Roy Orbison Part I

 Roy Orbison was born in Texas in 1936 and became known as a singer whose subject was heartbreak.  He was the son of an oil driller and in his childhood the family moved around Texas to various jobs.  He  grew up mainly in Wink, Texas but disliked the town, seeing it as "football, oil and sand".  He was a sensitive shy boy.  He did not want to work in the oil business but tried to study enough to get a start in the field if necessary.  however his heart was in music.  He had poor eyesight and had to wear thick glasses and he was also embarrassed that his hair was almost white as a boy and died in jet black.  He wanted to performed but did suffer badly from stage fright....

As a boy, Orbison began to sing on the radio and played with a band in high school. They played country music and one of his favourite artists in that genre was Hank Williams... Roy knew  that he wanted to play music but his shyness was a problem... He enrolled in college after high school so as to have a back up if he did not succeed in the music business, but he kept on playing with his band, at local gigs and studying during the day.  He met Johnny Cash who suggested that he apply to Sam Phillips of Sun Records.  Phillips at first rejected him but then  he did record "Ooby Dooby" which was his first big hit.  He and his band now known as the Teen Kings began to write songs in rockabilly style.  He became friendly with Elvis Presley who also had gotten his start at Sun Records and he wrote a song called Claudette, named after his girlfriend Claudette which became popular.  However although he would become famous for his voice, at the time, he was not sure if he should go on performing or if he should concentrate on song writing.