Roy Orbison - Did You Know?
October 23, 2018Music facts, music trivia, interesting stories and much more. Introducing the "Did You Know" page about American musician, singer and songwriter, Roy Orbison.
Enjoy!
Roy Orbison was an American musician, singer and songwriter that was known for his wide vocal range, powerful voice, impassioned singing style, dark, emotional ballads and complex song structures. This combination had critics describe Orbison's music as operatic, giving him the nicknames of "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O".
With that being said, here are a few interesting facts you may not know about Roy Orbison:
1. Many people assumed that Roy Orbison was going blind, but that was far from being the truth. The dark glasses he was wearing were actually his trademark, ever since he started wearing them in 1963.
2. The Beatles and Elvis Presley both opened shows for him early in their careers.
3. Roy Orbison was a keen painter and even made a Model A aircraft to competition level.
4. His hair was never naturally black. He just dyed it that color in order to fit into his "man in black" image. Orbison's hair was actually dark brown.
5. His wife was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966, and only two years later, two of his sons also died in a fire.
Druing the years 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles made it into the Billboard Top 40, and singles he wrote himself and co-wroted made it also into the Top 10, including: "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964).
In 1988, Roy Orbison co-founded the rock supergroup Traveling Wilburys, with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty. Later that year, Orbison died of a heart attack. He was 52 years old.
In 1987, Roy Orbison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1989, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Rolling Stone magazine ranks him on the 37th spot on their list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" and on the 13th spot on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time'. In 2002, Billboard magazine ranked Roy Orbison on the 74th spot on their list of the Top 600 recording artists.
The song "I Drove All Night" by Roy Orbison was first offered to Peter Kingsbery, a singer from Texas who was in the band Cock Robin.
Kingsbery liked the song, but didn't have any interest recording it. Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg wrote this song and they were both huge Roy Orbison fans.
One day, Steinberg met Orbison in a studio called Record One in Sherman Oaks and arranged to meet later on, having written a song that would fit Orbison.
Roy Orbison liked the song and they recorded it just as they always had in mind, with the version and vocals of Roy Orbison.
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