There is always that one moment in a person’s life that launches a formative domino effect on the future. For Roy Orbison—who was 52 when he died in 1988 and whose 88th heavenly birthday falls on April 23—that was hearing an Elvis Presley cover song, even as both he and the King slammed Presley’s record label.
Vernon, Texas native Roy Orbison was born on April 23, 1936, the son of a painter and an oil field driller who struggled to find work after the Great Depression. He rose to fame in the late ’50s and early ’60s as a rock and roll and pop singer-songwriter, known just as much for his emotional delivery as he was for his signature sunglasses. His fame skyrocketed with the chart-topper “Oh, Pretty Woman,” but all of it almost never came to be, had Orbison not heard one Elvis cover song.
Roy Orbison almost did not pursue music before he heard one particular Elvis Presley song
In a 1988 interview with Rolling Stone, Orbison revealed that although he had a band in high school, there was a point after its formation he seriously thought about ditching music completely. “I went to college for a year,” he shared. “I guess it was an attempt at being legitimate, or not being a free spirit. It was a good year, but it was a lonely year. I think the reason it was really lonely was that I wasn’t where I needed to be.”
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But where was he to be, then? Orbison got his answer straight from the source.
“But I met a couple of guys at school who had written ‘Ooby Dooby,'” he went on, “and what convinced me that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time was I heard a record by a young fellow on the jukebox called ‘That’s All Right.'”
He added, “So I moved to Odessa to junior college, got my band together with different guys and started in doing what I wanted to do.” Showbiz Cheat Sheet notes that although Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup originally performed the song, context indicates Orbison was referring specifically to Elvis Presley’s cover of the tune in his story.
Roy Orbison is remembered on his 88th birthday for a career he could be critical of
Devoted to the path of music after all, Orbison joined the Sun Records family, whose members would include Elvis himself as well as Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. Orbison is remembered on his 88th birthday, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, for being an inspiration behind countless artists from his contemporaries into today. But few were faster to criticize the early days on Sun Records than he himself was.
The honeymoon days seemed promising. “Well, Johnny Cash was on Sun Records — he was making unusual records,” recalled Orbison. “And Presley was there, and Carl Perkins. I was really impressed with that little chicken on the Sun label, because it represented something unique,” he added, referring to the label’s mascot.
As for what he put out while with Sun Records, Orbison was less than fond. “It was good to work with Sam,” he reasoned, before adding, “He wouldn’t accept anything less than all you had, you know? But it wasn’t a good studio, and Sam didn’t know how to express exactly what he wanted.”
It was a mixed reception that Elvis also reportedly shared regarding his own early work. “Elvis and I both were a little bit … We didn’t think it was really good work, the early stuff,” revealed Orbison. “so we didn’t play our Sun records onstage for a long time. Until about 1970, I think, when it became instant history, you know. All the information coalesced to the point where everybody thought that was a beginning. And so then I took it more seriously myself, because I had a few years to reflect. And Presley started singing [his Sun single] ‘That’s All Right,’ and I started singing [the Sun single] ‘Ooby Dooby’ onstage.”
Over the years, the bespectacled artist who nearly wasn’t, Roy Orbison, was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Musicians Hall of Fame. With six Grammys, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, to his name, Orbison is ranked at number 37 in Rolling Stone‘s list of the Greatest Artists of All Time.
