Roy Orbison, the rock legend originating from Vernon, Texas, had a musical career that was pushed and pulled by his environment at every turn. At the age of six, he asked his parents for a harmonica for his birthday, and they gave him a guitar instead. This fated substitution was what kickstarted his interest in music as a whole. He would rapidly become proficient with the instrument, soon he would get the idea into his head that he would without a shadow of a doubt become a singer.
Orbison would record for two notable record labels throughout his career, the first being Sun Records. His very first recorded song was ‘Oobie Doobie’, featuring nonsense lyrics and a distinctly country sounding electric guitar.
In this recording, done in Sun Records’ studio in Memphis, Tennessee, Orbison seems to be practically shouting at points to keep up with the other elements in the track. This, although they certainly played it off well, was not a consciously made stylistic choice, but rather a symptom of the recording environment itself. According to the man himself, the live room they used was quite small, which meant that all the amplifiers and drums in the room would overpower the vocals unless he got louder to keep pace.
The business side of working at Sun was no better for the singer, as the amount of creative freedom he had was minimal. Sun did not have confidence in his ability to perform in genres outside of rock & roll/rockabilly and wanted him to stick to that for the sake of record sales. This, no doubt, contributed to his eventual move to Monument Records.
When Orbison switched labels, many of the nagging problems he had surrounding his artistic career were more or less solved. They allowed him much more agency when it came to his creative license, which led to him following his craving to depart from the familiar space of rock and try—to much success, a ballad style. The recording space was also much more accommodating of the softer vocals he was inclined to use, in his recordings at Monument, it can be clearly heard that his voice is not competing with the other instruments in the room.
Orbison was known for writing his own lyrics, something that allowed him to play to the strengths of his voice better than if someone else were to write them. However, for a portion of his career he had help from Joe Melson, this includes Crying. Melson’s involvement in the song was mentioned in Billboard magazine, where his contributions to nine of the songs on the album of the same name were credited.
Also mentioned were the Bryants and Buck Ram, who worked on the album as well, though in the form of instrumentalists and a producer instead of songwriters.
Works Cited
Biography.com Editors. “Roy Orbison Biography.” Biography.com. 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.biography.com/musician/roy-orbison.
Orbison, Roy. “HHR&R Roy Full Interview.” YouTube, uploaded by Marty Sinclair, 5 May, 2018, HHR&R Roy Full Interview.
Sun Records. “Roy Orbison.” Sun Records. https://www.sunrecords.com/artists/roy-orbison.
Billboard. “Spotlight Albums of the Week.” Billboard Music Week, 27 Jan. 1962, pp. 22. https://books.google.com.
