231-450: 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 music is mostly in the rock music genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. He was nicknamed "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O". Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at
462-611: A Wilburys tour could be. Would each person do a solo set and then do Wilburys at the end, or would we all go right on from beginning to end and make everything Wilburys? It's an intriguing thought. We could have a great band up there and the four of us could play acoustic if we wanted to. We could all sing " Blowin' in the Wind " and Bob could sing " Something ". Or we could just sing our individual songs and make them Wilbury tunes, as if we'd recorded them that way. Whatever it was, we could do it. The Wilburys tour never came about. Petty said about
693-567: A ballad singer. Nonetheless, he continued to pitch his ballad Claudette (which he began working on in early 1956) to singers he met on tour and in April 1958 The Everly Brothers recorded it as the B-side of their hit All I Have to Do Is Dream . Claudette reached number 30 in the charts in March 1959. Orbison then left Sun Records, due to a dispute about royalties from the song Claudette (which
924-459: A band together around two months into the sessions for his album, which began in early January 1987. When discussing who the other members might be, Harrison chose Bob Dylan and Lynne opted for Roy Orbison . The term "Wilbury" also originated during the Cloud Nine sessions. Referring to recording errors created by faulty equipment, Harrison jokingly remarked to Lynne, " We'll bury 'em in
1155-698: A cache of gold to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War and was supplied with a guitar that turned into a rifle. The prop allowed him to deliver the line "I could kill you with this and play your funeral march at the same time", with, according to biographer Colin Escott , "zero conviction". Orbison was pleased with the film, although it proved to be a critical and box-office failure. While MGM had included five films in his contract, no more were made. He recorded an album dedicated to
1386-583: A car that he liked and make the driver an offer on the spot. While on tour again in the UK in 1966, Orbison broke his foot falling off a motorcycle in front of thousands of screaming fans at a race track; he performed his show that evening in a cast. Claudette traveled to Britain to accompany Roy for the remainder of the tour. It was now made public that the couple had happily remarried and were back together (they had remarried in December 1965). Roy and Claudette shared
1617-514: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1848-633: A channel through which Harrison and Dylan could escape the restrictions of their serious media images, but also, in its guise as a "phantom band", a development by Harrison of the Rutles ' satirical approach to the Beatles' legacy, in this case by "de-mythologizing" rock history. Inspired by the Traveling Wilburys' success and particularly its benefit to Petty and Orbison as artists, Lenny Waronker encouraged American guitarist Ry Cooder to form
2079-490: A date for Presley in his purple Cadillac . In August 1957, Orbison returned to the Sun Recording Studio and recorded several new songs with just his acoustic guitar instead of a backing band. However, none were successful and Roy gave up on becoming a recording artist. Sam Phillips remembered being much more impressed with Orbison's mastery of the guitar than with his voice. Orbison returned to Odessa, Texas in
2310-547: A day. The move was described as Orbison "joining the ranks of fading rock stars fleeing to MGM". Rose also became Orbison's producer. Fred Foster later suggested that Rose's takeover was responsible for the commercial failure of Orbison's work at MGM. Engineer Bill Porter agreed that Orbison's best work could only be achieved with RCA Victor's A-Team in Nashville. Orbison's first collection at MGM, an album titled There Is Only One Roy Orbison , sold fewer than 200,000 copies. With
2541-572: A double Digipak package and a 16-page booklet; a "deluxe" boxed edition with the CDs and DVD and an extensive 40-page booklet, artist postcards, and photographs; or a "deluxe" boxed edition on vinyl. This version omits the DVD, but adds a 12-inch vinyl disc with rare versions of the songs. The release debuted at number 1 in the UK and topped the albums chart in Australia, Ireland and other countries. On
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#17327826714972772-519: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
3003-481: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
3234-628: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
3465-400: A friend but also an avowed fan of Dylan's, Harrison felt the need to clear the air on the first day by saying to him: "We know that you're Bob Dylan and everything, but we're going to just treat you and talk to you like we would anybody else." Dylan replied: "Well, great. Believe it or not, I'm in awe of you guys, and it's the same for me." While most of the songs had a primary composer, all of
3696-408: A greater prominence for Dylan as a lead singer. Although he ceded his own role as a lead vocalist to Dylan and to Petty, Harrison took over more of the production and contributed more prominently as a lead guitarist than before. Petty described the album as "a little more rough and ready, a bit more raucous" than Vol. 1 , while Dylan said the new songs were more developed as compositions relative to
3927-525: A hovercraft terminal". The album produced two successful singles and went on to achieve triple-platinum certification for sales in the United States. It was nominated for several awards and won the 1990 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. Liner notes on the album cover were written by Monty Python's Michael Palin under a pseudonym. Palin's essay was based on an idea by Derek Taylor , who wrote an extensive fictional history of
4158-575: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
4389-510: A letter from one of Orbison's secret girlfriends, his wife Claudette had an affair with the builder of their home in Tennessee. Billy Pat Ellis said "Claudette had the affair because Roy was gone a lot and she got lonely and wanted to prove she was attractive again". When Orbison toured Britain again in the autumn of 1963, she joined him. Later in 1963, Orbison toured England, Ireland and Canada. In 1964, he toured Australia and New Zealand with
4620-454: A line-up that represented four eras of rock music history and included "three indisputable gods" in Dylan, Harrison and Orbison. The editors also recognise the band as "the antithesis of a supergroup", due to the musicians' adoption of fraternal alter egos and the humour inherent in the project. AllMusic managing editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine has similarly written: "It's impossible to picture
4851-573: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
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#17327826714975082-495: A love for motorcycles after Roy had been introduced to them by Elvis Presley. Orbison was a daredevil driver, blasting around on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle and owning a Ferrari car, which he used to challenge other drivers to race him on the highway. On June 6, 1966, when Orbison and Claudette were both riding their motorcycles home from Bristol, Tennessee , she was struck by a pickup truck in Gallatin, Tennessee and thrown into
5313-536: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
5544-495: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
5775-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
6006-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
6237-486: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
6468-589: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
6699-404: A non-album single, a cover of " Nobody's Child ", which the band recorded for Olivia Harrison 's Romanian Angel Appeal charity project. The duration of the main album sessions was again dictated by Dylan's touring schedule and limited availability. Having asked Dylan to record a lead vocal for all the songs before his departure, Harrison was then loath to replace many of the parts, resulting in
6930-403: A number-one hit in the UK and Orbison's most successful song. When Claudette walked in the room where Dees and Orbison were writing to say she was heading for Nashville, Orbison asked if she had any money. Dees said, "A pretty woman never needs any money". Just 40 minutes later, " Oh, Pretty Woman " was completed. A riff-laden masterpiece that employed a playful growl he got from a Bob Hope movie,
7161-510: A one-album deal. Although the peak of his success was over, his single Penny Arcade was number one in Australia for many weeks and Too Soon to Know reached number 3 in England. His fortunes sank so low in America that his concerts were mostly empty, such as the concert at Cincinnati Gardens that he played on his fortieth birthday in April 1976. Peter Lehman observed that Orbison's absence was
Roy Orbison - Misplaced Pages Continue
7392-430: A part of the mystery of his persona: "Since it was never clear where he had come from, no one seemed to pay much mind to where he had gone; he was just gone." His influence was apparent, however, as several artists released popular covers of his songs. Orbison's version of " Love Hurts " was remade by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris , again by hard rock band Nazareth , and by Jim Capaldi . Sonny James ' version of "Only
7623-414: A particular lead vocal part. The two producers then flew back to England; Lynne recalls that, throughout the flight, he and Harrison enthused about how to turn the sparse, acoustic-based tracks into completed recordings. Overdubs and further recording took place at Harrison's studio, FPSHOT , with "Sideburys" Jim Keltner (drums), Jim Horn (saxophones) and Ray Cooper (percussion). Harrison described
7854-686: A plan to rename the band Roy Orbison and The Teen Kings . The band broke up in December 1956 and Sam Phillips said they were arguing about money but the basic problem was that Orbison was too much of a loner and driven egoist. The lack of a band was a serious problem for Orbison's contract at Sun Records, since the label had no use for a singer who didn't have a band. After The Teen Kings split, Orbison stayed in Memphis with his girlfriend Claudette. They stayed in Phillips' home, and Phillips stated that they didn't sleep together in his house. However, Orbison
8085-459: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
8316-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
8547-852: A pseudonym for Dhani Harrison . The name Ayrton was used in honour of F1 driver Ayrton Senna . Jim Horn and Ray Cooper played saxophones and percussion, respectively, on both albums. The lead guitar part on the Vol. 3 track "She's My Baby" was played by rock guitarist Gary Moore , who received the credit "Ken Wilbury". Harrison appeared as Nelson Wilbury on Warner Bros. Records ' Christmas 1988 promotional album Winter Warnerland (which also included Paul Reubens as " Pee Wee Wilbury "). In 1992, in his capacity as producer, Harrison credited himself as "Spike and Nelson Wilbury" on his live album Live in Japan . During that Japanese tour, in December 1991, Harrison credited himself as Nakihama Wilbury. The Tom Petty and
8778-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
9009-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
9240-721: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
9471-419: A series of Wilburys albums and a film about the band, to be produced through his company HandMade , the group became dormant after 1991 and never officially reunited, though the individual members continued to collaborate on each other's solo projects at various times. Harrison died in 2001, followed by Petty in 2017, leaving Dylan and Lynne as the only surviving members. After being unavailable for several years,
Roy Orbison - Misplaced Pages Continue
9702-465: A simple, catchy rockabilly song called "Ooby Dooby", which impressed Orbison and he started looking into how he could make a recording of it. Orbison continued performing with the Wink Westerners after his first year. He then heard that his schoolmate Pat Boone had signed a record deal, and it further strengthened his resolve to become a professional musician. At a New Year's Eve dance in 1954,
9933-481: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
10164-547: A supergroup with a stronger pedigree than that (all that's missing is a Rolling Stone ), but in another sense it's hard to call the Wilburys a true supergroup, since they arrived nearly two decades after the all-star craze of the '70s peaked, and they never had the self-important air of nearly all the other supergroups. That, of course, was the key to their charm …" Speaking to music journalist Paul Zollo in 2004, Petty agreed that humour and self-effacement had been key factors in
10395-452: 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. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956 after Johnny Cash urged him to go to Sun . Elvis was leaving Sun and Phillips
10626-488: A tiny apartment, Orbison often took his guitar to his car to write songs. The songwriter Joe Melson , an acquaintance of Orbison's, tapped on his car window one day in Texas in 1958, and the two decided to write some songs together. In three recording sessions in 1958 and 1959, Orbison recorded seven songs for RCA Victor at their Nashville studios ; only two singles ( Paper Boy and With the Bug ) were judged worthy of release by
10857-553: A tree where the winds blow and the seasons change, and you're still there and you bloom again." Orbison's single Cry Softly Lonely One from March 1967 was his last song to enter the Top 100 until the 1980s. During a tour of Britain and playing Birmingham on Saturday, September 14, 1968, he received the news that his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, had burned down, and his two eldest sons had died. This occurred two years after
11088-464: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
11319-529: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
11550-479: A weekly morning radio show on KERB in Kermit, Texas . Their first performance was at a school assembly in 1953. They were offered $ 400 to play at a dance, and Orbison realized that he could make a living in music. Orbison was also part of a marching band and singing octet . At the age of 15, Orbison decided that instead of becoming a guitar player, he would use the guitar as an accompaniment to his singing. In 1953
11781-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
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#173278267149712012-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
12243-540: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
12474-472: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
12705-555: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
12936-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
13167-441: Is shown, rocking in a chair, whenever his vocals are heard. Lynne recalled that Orbison's death in the wake of Vol. 1 ' s success was "the most sickening thing to me". He added: "I was devastated for ages ... Me and Roy had had plans to do much more together, and his voice was in really good shape. It was just so sad for that to happen." Although there was speculation in the press that Del Shannon or Roger McGuinn might join
13398-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
13629-500: Is the Band." Traveling Wilburys Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan , George Harrison , Jeff Lynne , Roy Orbison and Tom Petty . They were a roots rock band and described as "perhaps the biggest supergroup of all time". Originating from an idea discussed by Harrison and Lynne during the sessions for Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine ,
13860-535: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
14091-524: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
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#173278267149714322-685: The Beach Boys and returned again to Britain and Ireland, where he was so besieged by teenaged girls that the Irish police had to halt his performances to pull the girls off him. He traveled to Australia again in 1965, this time with the Rolling Stones . Mick Jagger later remarked, referring to a snapshot he took of Orbison in New Zealand, "a fine figure of a man in the hot springs, he was." Orbison also began collaborating with Bill Dees , whom he had known in Texas. With Dees, he wrote " It's Over ",
14553-615: The Billboard Hot 100 chart and it reached number 9 in the UK. The composition of Orbison's following hits reflected "Running Scared": a story about an emotionally vulnerable man facing loss or grief, with a crescendo culminating in a surprise climax that employed Orbison's dynamic voice. The B-side Crying followed soon after and reached the top 5 singles in August 1961. Crying was coupled with an up-tempo R&B song, Candy Man , written by Fred Neil and Beverley Ross, which reached
14784-500: The Billboard Top 30, staying on the charts for two months. By the end of 1961, Orbison had recorded six hit singles in a row over the past two years. While Orbison was touring Australia in 1962, an Australian DJ referred to him affectionately as "The Big O", partly based on the big finishes to his dramatic ballads, and the moniker stuck with him thereafter. Orbison's second son was born the same year, and Orbison hit number four in
15015-466: The Billboard charts and remaining in the charts for 24 weeks. Orbison credited this cover in particular for reviving his memory in the popular mind, if not his career. He signed again with Monument in 1976 and recorded Regeneration with Fred Foster, but it proved no more successful than before. Rock music Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in
15246-593: The Great Depression and Nadine enjoyed painting and writing poetry. Orbison’s direct paternal ancestry was traced to Thomas Orbison (born 1715) from Lurgan , Northern Ireland, who settled in the Province of Pennsylvania in the middle of the century. According to The Authorized Roy Orbison , a biography written by Roy's son Alex, the family moved to Fort Worth in 1942 to find work in the aircraft factories. Due to eyesight problems, Roy wore thick glasses from
15477-473: The RCA Victor record label. One of these songs was Seems to Me , by Boudleaux Bryant . Bryant's impression of Orbison was of "a timid, shy kid who seemed to be rather befuddled by the whole music scene. I remember the way he sang then—softly, prettily but almost bashfully, as if someone might be disturbed by his efforts and reprimand him." Playing shows at night and living with his wife and young child in
15708-612: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , although the band itself has not been inducted. Orbison and Dylan were inducted as solo artists, Harrison was inducted as a member of the Beatles and, posthumously, as a solo artist, Petty as the leader of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Lynne as a member of the Electric Light Orchestra . The whole experience was some of the best days of my life, really, and I think it probably
15939-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
16170-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
16401-484: The "Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 13 on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 on its list of the Top 600 recording artists. Orbison was born on April 23, 1936, in Vernon, Texas . He was the second of three sons born to Orbie Lee Orbison (1913–1984) and Nadine Vesta Shults (1914–1992). Orbie was an oil-field driller who struggled to find work after
16632-408: The "scraped up from jam tapes" approach to the band's debut. Vol. 3 was released on 29 October 1990. It was dedicated to Orbison, as "Lefty Wilbury", the pseudonym that Orbison had used in 1988 in honour of his hero Lefty Frizzell . The album met with less success than the previous one. According to Mo Ostin, the choice of album title came about through "George being George"; apparently Harrison
16863-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
17094-467: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
17325-589: The Anita Kerr doo-wop backing singers. It also featured a note hit by Orbison in falsetto that showcased a powerful voice which, according to biographer Clayson, "came not from his throat but deeper within". The song was " Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel) ". Orbison was passing through Memphis when he tried to pitch the song to Elvis Presley (along with several other songs) in order to make some money quickly, but it
17556-477: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
17787-628: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
18018-580: The Billboard charts and sold 200,000 copies, however the follow-up singles didn't reach the charts. The Teen Kings played alongside Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Warren Smith and Eddie Bond at the Overton Park Shell on June 1, 1956, but Orbison's relationship with the rest of the band was deteriorating at this stage. Elvis Presley was in the audience for this show and Orbison claimed that Elvis praised Orbison, but another band member says that it
18249-617: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
18480-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
18711-571: The Celebrity Theatre and recruited him for the group shortly before he went on stage. In Petty's description, Orbison performed an "unbelievable show", during which "we'd punch each other and go, 'He's in our band, too.' ... We were all so excited." From my point of view, I just tried to preserve our relationship. I worked so hard to make sure that all the guys who were in that band, and consequently on record and film, that their friendship wasn't abused. Just to preserve our friendship – that
18942-594: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
19173-507: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
19404-694: The Heartbreakers , toured Europe as Dylan's backing group on the Temples in Flames Tour . The friendship continued in Los Angeles later that year. There, Harrison struck up a musical rapport with Petty based on their shared love of 1950s rock 'n' roll , and Lynne began collaborating with Petty on what became Petty's debut solo album, Full Moon Fever , and writing songs with Orbison, Lynne's longtime musical hero, for Orbison's comeback album, Mystery Girl . According to Petty, Harrison's dream for
19635-689: The Heartbreakers 1992 single " Christmas All Over Again " contained a greeting that read "Merry Christmas from Nelson and Pee Wee Wilbury". Additionally, at Tom Petty Celebration in 2019, Roy Orbison Jr. was dubbed "Lefty Wilbury Jr." and Alex Orbison as "Ginger Wilbury". The Harrison-made film promoting the Traveling Wilburys, Whatever Wilbury Wilbury , lists the following credits: "Cecil Bidet Wilbury" (directed by), "Lenny W. Wilbury" (sound), "Chopper Wilbury" (editor), "Edison Wilbury" (lighting), "Evelyn Wilbury" (wardrobe), "Clyde B. Wilbury" (special effects), "Big Mac Wilbury" (catering), "Zsa Zsa Wilbury" (make-up) and "Tell M. Wilbury" (production manager). A squirrel
19866-471: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
20097-506: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
20328-486: The Lonely" for the first time, he bought a box of copies to pass to his friends. Soon after recording an early version of his next hit Blue Angel , Orbison and his wife and son (Roy DeWayne, born in 1958) moved from Wink to the suburb of Hendersonville in Nashville . Orbison's second son, Anthony King, would follow in 1962. Melson also moved to Hendersonville soon after, and began working on Blue Angel together, which
20559-581: The Lonely" reached number one on the country music charts. Bruce Springsteen ended his concerts with Orbison songs, and Glen Campbell had a minor hit with a remake of "Dream Baby". A compilation of Orbison's greatest hits reached number one in the UK in January 1976, and Orbison began to open concerts that year for the Eagles , who had started as Linda Ronstadt 's backup band. Ronstadt herself covered " Blue Bayou " in 1977, her version reaching number three on
20790-446: The Lonely" shot to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one in the UK and Australia. According to Orbison, the subsequent songs he wrote with Melson during this period were constructed with his voice in mind, specifically to showcase its range and power. He told Rolling Stone in 1988, "I liked the sound of [my voice]. I liked making it sing, making the voice ring, and I just kept doing it. And I think that somewhere between
21021-503: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
21252-609: The Man", which he wrote about working one summer in the oil fields near Wink. Orbison's relationship with Joe Melson, however, was deteriorating, over Melson's growing concerns that his own solo career would never get off the ground. Orbison first met Bob Dylan at Dylan's 21st birthday party in May 1962. From 1959–1963, Orbison was the top selling American artist and one of the world’s biggest names. Orbison eventually developed an image that did not reflect his personality. He had no publicist in
21483-671: The Notting Hillbillies' album and the self-titled debut by Hindu Love Gods – a band consisting of Warren Zevon and members of R.E.M. – as examples of a trend whereby, following the Wilburys' Vol. 1 , "more and more albums seem to be the rock-and-roll equivalents of bowling night." Writing in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music , Colin Larkin cites the Wilburys' contemporary skiffle as evidence of Lonnie Donegan 's continued influence on popular music long after
21714-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
21945-588: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
22176-672: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
22407-483: The US Billboard 200 it reached number 9. The collection sold 500,000 copies worldwide during the first three weeks and remained in the UK top 5 for seven weeks after its release. In November 2009, Genesis Publications , a company with which Harrison had been associated since the late 1970s, announced the release of a limited edition fine-bound book titled The Traveling Wilburys . Compiled by Olivia Harrison,
22638-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
22869-619: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
23100-496: The United States and number two in the UK with " Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream) ", an upbeat song by country songwriter Cindy Walker . Orbison enlisted The Webbs, from Dothan, Alabama, as his backing band. The band changed their names to The Candy Men (in reference to Roy's hit) and played with Orbison from 1962 to 1967. They later went on to have their own career, releasing a few singles and two albums on their own. Also in 1962, he charted with "The Crowd", "Leah", and "Workin' for
23331-534: The United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
23562-751: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
23793-459: The Wilburys family that otherwise went unused. Harrison planned a feature film about the band, to be produced by HandMade and directed by David Leland , but contractual problems ended the project. Roy Orbison died of a heart attack on 6 December 1988. In tribute to him, the music video for the band's second single, " End of the Line ", shows a black-and-white framed photo of Orbison, and his guitar
24024-470: The Wilburys in Peter Bogdanovich 's 2007 documentary Runnin' Down a Dream , Petty said that one of the strengths behind the concept was that it was free of any intervention from record company, management or marketing concerns, and instead developed naturally from a spirit of co-operation and mutual admiration among five established artists. Author Simon Leng recognises the venture as primarily
24255-407: The Wilburys touring: I think it would work, if we wanted to do it. I don't think we ever considered it, really. There were a lot of nights when the conversation would roll around to that. But I don't think anybody ever took it seriously. I think it would ruin it in a way. Then you're obligated to be responsible and it's not in the character of that group. It would make it very formal and that would be
24486-565: The Wilburys was to handpick the participants and create "the perfect little band", but the criteria for inclusion were governed most by "who you could hang out with". The five musicians also bonded over a shared appreciation of the English comedy troupe Monty Python . Harrison, who had worked with the members of Monty Python on various productions by his company HandMade Films since the late 1970s, particularly appreciated Orbison's gift for impersonation and his ability to recite entire sketches by
24717-405: The Wilburys' success, adding: "We wanted to make something good in a world that seemed to get uglier and uglier and meaner and meaner … And I'm really proud that I was part of it. Because I do think that it brought a little sunshine into the world." Harrison said the project was an opportunity to "put a finger up to the rules" by challenging the norms associated with the music industry. Discussing
24948-431: The Wilburys, the remaining members never considered replacing Orbison. Lynne later said: "We'd become this unit, we were all good pals … We always knew we were going to do another one, and now it's just the four of us." Harrison was the most active in promoting the Wilburys, carrying out interviews well into 1989. He said he was "wait[ing] for all the other Wilburys to finish being solo artists" so that they could renew
25179-489: The Wink Westerners entered a talent contest on KMID-TV in Midland, Texas . The group won the contest, resulting in a 30-minute spot on a local television show. After the show, Orbison asked the owner of the company sponsoring the show if he could sponsor the group for ongoing shows, which led to the Wink Westerners playing weekly shows on KMID-TV on Friday nights and on Odessa television station KOSA-TV on Saturday nights. It
25410-457: The Wink Westerners had mostly played country and western swing music throughout the night, but ended the night by playing Bill Haley & the Comets ’ hit song Shake, Rattle and Roll repeatedly, which became the catalyst for the band switching to rock and roll music. Also, Orbison had seen Elvis Presley perform back during his days at North Texas State College in 1954 and was impressed by
25641-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
25872-452: The age of four. Orbison's father gave him a guitar on his sixth birthday and Roy was taught how to play it by his father and older brother. Roy recalled, "I was finished, you know, for anything else" by the time he was 7, and music became the focus of his life. His major musical influence as a youth was country and western swing music. He was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzell 's singing, with its slurred syllables, leading Orbison to adopt
26103-444: The air. She was taken by ambulance to hospital, but her liver was seriously injured and she died, aged 25. A grieving Orbison threw himself into his work, collaborating with Bill Dees to write music for The Fastest Guitar Alive , a film that MGM had scheduled for him to star in as well. It was initially planned as a dramatic Western but was rewritten as a comedy. Orbison's character was a spy who stole and had to protect and deliver
26334-461: The album, Orbison played along with the mock history, saying: "Some people say Daddy was a cad and a bounder, but I remember him as a Baptist minister." Vol. 1 was a critical and commercial success, and revitalised the careers of Dylan, Orbison and Petty. As Harrison had intended, the album defied contemporary musical trends such as hip hop , acid house and synthesised pop; author Alan Clayson likens its release to "a Viking longship docking in
26565-557: The band Little Village and record for Warner Bros. The group – comprising Cooder, Keltner, John Hiatt and Nick Lowe – released a self-titled album in 1992. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune described the Notting Hillbillies ' Missing ... Presumed Having a Good Time as a Traveling Wilburys-type side project for Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits . Writing in New York magazine in late 1990, Elizabeth Wurtzel cited
26796-499: The band formed in April 1988 after the five members united to record a bonus track for Harrison's next European single. When this collaboration, " Handle with Care ", was deemed too good for such a limited release, the group agreed to record a full album, titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 . Following Orbison's death in December 1988, the Wilburys continued as a quartet and released a second album, incongruously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 , in 1990. The release of their debut album
27027-413: The band members were creative equals. Petty later described Harrison as the Wilburys' "leader and manager", and credited him with being a bandleader and producer that had a natural instinct for bringing out the best in people and keeping a recording session productive. As the group's producers, Harrison and Lynne directed the sessions, with Harrison often auditioning each member to decide who should sing
27258-460: The band would pay back the label the costs of producing the records. Orbison was now free to find a new label to market Ooby Dooby; however, a further setback was that he cut a demo of the song for Columbia Records which they turned down but had one of their contract artists ( Sid King ) release a recording of Ooby Dooby before Orbison could offer the tape to another record company. Eventually, Sun Records would sign up to record Ooby Dooby , but
27489-468: The band's sound as " skiffle for the 1990s". The album was released on 18 October 1988. Distributed by Warner Bros., it appeared on the new Wilbury record label rather than on Harrison's Dark Horse label, in the interests of maintaining the group identity. Over the months following the end of recording in the summer, contractual issues had been successfully negotiated between Warner and the record companies representing Dylan, Petty, Lynne and Orbison. As
27720-585: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
27951-461: The book includes rare photographs, recording notes, handwritten lyrics, sketches, and first-hand commentary on the band's history, together with a foreword by Lynne. Petty, Lynne, Olivia Harrison, Barbara Orbison , Keltner and Idle were among those who attended the US launch at a Beverly Hills bookshop in March 2010. In an interview to publicise the book, Lynne expressed his sadness at the deaths of Harrison and Orbison, and reflected: "The Wilburys
28182-453: The builder Braxton Dixon, who had built Orbison's house. After Roy became aware of the affair, he fired Dixon and finished building the house himself (with the help of a hired carpenter). In early 1965, Roy confirmed that he and Claudette were divorced. Later in 1965, Claudette gave birth to Roy's third child, and Roy and Claudette re-united several months later. Orbison's singles in early 1965 had been unsuccessful and his contract with Monument
28413-461: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
28644-411: The collaboration. By contrast, according to author Clinton Heylin , Dylan appeared to give the band little attention as he focused on re-establishing himself as a live performer before recording his 1989 album Oh Mercy . In March 1990, Harrison, Lynne, Petty and Dylan reunited to work on a second Wilburys album, which they intentionally misnumbered Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 . It was preceded by
28875-420: The concerts were not covering their costs and that life as a touring band was a demoralizing experience. The band's contract didn't include any royalty payments ("BMI") when their songs were played on the radio and Orbison had run out of money by late 1956. Orbison was encouraged by Norman Petty to record a single without The Teen Kings and the rest of the band walked on Roy during a recording session when told of
29106-539: The course of two months, and used a calendar on the wall to track when each girl was arriving and leaving their rented apartment in Upper Brook Street in London. During this time, Orbison met the sixteen year-old German girl Barbara Wellhonen , with whom he became fascinated, although Orbison continued to see other girls in the meantime. On May 25, 1969, Orbison and Wellhonen got married. Roy was 33 years old at
29337-407: The death of his wife Claudette and Orbison's grief meant he couldn't write songs. Fire officials stated that the cause of the fire may have been an aerosol can, which possibly contained lacquer . The property was sold to Johnny Cash , whose house at the same location also burned down later. During the 1968 tour of England, Orbison and his childhood friend Bobby Blackburn slept with many girls over
29568-440: The decision on the group's future after Vol. 3 lay with Harrison. Keltner said that from his conversations with Lynne, Petty and Dylan, they were all keen to reunite, whereas Harrison wavered in his enthusiasm. After his 1991 tour of Japan – his first series of concerts since 1974 – Harrison spoke of a possible Traveling Wilburys tour: That would be something I'd like to experience. I've always played around in my own mind what
29799-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
30030-671: The discography in The Authorized Roy Orbison , a rare alternative version of "Blue Bayou" was released in Italy. Orbison finished 1963 with a Christmas song written by Willie Nelson , " Pretty Paper " (US number 15 in 1963, UK number six in 1964). As "In Dreams" was released in April 1963, Orbison was asked to replace Duane Eddy on a tour of the UK in top billing with the Beatles . The tour sold out in one afternoon. When Orbison arrived in Britain, however, he realized he
30261-429: The early 1960s, and therefore had little presence in fan magazines, and his single sleeves did not feature his picture. Life called him an "anonymous celebrity". After leaving his thick eyeglasses on an airplane in 1963, Orbison was forced to wear his prescription Faosa sunglasses on stage and found that he preferred them. The sunglasses led some people to assume he was blind. His black clothes and song lyrics emphasized
30492-475: The early 1960s. In his book Lonnie Donegan and the Birth of British Rock & Roll , Patrick Humphries describes the Wilburys as "a makeshift quintet whose roots were firmly and joyously planted in low-key, low-tech skiffle music". He credits the band with inspiring a brief revival of Donegan's "DIY skiffle", which included Knopfler's Notting Hillbillies. Each member of the Traveling Wilburys has been inducted into
30723-455: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
30954-460: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
31185-407: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
31416-519: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
31647-438: The epithet mercy Orbison uttered when he was unable to hit a note, it rose to number one in the autumn of 1964 in the United States and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks. It rose to number one in the UK, as well, spending a total of 18 weeks on the charts. The single sold over seven million copies. Orbison's success was greater in Britain; as Billboard magazine noted, "In a 68-week period that began on August 8, 1963, Roy Orbison
31878-642: The events that led to this are disputed. Some claim that Johnny Cash toured the Odessa area in 1955 and 1956, appearing on the same local TV show as the Wink Westerners, Cash stated that "in late '55 or early '56, I was touring with Elvis when I met Roy in Texas... I told him to get in touch with Sun Records if he wanted to be a recording artist". Orbison has said that when he did this, Sam Phillips (the owner of Sun Records ) told him "Johnny Cash doesn't run my record company!". However, both Sam Philips and Billy Pat Ellis (the band's drummer) have disputed that Johnny Cash
32109-581: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
32340-447: The fall of 1957 to be together with his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Claudette. The two began to talk about getting married. On a professional level, Orbison met singer Joe Melson while in Memphis, who would collaborate with Orbison on his biggest hit songs in the early 1960s. A ballad Orbison wrote, The Clown , met with a lukewarm response; after hearing it, Sun Records producer Jack Clement told Orbison that he would never make it as
32571-498: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
32802-455: The first two takes. In the third, however, he abandoned the idea of using falsetto and sang the final high 'A' naturally, so astonishing everyone present that the accompanying musicians stopped playing. On that third take, "Running Scared" was completed. Fred Foster later recalled, "He did it, and everybody looked around in amazement. Nobody had heard anything like it before." Just weeks later "Running Scared" became Orbison's first number one hit on
33033-455: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
33264-513: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
33495-526: The front line in World War II. In West Texas, he was exposed to rhythm and blues , western swing , Tex-Mex , the orchestral arrangements of Mantovani , and Cajun music. The cajun favorite " Jole Blon " was one of the first songs that he sang in public. He began singing on a local radio show at age 8, and he became the show's host by the late 1940s. At the age of 9, Orbison won a contest on radio station KVWC , which led to his own radio show where he sang
33726-574: The image of mystery and introversion. Orbison later recalled that he "wasn't trying to be weird ... I didn't have a manager who told me to dress or how to present myself or anything, but the image developed of a man of mystery and a quiet man in black somewhat of a recluse, although I never was, really." Orbison's string of top-40 hits continued with " In Dreams " (US number 7 in January 1963, UK number 6), "Falling" (US number 22, UK number 9), and " Mean Woman Blues " (US number 5, UK number 3) coupled with " Blue Bayou " (US number 29, UK number 3). According to
33957-458: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
34188-467: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
34419-517: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
34650-472: The label. Wesley Rose brought Orbison to the attention of the producer Fred Foster at Monument Records , the record label that Orbison would soon switch to. In his first session for Monument in Nashville, Orbison recorded a song that RCA Victor had refused, "Paper Boy". It was accompanied by the B-side sing "With the Bug", but neither song charted. Orbison's own style, the sound created at RCA Victor Studio B in Nashville with pioneer engineer Bill Porter ,
34881-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
35112-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
35343-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
35574-674: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
35805-609: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
36036-506: The mid-1960s Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies, and his career faltered. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s, following the success of several cover versions of his songs. In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys supergroup with George Harrison , Bob Dylan , Tom Petty , and Jeff Lynne . Orbison died of a heart attack that December at age 52. One month later, his song " You Got It " (1989)
36267-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
36498-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
36729-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
36960-614: The mix." Thereafter, they used the term for any small error in performance. Harrison first suggested "the Trembling Wilburys" as the group's name; at Lynne's suggestion, they amended it to "Traveling Wilburys". During his Rockline interview, Harrison voiced his support for Dylan, at a time when Dylan was experiencing an artistic and commercial low point in his career. Harrison and Lynne became friends with Tom Petty in October 1987, when Petty and his band, Tom Petty and
37191-465: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
37422-608: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
37653-410: The onset of the British Invasion in 1964–65, the direction of popular music shifted dramatically, and most performers of Orbison's generation (Orbison was 28 in 1964) were driven from the charts. The contractual requirement to release a certain amount of singles and albums per year for MGM also took its toll on the quality of Orbison's songs. Orbison was fascinated with machines. He was known to follow
37884-471: The period of 1958–1959, Orbison made his living at Acuff-Rose Music , a songwriting firm concentrating mainly on country music. After spending an entire day writing a song, he would make several demonstration tapes at a time and send them to Wesley Rose , who would try to find musical acts to record them. Orbison then worked with, and was in awe of, Chet Atkins (who had played guitar with Presley) and attempted to sell his recordings of songs by other writers to
38115-409: The production by Foster, and the accompanying musicians gave Orbison's music a "polished, professional sound... finally allowing Orbison's stylistic inclinations free rein". Orbison requested to use string instruments instead of fiddles , which was unusual for the time. He recorded three new songs, the most notable of which was "Uptown", written with Joe Melson and released in late 1959. Impressed with
38346-471: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
38577-653: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
38808-414: The results, Melson later recalled, "We stood in the studio, listening to the playbacks, and thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world." The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll states that the music Orbison made in Nashville "brought a new splendour to rock", and compared the melodramatic effects of the orchestral accompaniment to the musical productions of Phil Spector . "Uptown"
39039-418: The rights, did not reissue them before his death. In June 2007, the two albums were reissued as The Traveling Wilburys Collection , a box set including both albums on CD (with bonus tracks) and a DVD featuring a 25-minute documentary entitled The True History of the Traveling Wilburys and a collection of music videos. The box set was released in three editions; the standard edition, with both CDs and DVD in
39270-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
39501-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
39732-522: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
39963-592: The same songs every week. He attended Denver Avenue Elementary School in Fort Worth until a polio scare in 1944 prompted his parents to send Roy (then aged 8) and his brother Grady Lee to Vernon to live with their grandmother. As World War II wound down, Roy's parents returned to Vernon. The Orbison family moved again in 1946, to Wink, Texas in search of employment. Orbison described life in Wink as "football, oil fields, oil, grease, and sand" and expressed relief that he
40194-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
40425-434: The shocking gyrations that Elvis exhibited on stage. At the end of the spring semester of 1955, Orbison dropped out of North Texas State College, switching to Odessa Junior College. The Wink Westerners were disbanded in the fall of 1955 and Orbison formed a new band called The Teen Kings . The band was made of Orbison, Billy Pat Ellis and James Morrow from the Wink Westerners, plus Jack Kennelly on bass and Johnny Wilson. It
40656-434: The single was Tryin' to Get to You , a song previously recorded by Elvis Presley. After Ooby Dooby was published by Je-Wel Records, Orbison became convinced that a larger record company would be able to sell more copies of the record, and he spoke to a lawyer about breaking the contract with Je-Wel. Initially, Orbison obtained an injunction to prevent Je-Wel from distributing the record, before they reached an agreement that
40887-498: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
41118-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
41349-409: The song's highest note without his voice breaking. He was backed by an orchestra in the studio, and Porter told him he would have to sing louder than his accompaniment because the orchestra was unable to be softer than his voice. Fred Foster then put Orbison in the corner of the studio and surrounded him with coat racks forming an improvised isolation booth to emphasize his voice. Orbison was unhappy with
41580-568: The song, Sam Phillips signed the band up for "a year or two". However, the band's career soon slumped, since Orbison wanted to record emotional ballads rather than the rockabilly songs demanded by Sam Phillips, and Phillips's goal for a successor to Elvis Presley had moved on from Orbison to Carl Perkins . The Teen Kings were granted a reprieve when Carl Perkins was badly injured in a car crash, resulting in Ooby Dooby being released (along with Go Go Go ) as Sun Single 242 in May 1956. The Teen Kings began an experimental tour of drive-in theaters in
41811-399: The songs of Don Gibson and another of Hank Williams covers, but both sold poorly. During the counterculture era, with the charts dominated by artists like Jimi Hendrix , Jefferson Airplane , the Rolling Stones , and the Doors , Orbison lost mainstream appeal, yet seemed confident that this would return, later saying: "[I] didn't hear a lot I could relate to, so I kind of stood there like
42042-463: The southern U.S. states (playing on top of projection house roofs between drive-in film showings) with Sonny James , Johnny Horton , Carl Perkins , and Johnny Cash. Much influenced by Elvis Presley, Orbison performed frenetically, doing "everything we could to get applause because we had only one hit record". Orbison also began writing songs in a rockabilly style, including Go! Go! Go! and Rockhouse . In June 1956, Ooby Dooby peaked at number 59 in
42273-474: The stage name "Lefty Wilbury" during his time with the Traveling Wilburys . He also enjoyed Hank Williams , Bob Wills , Moon Mullican and Jimmie Rodgers . One of the first musicians that he heard in person was Ernest Tubb , playing on the back of a truck in Fort Worth. Orbison also said that a formative experience was the regular singing sessions at Fort Worth, where he was surrounded by soldiers who were intensely emotional because they were about to be sent to
42504-493: The start of what became known as his Never Ending Tour and for Orbison's tour schedule. These sessions were held in the house of Eurythmics member Dave Stewart , in Los Angeles. The five band members sat in a circle playing acoustic guitars in Stewart's kitchen; once each song's basic track had been written and recorded there (with accompaniment from a drum machine ), the group recorded their vocals in another room, usually after dinner each night. Petty recalled that, as
42735-421: The success of his Cloud Nine album, Harrison replied: "What I'd really like to do next is ... to do an album with me and some of my mates ... It's this new group I got [in mind]: it's called the Traveling Wilburys, I'd like to do an album with them and then later we can all do our own albums again." According to Jeff Lynne , who co-produced Cloud Nine , Harrison introduced the idea of the two of them starting
42966-558: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
43197-538: The time of "Ooby Dooby" and "Only the Lonely", it kind of turned into a good voice." But at the time of its recording, Orbison was struggling to earn a living, because he was only working as a singer at local dances. Also the days of his working with Melson were numbered, due to disagreements such as who came up with the title for Only the Lonely . The success of Only The Lonely transformed Orbison into an overnight star and he appeared on Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beechnut Show out of New York City. When Presley heard "Only
43428-420: The time, and sources vary regarding whether Wellhonen was either 17, 18 or 19. Wesley (born 1965), his youngest son with Claudette, was raised by Orbison's parents. Orbison and Wellhonen had a son (Roy Kelton) in 1970 and another ( Alexander ) in 1975. Orbison continued recording albums in the 1970s, but his career went nowhere during this decade. In 1974 he switched record labels from MGM to Mercury Records for
43659-408: The track and invited Orbison to attend the session, which he then arranged to take place at Dylan's garage studio in Malibu since no professional studios were available at such short notice. Petty's involvement came about when Harrison went to retrieve his guitar from Petty's house and invited him to attend also. Working on a song that Harrison had recently started writing, the ensemble completed
43890-527: The track, which they titled " Handle with Care " after a label on a box in Dylan's garage. When Harrison presented the recording to Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker of Warner Bros., the executives insisted that the song was too good to be used as a B-side. In Petty's recollection, Harrison and Lynne then decided to realise their idea of forming a Wilburys band, and first invited him to join before phoning Dylan, who also agreed to join. That night, Harrison, Lynne and Petty drove to Anaheim to see Orbison perform at
44121-424: The tremendous applause he was getting. He was just standing there, not moving or anything." Through the tour, however, the two acts quickly learned to get along, a process made easier by the fact that the Beatles admired his work. Orbison felt a kinship with Lennon, but it was George Harrison with whom he would later form a strong friendship. In 1963, touring took a toll on Orbison's personal life. After discovering
44352-406: The troupe. The band came together in April 1988, when Harrison was in Los Angeles to oversee the filming of his HandMade production Checking Out . At that time, Warner Bros. Records asked Harrison for a new song to serve as the B-side for the European release of his third single from Cloud Nine , " This Is Love ". During a meal with Lynne and Orbison, Harrison asked Lynne to help him record
44583-475: The two Wilburys albums were reissued by the Harrison estate in the 2007 box set The Traveling Wilburys Collection . None of this would've happened without him. It was George's band – it was always George's band and it was a dream he had for a long time. – Tom Petty George Harrison first mentioned the Traveling Wilburys publicly during a radio interview with Bob Coburn on the show Rockline in February 1988. When asked how he planned to follow up
44814-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
45045-418: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
45276-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
45507-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
45738-432: The wrong spirit. One of the most amazing things ever about the Wilburys was this poles-apart thing of Roy [Orbison] and Bob Dylan. That's what I thought was wonderful – the best singer and the best lyricist, and they're both in the same group. – Jeff Lynne In the Rolling Stone Press book The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll , the Traveling Wilburys are described as "the ultimate supergroup", with
45969-462: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
46200-460: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " and " Kon-Tiki ", while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
46431-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
46662-506: Was a modest hit and the first song by Orbison and Melson to reach the Billboard Top 100. His initial success came just as the 1950s rock-and-roll era was winding down. Starting in 1960, the charts in the United States came to be dominated by teen idols, novelty acts, and Motown girl groups. Experimenting with a new sound, Orbison and Joe Melson wrote a song in early 1960 which, using elements from "Uptown", and another song they had written called "Come Back to Me (My Love)", employed strings and
46893-411: Was able to leave the desolate town. Roy was self-conscious about his appearance and began dyeing his nearly-white hair black when he was still young. He was quiet, self-effacing, and remarkably polite and obliging. During recess at school, he played guitar by himself while the other kids were playing physical games. As a teenager, Roy's lack of sporting ability left him with shyness and low self-esteem. Roy
47124-420: Was actually Jack Kennelly (the band's bass player) that Presley praised. Kennelly said that "Roy's dream was to be a star, and once Sam (Phillips) inflated his ego he couldn't be a part of a unit. Roy became egomaniacal". In the summer of 1956, Orbison purchased a brand-new purple Cadillac and a diamond ring with his first royalty cheque from Ooby Dooby ; however, the band soon found out that their pay cheques from
47355-413: Was always keen to sing, however, and considered his voice memorable, but not great. In 1949, Orbison (then 13 years old) formed the band Wink Westerners with school friends Billy Pat Ellis on drums, Slob Evans on bass fiddle, Richard West on piano, and James Morrow on electric mandolin. They played country and western swing standards and Glenn Miller jazz swing songs at local honky-tonk bars and had
47586-540: Was around this time that Orbison began dyeing his hair (naturally a "dishwater grey color") to jet black. After graduating from high school in 1954, Orbison enrolled at North Texas State College in Denton . His plan was to study geology so that he could secure work in the oil fields if music did not pay; however, he became bored with the course in its first year and switched to History and English. But Orbison preferred to play music with fellow students Billy Pat Ellis, Dick Penner and Wade Moore. Penner and Moore had written
47817-434: Was at a dance event where The Teen Kings performed that Orbison met his future wife Claudette Frady. Claudette was fourteen at the time, five years younger than Orbison. The Teen Kings' s first recording was the song Ooby Dooby , which was recorded at Norman Petty 's studio in Clovis, New Mexico in March 1956. It was published by Odessa-based start-up label Je–Wel as the B-side of the JE-WEL 101 single. The A-side of
48048-430: Was broke and realized that he couldn't survive as a recording artist, so after several weeks he returned to the road. He toured with Johnny Cash, Sonny Burgess, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, playing mostly songs from other artists before finishing the set with a song of his own. At the time, Orbison was addicted to sleeping pills and speed. Orbison was introduced to Elvis Presley's social circle, and at some stage picked up
48279-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
48510-469: Was early in the morning and Presley did not want to see Orbison at that time. Orbison and Melson instead recorded the song at RCA Victor's Nashville studio, with sound engineer Bill Porter trying a completely new strategy, building the mix from the top down rather than from the bottom up, beginning with close-miked backing vocals in the foreground, and ending with the rhythm section soft in the background. This combination became Orbison's trademark sound. "Only
48741-427: Was expiring soon. Wesley Rose, at this time acting as Orbison's agent, moved him from Monument Records to MGM Records (though in Europe he remained with Decca's London Records ) for $ 1 million and with the understanding that he would expand into television and films, as Elvis Presley had done. Orbison was a film enthusiast, and when not touring, writing, or recording, he dedicated time to seeing up to three films
48972-494: Was for us all ... The thing I guess would be hardest for people to understand is what good friends we were. It really had very little to do with combining a bunch of famous people. It was a bunch of friends that just happened to be really good at making music. – Tom Petty in The True History of the Traveling Wilburys In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the two Traveling Wilburys albums had limited availability and were out of print in most areas. Harrison, as primary holder of
49203-449: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
49434-407: Was involved. Three of The Teen Kings band members have said that their relationship with Sun Records began when Odessa record store owner Poppa Holifield played it over the telephone for Sam Phillips in April 1956, and Phillips offered the Teen Kings a contract. The Teen Kings went to Sun Studio in Memphis , in order to re-record Ooby Dooby for publication by Sun Records . After an audition of
49665-410: Was lonely and unhappy, and some people said that Orbison was unfaithful to her while he was on tour. Back in the studio, seeking a change from the pop sound of "Only the Lonely", "Blue Angel", and "I'm Hurtin'", Orbison worked on a new song, " Running Scared ", about a man worried that his girlfriend is about to leave him for another man. Orbison encountered difficulty when he found himself unable to hit
49896-501: 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 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), and " Oh, Pretty Woman " (1964). After
50127-475: Was making a wry reference to the appearance of a bootleg that served as a sort of Volume 2 . The album's liner notes were written by Eric Idle , another Python member, who again adopted a pseudonym. For the band's final single, " Wilbury Twist ", they filmed a video in which Idle, John Candy and other comedic actors attempt to master the song's eponymous dance style. The clip was filmed in Los Angeles and completed on 28 February 1991. According to Jim Keltner,
50358-405: Was much anticipated because of the stature of the participants. The band members adopted tongue-in-cheek pseudonyms as half-brothers from the fictional Wilbury family of travelling musicians. Vol. 1 was a critical and commercial success, helping to revitalise Dylan's and Petty's careers. In 1990, the album won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group . Although Harrison envisioned
50589-573: Was no longer the main draw. He had never heard of the Beatles, and annoyed, asked rhetorically, "What's a Beatle, anyway?" to which John Lennon replied, after tapping his shoulder, "I am". On the opening night, Orbison opted to go onstage first, although he was the more established act. The Beatles stood dumbfounded backstage as Orbison simply played through 14 encores. Finally, when the audience began chanting "We want Roy!" again, Lennon and Paul McCartney physically held Orbison back. Ringo Starr later said, "In Glasgow , we were all backstage listening to
50820-538: Was recorded by Nashville Records). Orbison and Claudette had married in 1957 and their first child was born on September 16, 1958. Using the royalty payments from The Everly Brothers hit Claudette , Orbison bought the most expensive new pink Cadillac available. However, Roy and Claudette spent the money lavishly and were soon broke and living with Roy's parents in Wink. Increasingly frustrated at Sun, he gradually stopped recording. He toured music circuits around Texas and then quit performing for seven months in 1958. During
51051-411: Was recorded in August 1960. This hit was a more complex song, yet it still peaked at number nine in the USA. The follow-up single I'm Hurtin' (with I Can't Stop Loving You as the B-side) rose to number 27 in the US, but failed to chart in the UK. After the success of Blue Angel , Orbison undertook a hectic touring schedule, often performing with his neighbor Patsy Cline . During this time, Claudette
51282-464: Was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach both the US and UK Top 10 in nearly 25 years. Orbison's honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and five other Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on its list of
51513-435: Was such a wonderful band, such a marvellous thing to be part of. They were the best people I could ever wish to work with. Every day was like, 'Wow!' ... it was fun from day one." Jim Keltner , the session drummer and percussionist, was not officially listed as a Wilbury on either album, but was given the nickname "Buster Sidebury". Overdubs on the 2007 bonus tracks "Maxine" and "Like a Ship" were credited to "Ayrton Wilbury",
51744-411: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
51975-548: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
52206-445: Was the only American artist to have a number-one single in Britain. He did it twice, with 'It's Over' on June 25, 1964, and 'Oh, Pretty Woman' on October 8, 1964. The latter song also went to number one in America, making Orbison impervious to the current chart dominance of British artists on both sides of the Atlantic." By late 1964, Orbison had "occasionally treated himself to a groupie " and his wife Claudette had had an affair with
52437-416: Was the case in 1971 when EMI prepared Harrison's multi-artist live album from the Concert for Bangladesh for release, Dylan's label, Columbia , presented the main stumbling block. In the album credits, the "Wilburys" joke was extended further, with the band members listed under various pseudonyms and pretending to be half-brothers – sons of a fictional Charles Truscott Wilbury Sr. During promotion for
52668-439: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
52899-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
53130-400: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
53361-466: Was the underlying contribution, I think, that I was trying to do. – George Harrison The band members decided to create a full album together, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 . Video footage of the creative process was later edited by Harrison into a promotional film for Warner Bros. staff, titled Whatever Wilbury Wilbury . The album was recorded primarily over a ten-day period in May 1988, to allow for Dylan's limited availability as he prepared for
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