Roy Kelton Orbison April 23, β December 6, 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 s and the late s. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers projected strength. He performed with minimal motion and in black clothes, matching his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.
Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a country-and-western band as a teenager. Elvis was leaving Sun and Phillips was looking to replace him. His first Sun recording, "Ooby Dooby", was a direct musical sound-a-like of Elvis's early Sun recordings. He had some success at Sun but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From to , 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard Top After the mids Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies, and his career faltered. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the s, following the success of several cover versions of his songs.
Orbison died of a heart attack that December at age One month later, his song " You Got It " was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach both the US and UK Top 10 in nearly 25 years. In , Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top recording artists. Orbison was born on April 23, , in Vernon, Texas.
His father was an oil-field driller who struggled to find work after the Great Depression , and his mother enjoyed painting and writing poetry. Orbison's father gave him a guitar on his sixth birthday and he was taught how to play it by his father and older brother.
He was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzell 's singing, with its slurred syllables, [ 8 ] leading Orbison to adopt the stage name "Lefty Wilbury" during his time with the Traveling Wilburys. One of the first musicians that he heard in person was Ernest Tubb , playing on the back of a truck in Fort Worth.
