Rock legend was reaching new heights

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 25

Rock legend was reaching new heights

NZPA-Reuter Nashville

By 1

PAT HARRIS

"J * •**—•**— Roy Orbison, a legend in both rock and country music, was an internationally acclaimed artist at times more popular abroad than in his native United States. The singer was reaching new heights as an entertainer when he suffered a fatal heart attack last week at the age of 52. The man hwo wrote and sang such hits as “Only the Lonely,” “Pretty Woman” and “Running Scared,” recently teamed up with the performers. Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, to form a super-group called the Travelling Wilburys. Their first LP, “Volume

One,” was recently released, with the artists giving themselves country bumpkin-like pseudonyms.

It immediately hit the charts. Orbison’s career started with a group of singers who would also become world famous. In 1956, after playing professionally for seven years since the age of 13, he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, the famous little label that also launched the careers of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins about that time. But while the careers of the others soared, Orbison’s languished until he switched to Monument Records in Nashville and recorded "Only The Lonely” and his other early hits. His new-found fame in

the United States did not last long, however, as American fans took to the “British blitz” spearheaded by the Beatles. Ironically, it was during this time that Orbison became highly popular in Britain. In the 1960 s he had a total of 28 hits in the British Top 20 charts. In 1963, while sharing top billing with the Beatles in Britain, he took 10 encores — more than the “Fab Four” were asked to take. Orbison, whose trademark was dark glasses and all-black outfits, was once described by the rock star, Bruce Springsteen, as "Singing only for the lonely," a sentiment with which Orbison did not entirely disagree.

“It’s just the kind of guy that comes out sometimes when I write,” he said in an interview with the “Boston Globe” newspaper published last month. ‘Probably, it’s one side of my personality coming through. I read a lot into what I write, and it’s mostly feelings.” Orbison’s life was , marred by a double tragedy. His first wife, Claudette, died in a motorcycle accident in 1966, and two sons perished in a fire in 1967. “You set out to whip the world, and then when you get beat up a little bit ... in my case you say, ‘Father, I’m going to let you have it. I’ve done what I can do.’ You turn

your will over to God,” he said in the “Globe” interview. He also said, shortly before his death, that he was a very happy, humble man. “My voice is a gift; my talent is a gift; the life process is a gift; the opportunity for the journey is a gift,” he said. Orbison, born on April 23, 1936, in Vernon, Texas, was a showbusiness prodigy, co-hosting a local radio talent show at the age of eight and forming his own touring country music band at 13. He leaves a second wife, Barbara, and three sons, Wesley, aged 23, from his first marraige, and Alex, aged 13, and Roy jun., aged 17, from his second marriage.