Happy birthday to Mr. Roy Orbison

[nurktwin 2,143]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROY

Roy Orbison was born on April 23, 1936 in Vernon, Texas. For his sixth birthday, Roy asked for a harmonica, but fortunately his daddy gave him a guitar.

Originally signed to Sun Records in 1956, Roy would eventually have a string of hit singles with Monument Records, including “Only The Lonely” and “Blue Bayou.” This became an unbroken string of Top 40 hits that lasted for four years. During this time, Roy became the top selling American artist and one of the world's biggest names.

In May 1963, Roy accepted an invitation to tour England on a bill with The Beatles. The tour was sold-out in one afternoon. On the first night, Roy did fourteen encores before The Beatles could get on stage. There, a friendship was developed between Roy and the Beatles, one that would lead to a highly successful collaboration over two and a half decades later.

"Oh Pretty Woman" was written by Roy together with his new writing partner Bill Dees and in 1964 it became Roy's biggest hit, going to number one in almost every country of the world. Over the years Roy would find great success as both a singer and songwriter.

In 1988 Roy began collaborating with Jeff Lynne, who had just produced George Harrison's Cloud Nine album. That led to a fateful afternoon that found George, Jeff, Roy, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan writing and recording a b-side for George’s latest single. That track, “Handle With Care” never made it to the b-side of a single, but rather became a top 10 single on it’s own from the Traveling Wilburys.

Two short months after the release of Traveling Wilburys Vol 1, Roy died of a heart attack at age 52, but his legacy and music live on.

[asakitten 13]

Happy Birthday Roy!!

[normandi 21]

Happy Birthday Roy! One of the greatest!

[nurktwin 2,143]

i always liked the wilbury interview with tom talking about how george would have roy singing and then george would ask tom to try singing it after roy!! tom said "that was pretty damn intimidating".....lol.

[weird monkey 0]

http://www.examiner.com/x-21829-Bob-Dylan-Examiner~y2010m4d23-Bob-Dylan-Roy-Orbison-and-the-Traveling-Wilburys?cid=examiner-email

Bob Dylan (a.k.a. Lucky Wilbury, later Boo Wilbury) wrote about his former band mate Orbison (Lefty Wilbury) in Chronicles, Volume One (Simon & Schuster). In the chapter entitled "The Lost Land", Dylan had this to say:

Orbison . . . transcended all genres . . . His stuff mixed all the styles and some that hadn't even been invented yet . . . you didn't know if you were listening to mariachi or opera . . . (For his single, "Running Scared") He was now singing his compositions in three or four octaves . . . he sang like a professional criminal. . . His voice could jar a corpse, always leaving you muttering to yourself something like, "Man, I don't believe it" . His songs had songs within songs. They shifted from major to minor keys without any logic. . . There wasn't anything else on the radio like him.

[martin03345 167]

Happy B-day Big O!