yet, but when Roy realized how popular the group was over there, he decided to let The Beatles close the shows. (Roy Orbison with The Beatles and Gerry & The Pacemakers) In 1963, Roy Orbison went to England to co-headline a tour with some English bands. It went to #2 in 1960, sold over half-a-million copies in the U.S., and was an international success.įrom 1960 to 1963, Roy had 15 Top 40 hits, including “Running Scared” (#1), “Crying” (#2), “Dream Baby” (#4), “In Dreams” (#7), “Mean Woman Blues” (#5), and “Blue Bayou” (#29). The magic was there, and “Only The Lonely” became Orbison’s first hit. Roy had moved to Monument Records, and began recording with Nashville musicians. They both turned it down, which was really fortunate, because the song kick-started Roy Orbison’s career. So, when Roy wrote “Only The Lonely” (with Joe Melson), he offered it to The Everly Brothers and Elvis Presley. Orbison saw very little success at that time (his recording of “Ooby Dooby” only made it to #59 in ‘56), but in 1958 he wrote a song about his wife, “Claudette”, and The Everly Brothers took it into the Top 30 as the flip side to “All I Have To Do Is Dream”. He made his way to Sun Records in Memphis in the mid ‘50’s to join other Rockabilly singers like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. Roy Orbison almost gave away the song that started his successful career.