever frustrating to write new songs but then go onstage and just do the old songs?

No, not until about now. Because I toured in the Sun days with just one hit record. And I really did want to have a few to play. And when I got the few, I cared for them enough that I never minded performing them. But now I feel a phasing going on, from the older songs to the new. Because I think it is supposed to be. I sure did. Just write a different song. Through writing with various co-writers and being produced by some wonderful people, everything came together, and I relaxed and wrote songs like I knew how to write them.

There was some fear involved, because there was a legend in the background haunting me, and no way would I be able to live up to it. What mattered was jumping in with both feet and being committed and working hard and honestly. It sort of relates to performing onstage. I used to be more frightened than I should have been.

Sold Out. So I went on that night, years and years ago, not quite so afraid. You know, I never dreamed that there were that many people who would dedicate themselves to a project like this.

I was working as if I was doing it myself, completely alone, and felt the weight of that whole thing. But then I stopped long enough to be grateful, and I realized that everybody who was doing their thing on this album was doing it with a lot of love and care. As much as I had to do with this project, I had very little to do with it.

It has to do with my being as — some of these things are hard for me to say — as credible and viable today as I was when I just started. I might [ laughs ]. The tragic life. That one period of it was tragic.

But to be in the book is good enough for me right now. If you wrote your own history, could you sum yourself up in a paragraph? Hmmm … probably not. I might be able to do it in song. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. Despite his sales, charts and accolades, Orbison is most remembered today as an improbable rock star who put his heart on his sleeve and moved people with his music.

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Bobby Darin was an American singer, songwriter and actor who became a ubiquitous presence in pop entertainment in the late s and s. Musician and actor Elvis Presley rose to fame in the mids — on the radio, TV and the silver screen — and is one of the biggest names in rock 'n' roll history. Johnny Cash, the Man in Black, was a singer, guitarist and songwriter whose music innovatively mixed country, rock, blues and gospel influences. James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," was a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader, as well as one of the most iconic figures in funk and soul music.

Singer Janis Joplin rose to fame in the late s and was known for her powerful, blues-inspired vocals. She died of an accidental drug overdose in David Bowie was an English rock star known for dramatic musical transformations, including his character Ziggy Stardust. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Country singer and songwriter George Jones released countless hit singles and albums during his lengthy career.