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Roy Orbison

File:Roy_Orbison_in_1965.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Roy Orbison

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Also known as Roy Kelton Orbison, The Big O, Lefty Wilbury, Roy K. Orbison

American musician

OverviewAI-generated

Roy Orbison (1936–1988) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter. Born in Vernon, Texas, he was educated at the University of North Texas and died of a myocardial infarction in Nashville. His musical output spanned rock, country, and rockabilly genres, with additional classifications including blue-eyed soul and classic rock. He was also credited with acting work.

Orbison, nicknamed "the Big O," had five children. His discography includes works such as *Oh Pretty Woman* and *Black and White Night*. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 10 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Open Library, Firecrawl, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
18

Top works

  • Oh Pretty Woman - Songs in the Style of Roy Orbison
  • Roy Orbison - the Best of the Soul of Rock and Roll
  • Roy Orbison - Black and White Night
  • Roy Orbison - A Black and White Night
  • Oh, Pretty Woman

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Vernon, Texas, USA

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male performers projected strength. He performed…

Known for

  • Roy Orbison at the BBC — Self (archive footage)2023
  • Roy Orbison Forever — Self (archive footage)2022
  • McCartney 3, 2, 1 — Self (archive footage)2021
  • Roy Orbison: Love Hurts — Himself (archive footage)2017
  • Roy Orbison: Black and White Night 30 — Self2017
  • Roy Orbison: One of the Lonely Ones — Himself (archive footage)2015
  • It's Only Rock 'n' Roll: Rock 'n' Roll at the BBC — Self (archive footage)2015
  • Roy Orbison: Mystery Girl - Unraveled — Self (archive footage)2014
  • Mr. Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne & ELO — Self (archive footage)2012
  • Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live - Light My Fire — Himself2009

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1936
Active to
1988
adult standardsblue-eyed soulclassic rockcountrycountry popfolk rock

Discography

Member of

Official siteDiscogsStream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
2,049,514
Total plays
26,707,179

Tags

classic rockrockabilly60soldiesrock

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, known for his distinctive voice, complex song structures, and emotional ballads. He was active primarily in the early 1960s and experienced a resurgence in the late 1980s. Orbison was recognized for performing with minimal movement, often wearing dark clothing, dark sunglasses, and styling his hair black. Born in Texas, Orbison began performing in a country-and-western band as a teenager. <

via Last.fm · Roy Orbison

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

  1. RoB 2: a revised tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials

    · 2019 · cited 25,573x

  2. The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project

    · 1996 · cited 18,867x

  3. Accurate normalization of real-time quantitative RT-PCR data by geometric averaging of multiple internal control genes

    · 2002 · cited 16,052x

  4. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.

    · 1995 · cited 14,840x

  5. 2021 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure

    · 2021 · cited 12,141x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

  • “There goes my baby,There goes my heart.They're gone forever,So far apart.But only the lonelyKnow whyI cry.Only the lonely.”
  • “I was alright for awhile;I could smile for awhile.But I saw you last night,You held my hand so tight,As you stopped to say, "Hello".Oh, you wished me well,You couldn't tellThat I'd been crying over you.Crying over you.When you said, "So long"Left me standing all alone,Alone and crying, crying.Crying, crying.”
  • “Just runnin' scared each place we go,So afraid that he might show.Yeah, runnin' scared, what would I doIf he came back and wanted you?”
  • “A candy-colored clown they call the sandmanTiptoes to my room every nightJust to sprinkle stardust and to whisper"Go to sleep. Everything is all right."I close my eyes, then I drift away.Into the magic night, I softly sayA silent prayer like dreamers do.Then I fall asleep to dreams, my dreams of you.”
  • “Saving nickels, saving dimes,Working 'till the sun don't shine,Looking forward to happier timesOn Blue Bayou.I'm going back some day,Come what may, to Blue Bayou.Where you sleep all dayAnd the catfish play, on Blue Bayou.”
  • “Tender nights before they flySend falling stars that seem to cry.Your baby doesn't want you anymore,It's over.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Official website

Roy Orbison – The Official Website of The Soul of Rock and Roll

royorbison.com →

Link to the official site · 7,793 chars · not written by Vinony

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male 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. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956 after being urged by Johnny Cash. Elvis Presley was leaving Sun and Phillips was looking to replace him. His first Sun recording, "Ooby Dooby", was musically akin of Presley's early Sun recordings. He had moderate success at Sun, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own top-10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964), "I Drove All Night" (1987), "She's a Mystery to Me" (1988), "You Got It" (1988), and "California Blue" (1988).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Roy Orbison” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (12)

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via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0