Photo: Jack de Nijs for Anefo / CC0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Roy Orbison remains, for me, the great anomaly of early rock and roll. While his contemporaries projected swagger, he stood motionless behind dark glasses and sang about loneliness with an operatic voice that seemed to come from somewhere else entirely. Songs like Crying and Only the Lonely still feel structurally daring, refusing verse-chorus convention and building instead toward emotional peaks. His willingness to sound vulnerable made him timeless where tougher acts dated badly. That he died in 1988, just as his late-career revival was blooming, is one of music's crueler ironies. I return to his records more than almost any from that era.
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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Roy Orbison
- Name (Japanese)
- ロイ・オービソン
- Reading
- ろい・おーびそん
- Born
- April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Rat
- Origin
- Vernon, Texas, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- singer / guitarist / composer / songwriter / singer-songwriter
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of North Texas
Awards & achievements
- 1998 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1987 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel) | — | |
| Notable work | Crying | — | |
| Notable work | Oh, Pretty Woman | — |
6. Links
Singer — see all → · Guitarist — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.