Tom Petty called him “probably the best singer in the world.” For Bob Dylan, also a Traveling Wilburys colleague, he had “the voice of a professional killer”.
Like Johnny Cash and Elvis, Roy Orbison started out with rockabilly – in 1956 he recorded the boppy “Ooby Dooby” for Sun – before his symphonic singing gave rock completely new, majestic and mysterious characteristics in the early 1960s.
Majestic songs
“Songs like “Leah” and “In Dreams” start off groovy and then climb inexorably into the stratosphere,” explains his protégé Chris Isaak.
Dion, who was on tour with Orbison, remembers that his colleague always sang very softly, but it triggered incredible feelings: “I was only standing a meter away, and when he sang those high notes, he did it very quietly intimately. But the feeling behind it hit you like a sledgehammer.”
- BIRTHDAY: April 23, 1936 († December 6, 19S8)
- MAIN SONGS: “Oh Pretty Woman”, “You Got It”, “Only The Lonely”
- INSPIRATION FOR: Bruce Springsteen, Chris Isaak, kd lang