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Posted on 10/16/2015 6:00:18 PM PDT by luvie
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Well gosh! Shucks! Heck! Darn! Snail fracki!
Roy (1936-88) was born in Vernon (TX) and grew up in Wink. He would later describe the major components of life in Wink as “football, oil fields, oil, grease and sand” and in later years expressed relief that he was able to leave. Roy wore thick glasses at an early age. He was not particularly confident in his appearance; he began dyeing his nearly white hair black when he was young. He was quiet and self-effacing, remarkably polite and obliging, a product of his Southern upbringing. But Roy was readily available to sing and often became the focus of attention when he did. He considered his voice memorable if not great.
His major musical influences were in country music: Lefty Frizzell, Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers. At age eight, Roy began appearing on a local radio show. By thirteen he was the host.
In high school, he and his friends formed the Wink Westerners, a band that played country standards at local honky-tonks and had a weekly radio show. When they were offered $400 to play at a dance, Roy realized that he could make a living in music. After graduating from high school he enrolled at North Texas State College in Denton, planning to study geology so that he could secure work in the oil fields. After his first year of college he returned home and continued with the Wink Westerners. Three of the five Westerners moved to Odessa and added two new band members. That fall Roy enrolled in Odessa Junior College. The Wink Westerners changed their name to the Teen Kings and played on local TV stations, played dances on the weekends, and attended college during the day.
While living in Odessa, Roy saw Elvis Presley, who was only a year older and a rising star. Johnny Cash toured the area in 1955, played on the same local radio show as the Teen Kings and suggested that Roy approach Sam Phillips at Sun Records, the home of Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Cash. Sam was impressed enough to offer the Teen Kings a contract.
The Teen Kings went to Memphis and recorded “Ooby Dooby.” Roy rankled quietly at Sam’s dictatorial style, but “Ooby Dooby” sold. The Teen Kings toured with Sonny James, Johnny Horton, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. The band split up over writing credits and royalties, but Roy stayed in Memphis and asked his 16 year old girlfriend to join him. Roy and Claudette stayed in Sam’s house, and in the studio Roy concentrated on the mechanics of recording. Sam remembered being much more impressed with Roy’s mastery of the guitar than his voice. A producer at Sun told Roy he would never make it as a ballad singer.
He found some success at Sun and entered Elvis’ social circle, once going to pick up a date for Elvis in his purple Cadillac. The only royalties Roy earned at Sun enabled him to make a down payment on his own Cadillac. Frustrated at Sun, Roy stopped recording, toured music circuits around Texas to make a living, and quit performing completely in 1958. His car was repossessed, and he depended on family and friends for funds.
Roy moved to a country song writing firm run by Roy Acuff and Wesley Rose. After spending an entire day writing a song, he would make a demo tape and send it to Rose, who would try to find a musical act to record it. Roy attempted to sell songs he recorded that were written by other writers as well, working with, and being completely in awe of, Chet Atkins, who had played guitar with Presley.
Now married to Claudette and with a young son, Roy sought refuge by taking his guitar to his car and writing songs there. Songwriter Joe Melson tapped on his car window one day, and the two decided to write some songs together. During three recording sessions in 1959, Roy and Joe recorded seven songs at RCA’s Nashville studio with Atkins producing, but only two songs were judged worthy of release. Wesley Rose maneuvered Roy into the sights of producer Fred Foster at Monument Records.
Orbison became one of the first recording artists to popularize the Nashville Sound, a mix of country and pop crossover. It was developed by producers Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, Sam Phillips and Fred Foster.
The combination of the studio and production gave Roy’s music a polished, professional sound that allowed Roy’s stylistic inclinations free rein. In addition to the Nashville Sound’s core components, Roy requested strings in the studio. With this combination, he recorded three new songs. Impressed with the results, Melson recalled, “We stood in the studio, listening to the play-backs and thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world.”
Roy’s initial success came as the careers of many of rock’s first generation had stalled. Elvis was in the Army, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly were dead, Little Richard found Jesus, Chuck Berry was in prison, and Jerry Lee Lewis was disgraced when his marriage to his 13 year old cousin was reported in the press. Shlock Rock dominated the airwaves.
Influenced by the Fleetwoods, Roy and Joe Melson wrote a song that would showcase Roy’s powerful voice: “Only the Lonely.” The guys pitched it first to Elvis and the Everly Brothers but were turned down. They recorded the song at RCA’s Nashville studio with Porter trying a completely new strategy: building the mix from the top down rather than from the bottom up, beginning with the close-miked background vocals in the foreground and ending with the rhythm section soft in the background. This combination became Roy Orbison’s trademark sound. Finally, a major hit!
Roy moved his wife and son to Nashville. Now came “Crying,” another huge success. Roy would be a chart contender for the first half of the Sixties before his career languished.
He came back strongly in the late Eighties as a member of the studio band The Traveling Wilburys. It was at the height of his comeback that his heart finally gave out on him.
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Eddie Cochran ~ Three Steps To Heaven
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They came from San Francisco and were produced by Phil Spector in the early days of his career. The song is by Barry Mann and Larry Kolber, not Barry’s usual writing partner, wife Cynthia Weil.
Wink is about 40 miles from here and he used to have a show on the local TV station with his band, the Teen Kings. He was ugly as sin and hard to watch, as you’ve seen on the videos probably, but his voice. Oh, his voice!
He had a four octave range.
Indeed he did. Sometimes the falsetto was a bit too much. LOL!
The sad thing is that he was at the peak of his form, working with Dylan, Harrison and Petty, and well on the way to a major comeback when his bum ticker stopped on him.
R&B genius Percy Mayfield wrote and recorded this tune in 1960 as an a capella demo sent to Art Rupe of Specialty Records, the home of Little Richard. Rupe didn’t like it, and it got passed to Ray Charles. The rest was history. That’s Margie Hendricks and the Raelettes sharing vocal honors with Ray. It won a Grammy for Best R&B Recording for 1961.
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Queen ~ Bohemian Rhapsody
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Emmylou Harris ~ Here I Am
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Now?
Now?
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