66 Years Ago Today, Roy Orbison Scored His First Hit With the Song Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers Passed On

On this day in 1960, Roy Orbison struck gold on the charts with “Only The Lonely”, his first hit. The song peaked at No. 2 in the US and gave him his first chart-topper in the UK.

The song not only took Orbison to new heights, earning him a spot on American Bandstand and a tour with Patsy Cline, but it also set the standard for his future songs, which were written with his voice in mind.

 “I liked the sound of [my voice]. I liked making it sing, making the voice ring, and I just kept doing it,” he explained to Rolling Stone. “And I think that somewhere between the time of “Ooby Dooby” and “Only the Lonely”, it kind of turned into a good voice.”

Before this song made Orbison a star, though, it was passed around to other acts. Elvis Presley and The Everly Brothers were both offered the song but turned it down. At the suggestion of The Everly Brothers, Orbison chose to release it on his album, Lonely and Blue.

However, Presley did admire Orbison. He would later call him, “quite simply, the greatest singer in the world” in 1976 at one of his shows in Las Vegas.

Roy Orbison Sees Elvis Presley Live

In 1955, the year before Roy Orbison got his big break with the song “Ooby Dooby”, he took himself to see Presley perform in Dallas, Texas at 19 years old.

Eventually, Orbison would become influenced by Presley to play more rock music with his band, the Wink Westerners.

“I couldn’t overemphasize how shocking he looked and seemed to me that night,” Roy once recalled of that night. “He told jokes that weren’t funny, and his diction was real coarse like a truck driver’s. [There was] pandemonium in the audience because the girls took a shine to him and the guys were getting a little jealous.” Orbison continued, saying, “What comes out is not show. There are a lot of people who are good actors at singing to that they make you think they sound good but, with Elvis, he lives it altogether.”

By the summer of 1956, Presley and Orbison had become good friends.

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