Roy Orbison, Rock Icon Remembered on his Birthday, Would Have Been 69 Years Old on Saturday, April 23, 2005

NASHVILLE, TN. (Orbison Records/ www.orbison.com) - Out of the tiny oil town of Wink, in West Texas, he became a worldwide superstar, topping the charts around the planet for four decades. He toured with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Eagles and Patsy Cline, and made a tremendous impact on every single soul that heard his sound. Elvis Presley called Roy "The Greatest singer in the world."

Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas on April 23rd, 1936. He got his first guitar for his 6th birthday, had his own radio show at the age of 8. At the age of 13 he formed his first band, the Wink Westerners, and they became local heroes. By 18 he had his own television show and one of his guests was Johnny Cash, who pointed him to Sun Records, the home to Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash.
From there he went to Monument Records in Nashville and a tremendous string of hits followed. First came "Uptown," followed by "Only The Lonely," "Blue Angel," "Running Scared," "Crying," "Dream Baby," "In Dreams," "It's Over," and one of the most popular songs of all time, "Oh, Pretty Woman."

In January of 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later that year, he recorded the archetypal Black & White Night, the Coconut Grove performance featuring artists Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, James Burton, and Bonnie Raitt, to name a few. During that year, Roy was recording two albums at the same time, one with the Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 1, and his solo effort, Mystery girl. In December of 1988 Roy passed away and he had two No 1 songs on the charts at that time, "Handle With Care" with the Wilburys and his own, "You Got It."

Roy Orbison received multiple Grammy awards and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.
In one of his last interviews he was asked how he wanted to be remembered, and he just replied: "I would just like to be remembered." We celebrate Roy Orbison's 69th birthday on April 23rd. For more information on Roy Orbison go to https://www.royorbison.com