was a Native American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s.

Building on the distorted electric guitar sound of early records, his 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble” by Link Wray & His Ray Men popularized “the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists,” facilitating the emergence of “punk and heavy rock”. Rolling Stone placed Wray at No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 and 2017 he was a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Though he began in country music, his musical style went on to consist primarily of rock and roll, rockabilly, and instrumental rock.

Jerry Reed

was an American country music singer, guitarist, and songwriter, as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included “Guitar Man”, “U.S. Male”, “A Thing Called Love”, “Alabama Wild Man”, “Amos Moses”, “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot” (which garnered a Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male), “Ko-Ko Joe”, “Lord, Mr. Ford”, “East Bound and Down” (the theme song for the 1977 blockbuster Smokey and the Bandit, in which Reed co-starred), “The Bird”, and “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)”.

Reed was announced as an inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame on April 5, 2017 and was officially inducted by Bobby Bare on October 24.

Danny and the Juniors

are a doo-wop and rock and roll vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania originally consisting of Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova. Formed in 1955, they are most widely recognized for their 1958 hit single “At the Hop”, recorded the previous year in 1957.

The Del-Vikings

are an American doo-wop musical group, who recorded several hit singles in the 1950s, and continued to record and tour with various lineups in later decades. The group was notable for being one of the few racially mixed musical groups to attain success in the 1950s.

Eddie Cochran

was an American musician. Cochran’s rockabilly songs, such as “Twenty Flight Rock”, “Summertime Blues”, “C’mon Everybody” and “Somethin’ Else”, captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. He experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing even on his earliest singles. He played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a sharply dressed and good-looking young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death he achieved an iconic status.

Cochran was involved with music from an early age, playing in the school band and teaching himself to play blues guitar. In 1954, he formed a duet with the guitarist Hank Cochran (no relation), and when they split the following year, Eddie began a songwriting career with Jerry Capehart. His first success came when he performed the song “Twenty Flight Rock” in the film The Girl Can’t Help It, starring Jayne Mansfield. Soon afterwards, he signed a recording contract with Liberty Records.

Cochran died at age 21 after a road accident, while travelling in a taxi in Chippenham, Wiltshire, during his British tour in April 1960, having just performed at Bristol’s Hippodrome theatre. Though his best-known songs were released during his lifetime, more of his songs were released posthumously. In 1987, Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His songs have been recorded by a wide variety of recording artists.

Ben E. King

was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He was perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of “Stand by Me”—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later in 1986 (when it was used as the theme to the film of the same name), a number one hit in the UK in 1987, and no. 25 on the RIAA’s list of Songs of the Century—and as one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group the Drifters notably singing the lead vocals of one of their biggest global hit singles (and only U.S. #1 hit) “Save the Last Dance for Me”.

Johnny Burnette

was an American singer-songwriter of rockabilly and pop music. In 1952, he and his older brother, Dorsey Burnette, and their friend Paul Burlison formed the band that later was known as the Rock and Roll Trio.

The Five Satins

are an American doo-wop group, best known for their 1956 million-selling song, “In the Still of the Night.”

The group, formed in New Haven, Connecticut, consisted of leader Fred Parris, Lewis Peeples, Stanley Dortch, Ed Martin and Jim Freeman and Nat Mosley in 1954. With little success, the group reorganized, with Dortch and Peeples leaving, and new member Al Denby entering. The group then recorded “In the Still of the Night”, a very big hit in the United States which was originally released as the B-side to the single, “The Jones Girl”. The single was initially issued on the tiny local “Standord” label (45 stock # 200) and after some local Connecticut sales, it was released the following year on the New York label Ember (45 stock # 1005), and “In The Still Of The Night” ended up charting at number three on the R&B chart and number 25 on the pop charts. Two singles later, the follow-up track “Pretty Baby (That’s Why I Sing)” (Ember 1025) got weeks of airplay on powerful CHUM in Toronto, in November 1957. An August 1958 release, “A Night To Remember” (Ember 1038), got some Boston airplay. During late 1959 (in San Francisco, CA) and early 1960 (in both San Antonio, TX and Rochester, NY), their classic 45 side garnered renewed current airplay, becoming a Top 10 hit in all three listed markets. “In The Still of the Night” became an even bigger hit when it appeared as the lead track on Original Sound Records’ OLDIES BUT GOODIES Vol.1. The series eventually ran to 15 volumes. The series has been in continual print in one form or another since that first volume was released in 1959. In total, their signature track sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. A case of painfully bad timing affected the group’s lead singer. Uncle Sam had come calling, and Parris entered the Army very soon after the huge success of “In The Still Of The Night”, forcing the group to reorganize again, with Martin, Freeman, Tommy Killebrew, Jessie Murphy and new lead Bill Baker. Baker quickly proved to be a highly capable replacement, however, as this lineup immediately hit big with another timeless, very successful effort, Billy Dawn Smith’s “To the Aisle” (Ember 1019), in September 1957.

Upon Parris’ return from the Army, a new lineup was assembled, consisting of Parris, Lewis Peeples (who was in a previous incarnation of the Five Satins), Sylvester Hopkins, Richie Freeman and Wes Forbes. The group would be briefly known as “Fred Parris and the Scarlets”, until the Baker-led group split up. At this point, they reverted to the Five Satins name. According to old radio survey repository ARSA, the following 45 sides charted in some markets: “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Ember 1061), 3/60; “Your Memory” (Cub 9071), 7/1960; “The Time” (Ember 1066), 10/60; “These Foolish Things/A Beggar With A Dream” (Cub 9077), 12/60; “Till The End” (United Artists 368), 11/61; “The Masquerade Is Over” (Chancellor 1110), 7/62; “Remember Me” (Warner Brothers 5367), 8/63; and “Ain’t Gonna Dance” (aka “Ain’t Gonna Cry”, Roulette 4563), 7/64. In total, the group appeared on an unusually high number of record labels, even for their era, when such label-hopping was far more of a common practice.

In 1965, Parris retooled his band, and started a three-year run of getting substantial airplay almost exclusively inside his home state of Connecticut, as Fred Parris and the Restless Hearts. Songs included “No Use In Crying” (Checker 1108), 5/65; “Blushing Bride/Giving My Love To You” (Green-Sea 106), 8/66; “Bring It Home To Daddy” (Atco 6439), which hit #1 locally in 10/66; “I’ll Be Hangin On” (Green-Sea 107); a #11 local hit in 4/67; and ending this career phase with an updated version of their classic hit, “(I’ll Remember) In The Still Of The Night “67”” (Mama Sadie 1001), in 8/67.

By the early 1970s the group was Parris, Peeples, Richie Freeman, Jimmy Curtis and Corky Rogers. “Dark At The Top Of My Heart” (RCA 0478), 6/71, had garnered them still more Connecticut airplay. With the smash hit 1973 film American Graffiti and its nostalgic soundtrack sparking a renewed interest in both old hits and old groups, music mogul Don Kirshner sought to capitalize by signing Parris and his group to his own Kirshner label. He restored the group’s moniker back to Five Satins, and released two 45s: “Very Precious Oldies/Your Are Love” (Kirshner 4251), 1973; and “Two Different Worlds/Love Is Such A Beautiful Thing” (Kirshner 4252), 1974. Both singles flopped, however.

They continued recording into the 1980s, with Parris, Richie Freeman, Curtis and Nate Marshall. In 1982, a “Medley Craze” had suddenly engulfed Top 40 radio, led by the Beatle hit-laden Stars on 45 medley, performed by some Dutch studio sound-alike musicians. The track hit #1 in the U.S. In response, Capitol had quickly spliced up and issued “genuine” old hit medleys, for both The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Both of these medleys only narrowly missed reaching the national Top 10. Noticing this new trend, however, longtime Connecticut music producer Marty Markiewicz (who’d known Parris personally for many years), knew that he was still singing/performing at a very high level. Markiewicz also happened to be working for Elektra Records (as a local music rep) at the time. He got an idea. He both asked for and was given permission by his employer to bring Parris and company in, on each’s own time, to record/produce a medley of classic ’50s hits. Just to see what would come out of it. The plan was to use the Satins’ own classic hit as the medley’s final song. The result was “Memories Of Days Gone By” (Elektra 47411), which became the group’s first new entry on the Billboard Hot 100 since 1960. And although it only peaked at #71 in early 1982, it did again reach the Top 10 at New Haven’s WKCI (KC101) and Hartford’s and WDRC. The latter was especially satisfying, as airplay for Parris in the Hartford market had always been tough to come by, even during the ’60s days of huge downstate radio play. In response to their successful medley, Elektra requested a full LP. For this release, the “Five” was dropped, and the album was issued as by “Fred Parris And The Satins.” Two more singles were released from it. The first, a remake of the Delfonics’ 1970 hit “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” (Elektra 69888), again got solid airplay in New Haven, in November 1982. Meanwhile, Bill Baker had started his own Five Satins group around this same time, with former Satin Sylvester Hopkins and Hopkins’ brothers Arthur “Count” Hopkins, Sr. and Frank. By the late 1980s, this group consisted of Baker, Harvey Potts, Jr., Anthony Hofler and Octavio DeLeon. In 1990, the group was joined by Jimmie Wilson stepping into the first tenor position for Don Simpson.

Fred Parris and Richie Freeman continue to perform. Bill Baker died on August 10th, 1994.

George Jones

was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best known song “He Stopped Loving Her Today”, as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last twenty years of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill Malone writes, “For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved.” Waylon Jennings expressed a similar opinion in his song “It’s Alright”: “If we all could sound like we wanted to, we’d all sound like George Jones.” The shape of his nose and facial features earned Jones the nickname “The Possum.”

Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven and was given a guitar at the age of nine. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded “White Lightning,” written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname “No Show Jones.” After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure. During his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.

Willie Nelson

is an American musician, singer, songwriter, author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky-tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote “Family Bible” and recorded the song “Lumberjack” in 1956. He also worked as a disc jockey at various radio stations in Vancouver and nearby Portland Oregon. In 1958, he moved to Houston, Texas, after signing a contract with D Records. He sang at the Esquire Ballroom weekly and he worked as a disk jockey. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including “Funny How Time Slips Away”, “Hello Walls”, “Pretty Paper”, and “Crazy”. In 1960 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and later signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price’s band as a bassist. In 1962, he recorded his first album, …And Then I Wrote. Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas. The ongoing music scene of Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album Red Headed Stranger. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like “On the Road Again”, “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before”, and “Pancho and Lefty”, he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.

In 1990, Nelson’s assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed $32 million. The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s. In 1992, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?; the profits of the double album—destined to the IRS—and the auction of Nelson’s assets cleared his debt. During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk.

Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television. Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which is in favor of marijuana legalization. On the environmental front, Nelson owns the bio-diesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil. Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the Advisory Board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.

Left Banke

is an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two US hit singles, “Walk Away Renée” and “Pretty Ballerina”. The band often used what the music press referred to as “baroque” string arrangements, which led to their music being variously termed as “Bach-rock” or “baroque rock”. The band’s vocal harmonies borrowed from contemporaries such as The Beatles, The Zombies, and other British Invasion groups.

Charlie Rich

was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. His eclectic style of music was often difficult to classify, encompassing the rockabilly, jazz, blues, country, soul, and gospel genres.

In the later part of his life, Rich acquired the nickname the Silver Fox. He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, “Behind Closed Doors” and “The Most Beautiful Girl”. “The Most Beautiful Girl” topped the U.S. country singles charts, as well as the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles charts and earned him two Grammy Awards. Rich was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

Grass Roots

is an American rock band that charted frequently between 1966 and 1975. The band was originally the creation of Lou Adler and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In their career, they achieved two gold albums, one gold single and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100 a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they achieved Top 10 three times, Top 20 three times and Top 40 eight times. They have sold over 20 million records worldwide.

Until his death in 2011, early member Rob Grill and a newer lineup of the Grass Roots continued to play many live performances each year. Since 2012, band members chosen by Grill are carrying on the legacy of the group with nationwide live performances.

The post Rock, Pop, Doo Wop, Country, and Rockabilly (Part 3) appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

was an American musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born in Lubbock, Texas, to a musical family during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, and he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school. He made his first appearance on local television in 1952, and the following year he formed the group “Buddy and Bob” with his friend Bob Montgomery. In 1955, after opening for Elvis Presley, he decided to pursue a career in music. He opened for Presley three times that year; his band’s style shifted from country and western to entirely rock and roll. In October that year, when he opened for Bill Haley & His Comets, he was spotted by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall, who helped him get a contract with Decca Records.

Holly’s recording sessions at Decca were produced by Owen Bradley. Unhappy with Bradley’s control in the studio and with the sound he achieved there, he went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico, and recorded a demo of “That’ll Be the Day”, among other songs. Petty became the band’s manager and sent the demo to Brunswick Records, which released it as a single credited to “The Crickets”, which became the name of Holly’s band. In September 1957, as the band toured, “That’ll Be the Day” topped the US and UK singles charts. Its success was followed in October by another major hit, “Peggy Sue”.

The album Chirping Crickets, released in November 1957, reached number five on the UK Albums Chart. Holly made his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1958 and soon after, toured Australia and then the UK. In early 1959, he assembled a new band, consisting of future country music star Waylon Jennings (bass), famed session musician Tommy Allsup (guitar), and Carl Bunch (drums), and embarked on a tour of the midwestern U.S. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, he chartered an airplane to travel to his next show, in Moorhead, Minnesota. Soon after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson in a tragedy later referred to by Don McLean as “The Day the Music Died”.

During his short career, Holly wrote, recorded, and produced his own material. He is often regarded as the artist who defined the traditional rock-and-roll lineup of two guitars, bass, and drums. He was a major influence on later popular music artists, including Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Weezer, and Elton John. He was among the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Carpenters

were an American vocal and instrumental duo of Karen (1950–1983) and Richard Carpenter (b. 1946). They produced a distinct soft musical style, combining Karen’s contralto vocals with Richard’s arranging and composition skills. During their 14-year career, the Carpenters recorded ten albums, along with numerous singles and several television specials.

The siblings were born in New Haven, Connecticut, and moved to Downey, California, in 1963. Richard took piano lessons as a child, progressing to California State University, Long Beach, while Karen learned the drums. They first performed together as a duo in 1965 and formed the jazz-oriented Richard Carpenter Trio followed by the middle-of-the-road group Spectrum. Signing as Carpenters to A&M Records in 1969, they achieved major success the following year with the hit singles “(They Long to Be) Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun”. Subsequently, the duo’s brand of melodic pop produced a record-breaking run of hit recordings on the American Top 40 and Adult Contemporary charts, and they became leading sellers in the soft rock, easy listening and adult contemporary music genres. The Carpenters had three number-one singles and five number-two singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and fifteen number-one hits on the Adult Contemporary chart, in addition to twelve top-10 singles. They have sold more than 90 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The duo toured continually during the 1970s, which put them under increased strain; Richard took a year off in 1979 after he had become addicted to Quaaludes, while Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa.

Their career together ended in 1983 following Karen’s death from heart failure brought on by complications of anorexia. Extensive news coverage surrounding these circumstances increased public awareness of eating disorders. Though the Carpenters were criticized for their clean-cut and wholesome conservative image in the 1970s, their music has since been re-evaluated, attracting critical acclaim and continued commercial success.

Glen Campbell

was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host, and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting a music and comedy variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television, from January 1969 until June 1972. He released over 70 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.

Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as “The Wrecking Crew”. After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell’s hits are “Universal Soldier”, his first hit from 1965, along with “Gentle on My Mind” (1967), “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” (1967), “Wichita Lineman” (1968), “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife” (1968), “Galveston” (1969), “Rhinestone Cowboy” (1975) and “Southern Nights” (1977).

In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For “Gentle on My Mind”, he received two awards in country and western; “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA’s top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Dolly Parton

is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and philanthropist, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Dolly Parton made her album debut in 1967, with her album Hello, I’m Dolly. With steady success during the remainder of the 1960s (both as a solo artist and with a series of duet albums with Porter Wagoner), her sales and chart peak came during the 1970s and continued into the 1980s; Parton’s subsequent albums in the later part of the 1990s were lower in sales. However, in the new millennium, Parton achieved commercial success again and has released albums on various independent labels since 2000, including albums on her own label, Dolly Records.

Parton is the most honored female country performer of all time. Achieving 25 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Gold, Platinum, and Multi-Platinum awards, she has had 25 songs reach No. 1 on the Billboard country music charts, a record for a female artist (tied with Reba McEntire). She has 41 career top-10 country albums, a record for any artist, and she has 110 career charted singles over the past 40 years. She has garnered nine Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, ten Country Music Association Awards, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and is one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year Award. Parton has received 47 Grammy nominations.

In 1999, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She has composed over 3,000 songs, notably “I Will Always Love You” (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper for Parton, as well as an international pop hit for Whitney Houston), “Jolene”, “Coat of Many Colors”, and “9 to 5”. She is also one of the few to have received at least one nomination from the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Tony Awards, and Emmy Awards. As an actress, she has starred in films such as 9 to 5 (1980) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), for which she earned Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress, as well as Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Straight Talk (1992) and Joyful Noise (2012).

Johnny Kidd and The Pirates

were an English rock and roll group led by singer/songwriter Johnny Kidd. They scored numerous hit songs from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, including “Shakin’ All Over” and “Please Don’t Touch”, but their musical influence far outshines their chart performance.

Their stage act was theatrical including wearing full pirate costumes (complete with Kidd wearing an eye-patch and wielding a cutlass) which echoed some of their Rock ‘n’ Roll contemporaries like Screaming Lord Sutch & the Savages and Nero and the Gladiators. In a way, their approach anticipated and possibly inspired theatrical rockers of the 1970s such as Alice Cooper and David Bowie plus others.

Jay and The Americans

Are an American rock group popular in the 1960s. Their initial line-up consisted of John “Jay” Traynor, Howard Kane (né Kirschenbaum), Kenny Vance (né Rosenberg) and Sandy Deanne (né Yaguda), though their greatest success on the charts came after Traynor had been replaced as lead singer by Jay Black.

They were discovered while performing in student venues at New York University in the late 1950s. They auditioned for Leiber and Stoller, who gave the group its name.

Career pinnacle

With Jay Traynor singing lead, they first hit the Billboard charts in 1962 with the tune “She Cried,” which reached #5 (later covered by The Shangri-Las, Aerosmith, and others). The next two singles did not fare as well, and Traynor left the group. Jay’s solo singles made little impression, but one, “Up And Over” issued on ABC in 1966 became a Northern Soul classic. Empires’ guitarist Marty Sanders (né Kupersmith) joined the group. He brought David Black (né Blatt) of “The Empires” in to take Traynor’s place (after David first agreed to adopt the name Jay Black), and Black sang lead for the rest of the group’s major hits.

They returned to the charts in 1963 with “Only In America,” a song originally meant for The Drifters. Other notable hits for Jay and the Americans were “Come a Little Bit Closer” in 1964, which hit #3, and “Cara Mia” in 1965, which hit #4. They also recorded a commercial for H.I.S. Slacks and a public service announcement for the Ad Council, featuring a backing track by Brian Wilson and Phil Spector. Two tracks from this era later found favor with the Northern Soul crowd: “Got Hung Up Along The Way” and “Living Above Your Head”.

In 1966, the group was featured in the Universal comedy film, Wild Wild Winter, singing “Two of a Kind” at the film’s finale, with surf band The Astronauts depicted as providing backup instrumentals. As of February 2017, the song has only been released on the 1966 soundtrack LP.

In 1968, they recorded an album of their favorite oldies called Sands of Time, which included “This Magic Moment,” which was originally done by the Drifters. The single went to #6 in early 1969. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in May 1969. “This Magic Moment” was the last top ten record for Jay and the Americans, although a follow-up album, Wax Museum, in January 1970, did yield the #19 hit single “Walkin’ In The Rain,” first recorded by The Ronettes. Their next singles failed to chart, and the band grew apart, but the demand for appearances remained. (Around the same time the band recorded “This Magic Moment,” Jay and the Americans member Sandy Yaguda produced a Long Island teen sextet called The Tuneful Trolley. Their late-1968 Capitol LP, Island In The Sky — a hybrid of Beach Boys and Beatlesque psych-pop—was reissued in 2008 in the UK on Now Sounds.) From 1970 to 1971 Jay and the Americans’ touring band included Walter Becker and Donald Fagen (of later Steely Dan fame) on backup bass guitar and electric organ.

Loretta Lynn

is an American country music singer-songwriter with multiple gold albums in a career spanning almost 60 years. She is famous for hits such as “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)”, “One’s on the Way”, “Fist City”, and “Coal Miner’s Daughter” along with the 1980 biographical film of the same name.

Lynn has received numerous awards and other accolades for her groundbreaking role in country music, including awards from both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music as a duet partner and an individual artist. She is the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s). Lynn, has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide, scored 24 number one hit singles, and 11 number one albums. Lynn continues to tour, appear at the Grand Ole Opry and release new albums. She is recognized by the strength and quality of her voice still today, as well as her down to earth, quick wit and humor.

Paul Revere and The Raiders

is an American rock band that saw considerable U.S. mainstream success in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s. Among their hits are the songs “Kicks” (1966; ranked No. 400 on Rolling Stone‘s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time), “Hungry” (1966), “Him Or Me – What’s It Gonna Be?” (1967) and the Platinum-certified classic No. 1 single “Indian Reservation” (1971).

Patsy Cline

was an American country music singer and part of the Nashville sound during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She successfully “crossed over” to pop music and was one of the most influential, successful, and acclaimed vocalists of the 20th century. She died at age 30 in the crash of a private airplane.

Cline was known for her rich tone, emotionally expressive and bold contralto voice, and her role as a country music pioneer. She, along with Kitty Wells, helped to pave the way for women as headline performers in the genre. She overcame poverty, a devastating automobile accident, and significant professional obstacles, and she has been cited as an inspiration by Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, and other singers in diverse styles. Books, movies, documentaries, and stage plays document her life and career.

Her hits began in 1957 with Donn Hecht’s and Alan Block’s “Walkin’ After Midnight,” Hank Cochran’s and Harlan Howard’s “I Fall to Pieces,” Hank Cochran’s “She’s Got You,” and Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” and ended in 1963 with Don Gibson’s “Sweet Dreams.” Millions of her records have sold since her death. She won awards and accolades, causing many to view her as an icon at the level of Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. She became the first female solo artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, ten years after her death. In 1999, she was voted number 11 on VH1’s special The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll. In 2002, she was voted Number One on Country Music Television’s The 40 Greatest Women of Country Music, and she was ranked 46th in the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time” issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Her 1973 Country Music Hall of Fame plaque reads: “Her heritage of timeless recordings is testimony to her artistic capacity.”

Stray Cats

are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada and the U.S. including “Stray Cat Strut”, “(She’s) Sexy + 17”, “Look at That Cadillac,” “I Won’t Stand in Your Way”, “Bring it Back Again”, and “Rock This Town”, which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.

Roy Clark

was an American singer and musician. He is best known for having hosted Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark was an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre.

During the 1970s, Clark frequently guest-hosted for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show and enjoyed a 30-million viewership for Hee Haw. Clark was highly regarded and renowned as a guitarist, banjo player, and fiddler. He was skilled in the traditions of many genres, including classical guitar, country music, Latin music, bluegrass, and pop. He had hit songs as a pop vocalist (e.g., “Yesterday, When I Was Young” and “Thank God and Greyhound”), and his instrumental skill had an enormous effect on generations of bluegrass and country musicians. He became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1987, and, in 2009, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He published his autobiography, My Life in Spite of Myself, in 1994.

Buck Owens

was an American musician, singer, songwriter and band leader who had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music charts with his band the Buckaroos. They pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound, named after Bakersfield, California, the city Owens called home and from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call American music.

While Owens originally used fiddle and retained pedal steel guitar into the 1970s, his sound on records and onstage was always more stripped-down and elemental. His signature style was based on simple storylines, infectious choruses, a twangy electric guitar, an insistent rhythm supplied by a drum track placed forward in the mix, and high two-part harmonies featuring him and his guitarist Don Rich.

From 1969 to 1986 Owens co-hosted the popular CBS television variety show Hee Haw with Roy Clark. According to his son, Buddy Allen (Owens), the accidental death of Rich, his best friend, in 1974 devastated him for years and halted his career until he performed with Dwight Yoakam in 1988.

Owens is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The post Rock, Pop, Doo Wop, Country, and Rockabilly (Part 2) appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley’s classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley’s first RCA single, “Heartbreak Hotel”, was released in January 1956 and became a number one hit in the United States. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, made him enormously popular—and controversial.

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided.

In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii.

Years of prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.

Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century. Commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, blues, and gospel, he is the best-selling solo artist in the history of recorded music. He won three competitive Grammys, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.

The Everly Brothers

were an American country-influenced rock and roll duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Isaac Donald “Don” Everly (born February 1, 1937) and Phillip “Phil” Everly (January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014) were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

In purely commercial terms, the Everly Brothers were one of the most successful acts in popular music between 1957 and 1962. Only Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, and possibly Rick Nelson outsold them. In a sense, though, they were more important to Nashville. They were the first consistently successful rock & roll act to come from there. Their management and their songs came from Nashville, and they recorded there with local session musicians. In other words, they extended Nashville’s sense of what was commercially possible.

In artistic terms, the Everlys took the country brother duet one step further. They added Bo Diddley riffs, teenage anxieties, and sharkskin suits, but–for all that–the core of their sound remained country brother harmony. That link was underscored on their album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us.

The Everlys’ father, Ike, was an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist, a contemporary of Merle Travis, who went to Chicago trying to sustain a career in country radio, and ended up in the Midwest. He brought his family to Nashville in 1955, possibly hoping that his boys could find the success that had eluded him. Don found some success as a songwriter (“Thou Shalt Not Steal” for Kitty Wells, two songs for Justin Tubb, and another for Anita Carter), but a contract with Columbia Records’ Nashville division in 1955 yielded just one undistinguished single.

By the time the brothers signed with Cadence Records in March 1957 (a deal midwifed by music publisher Wesley Rose of Acuff-Rose), they were singing teenage playlets crafted by songwriters Boudleaux and Felice Bryant overlaid with r&b rhythm patterns. The Everlys scored a string of hits, including “Bye, Bye Love,” “Wake Up, Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” “Bird Dog,” and others. When they switched to Warner Bros. Records in 1960, they were, at first, even more successful. “Cathy’s Clown,” “Ebony Eyes,” “Walk Right Back,” and “So Sad (To Watch Good Love Go Bad)” were among their hits. Their records were among the most immaculately crafted and innovative of the era, a testimony to the brothers’ musical vision and to the skill of the Nashville session players who proved themselves adept at executing more than they were often given credit for.

The responsibility for the downward slide in their career is usually laid at the door of the Beatles, but the brothers’ appeal was beginning to wane a year or more before the Beatles appeared. They broke with Wesley Rose in 1961, moved to California, and began making singles that were probably too experimental for the time. A slowdown in their touring schedule brought on by a joint enlistment in the Marines, the loss of access to the Bryants’ songs owing to the split with Acuff-Rose, and Don’s subsequent overreliance upon prescription drugs probably figured in their decline, too.

In 1968, they issued Roots, a daring country-rock record that failed to find them a new market. In 1970 they switched to RCA, but they split angrily from each other in July 1973. Don returned to Nashville; Phil stayed in Los Angeles. They reunited in September 1983 for a live concert album released on Mercury Records and resumed touring and recording together. In recent years, the brothers have donated concert proceeds to the philanthropic Everly Brothers Foundation.

Members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and recipients of a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Everlys were elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Phil Everly died on January 3, 2014 of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Dion is an American singer and songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, rock and R&B styles—and, most recently, straight blues. Initially as lead singer of Dion and the Belmonts and then in his solo career, he was one of the most popular American rock and roll performers of the pre-British Invasion era. He had 39 Top 40 hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a solo performer, with the Belmonts or with the Del Satins. He is best remembered for the singles “Runaround Sue”, “The Wanderer”, “Ruby Baby” and “Lovers Who Wander”, among his other hits.

Dion’s popularity waned in the mid-1960s. Toward the end of the decade, he shifted his style and produced songs with a more mature, contemplative feeling, such as “Abraham, Martin and John.” He became popular again in the late 1960s and into the mid-1970s, and he has continued making music ever since. Critics who had dismissed his early work, pegging him as merely a teen idol, praised his later work, and noted the influence he has had on other musicians.

Dion was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

The Coasters

Are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with “Searchin'” and “Young Blood”, their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller. Although the Coasters originated outside of mainstream doo-wop, their records were so frequently imitated that they became an important part of the doo-wop legacy through the 1960s.

The Coasters were formed on October 12 1955 when only two of The Robins were willing to go to Atlantic Records, those two were dubbed The Coasters because they went from West to East coast. The Robins were a Los Angeles–based rhythm-and-blues group that included Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn. The original Coasters were Gardner, Nunn, Billy Guy, Leon Hughes (who was replaced by Young Jessie on a couple of their early Los Angeles recordings), and the guitarist Adolph Jacobs. Jacobs left the group in 1959.

The songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller started Spark Records and in 1955 produced “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” for the Robins (their sixth single with Leiber and Stoller). The record was popular enough for Atlantic Records to offer Leiber and Stoller an independent production contract to produce the Robins for Atlantic. Only two of the Robins—Gardner and Nunn—were willing to make the move to Atlantic, recording their first songs in the same studio as the Robins had done (Master Recorders). In late 1957, the group moved to New York and replaced Nunn and Hughes with Cornell Gunter and Will “Dub” Jones. The new quartet was from then on stationed in New York, although all had Los Angeles roots.

The Coasters’ association with Leiber and Stoller was an immediate success. Together they created a string of good-humored “storytelling” hits that are some of the most entertaining from the original era of rock and roll. According to Leiber and Stoller, getting the humor to come through on the records often required more recording “takes” than for a typical musical number.

Their first single, “Down in Mexico”, was an R&B hit in 1956 and appears (in a re-recording from 1973—still with Gardner singing the lead) on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof. The following year, the Coasters crossed over to the pop chart in a big way with the double-sided “Young Blood”/”Searchin'”. “Searchin'” was the group’s first U.S. Top 10 hit and topped the R&B chart for 13 weeks, becoming the biggest R&B single of 1957 (all were recorded in Los Angeles).

“Yakety Yak” (recorded in New York), featuring King Curtis on tenor saxophone, included the famous lineup of Gardner, Guy, Jones, and Gunter, and became the act’s only national number 1 single, topping the R&B chart. The next single, “Charlie Brown”, reached number 2 on both charts. It was followed by “Along Came Jones”, “Poison Ivy” (number 1 for almost two months on the R&B chart), and “Little Egypt (Ying-Yang)”.

Changing popular tastes and changes in the group’s lineup contributed to a lack of hits in the 1960s. During this time, Billy Guy was also working on solo projects; the New York singer Vernon Harrell was brought in to replace him for stage performances. Later members included Earl “Speedo” Carroll (lead of the Cadillacs), Ronnie Bright (the bass voice on Johnny Cymbal’s “Mr. Bass Man”), Jimmy Norman, and guitarist Thomas “Curley” Palmer. The Coasters signed with Columbia Records’ Date label in 1966, reuniting with Leiber and Stoller (who had parted ways with Atlantic Records in 1963), but never regained their former fame. In 1971, the Coasters had a minor chart entry with “Love Potion Number Nine”, a song that Leiber and Stoller had written for the Coasters but instead gave to the Clovers in 1959. In Britain, a 1994 Volkswagen TV advertisement used the group’s “Sorry But I’m Gonna Have To Pass”, which led to a minor chart placement in that country.

In 1987, the Coasters became the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, crediting the members of the 1958 configuration. The Coasters also joined the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.

Several groups used the name in the 1970s, touring throughout the country, though original member Carl Gardner held the legal rights to it. Gardner continued to tour with the Coasters and made many attempts to stop bogus groups with no connection to the original group using the name. In late 2005, Carl’s son Carl Gardner Jr. took over as lead with the group when his father retired. The Coasters’ lineup then consisted of Carl Gardner Jr., J. W. Lance, Primo Candelara, and Eddie Whitfield. Carl Jr. later left this group and has started his own group with Curley Palmer. Carl’s widow Veta owns the rights to the Coasters name.

Leon Hughes is the last surviving member of the original Coasters and performs with his own group. Some of the former members suffered tragic ends. The saxophonist King Curtis (the “fifth Coaster”) was stabbed to death by two junkies outside his apartment building in 1971. Cornelius Gunter was shot to death while sitting in a Las Vegas parking garage in 1990. Nate Wilson, a member of one of Gunter’s offshoot Coasters groups, was shot and his body dismembered in 1980. Former manager Patrick Cavanaugh was convicted of the murder, which took place after Wilson threatened to notify authorities of Cavanaugh’s intent to buy furniture with stolen checks. Cavanaugh was convicted of the murder and given the death sentence in 1984, but his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died at 60 in 2006, in Ely State Prison, in Nevada.

The Coasters continue to appear regularly on “oldies” shows and PBS specials as old favorites and are available for bookings.

The hits list below is from Joel Whitburn’s Top R&B Singles and from the Pop positions published in Bill Millar’s book The Coasters (1975).

Carl Gardner published his autobiography, Carl Gardner: Yakety Yak I Fought Back: My Life With The Coasters, in 2007.

The Coasters’ recordings produced by Leiber and Stoller for Date/King (1966–1972) were released on the CD Down Home by Varèse Vintage (Varèse Sarabande) in 2007. The complete Atco recordings (1954–1966) were released in a four-CD set, There’s a Riot Goin’ On: The Coasters on Atco, by Rhino, also in 2007.

Jerry Lee Lewis

is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and pianist, often known by his nickname, The Killer. He has been described as “rock & roll’s first great wild man.”

A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis. “Crazy Arms” sold 300,000 copies in the South, but it was his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” that shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with “Great Balls of Fire”, “Breathless” and “High School Confidential”. However, Lewis’s rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin.

He had minimal success in the charts following the scandal, and his popularity quickly eroded. His live performance fees plummeted from $10,000 per night to $250. In the meantime he was determined to gain back some of his popularity. In the early 1960s, he did not have much chart success, with few exceptions, such as a remake of Ray Charles’s “What’d I Say”. His live performances at this time were increasingly wild and energetic. His 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is regarded by music journalists and fans as one of the wildest and greatest live rock albums ever. In 1968, Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as “Another Place, Another Time”. This reignited his career, and throughout the late 1960s and 1970s he regularly topped the country-western charts; throughout his seven-decade career, Lewis has had 30 songs reach the top 10 on the “Billboard Country and Western Chart”. His No. 1 country hits included “To Make Love Sweeter for You”, “There Must Be More to Love Than This”, “Would You Take Another Chance on Me”, and “Me and Bobby McGee”.

Lewis’s successes continued throughout the decade and he embraced his rock and roll past with songs such as a cover of the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” and Mack Vickery’s “Rockin’ My Life Away”. In the 21st century Lewis continues to tour around the world and still releases new albums. His album Last Man Standing is his best selling to date, with over a million copies sold worldwide. This was followed by Mean Old Man, which has received some of the best sales of Lewis’s career.

Lewis has a dozen gold records in both rock and country. He won several Grammy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Ricky Nelson

is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and pianist, often known by his nickname, The Killer. He has been described as “rock & roll’s first great wild man.”

A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made his first recordings in 1956 at Sun Records in Memphis. “Crazy Arms” sold 300,000 copies in the South, but it was his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” that shot Lewis to fame worldwide. He followed this with “Great Balls of Fire”, “Breathless” and “High School Confidential”. However, Lewis’s rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin.

He had minimal success in the charts following the scandal, and his popularity quickly eroded. His live performance fees plummeted from $10,000 per night to $250. In the meantime he was determined to gain back some of his popularity. In the early 1960s, he did not have much chart success, with few exceptions, such as a remake of Ray Charles’s “What’d I Say”. His live performances at this time were increasingly wild and energetic. His 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is regarded by music journalists and fans as one of the wildest and greatest live rock albums ever. In 1968, Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as “Another Place, Another Time”. This reignited his career, and throughout the late 1960s and 1970s he regularly topped the country-western charts; throughout his seven-decade career, Lewis has had 30 songs reach the top 10 on the “Billboard Country and Western Chart”. His No. 1 country hits included “To Make Love Sweeter for You”, “There Must Be More to Love Than This”, “Would You Take Another Chance on Me”, and “Me and Bobby McGee”.

Lewis’s successes continued throughout the decade and he embraced his rock and roll past with songs such as a cover of the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace” and Mack Vickery’s “Rockin’ My Life Away”. In the 21st century Lewis continues to tour around the world and still releases new albums. His album Last Man Standing is his best selling to date, with over a million copies sold worldwide. This was followed by Mean Old Man, which has received some of the best sales of Lewis’s career.

Lewis has a dozen gold records in both rock and country. He won several Grammy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Johnny Cash

was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, and author. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 90 million records worldwide. Although primarily remembered as a country music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embraced rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk and gospel. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame.

Cash was known for his deep, calm bass-baritone voice; the distinctive sound of his Tennessee Three backing band, which is characterized by train-sound guitar rhythms; a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; free prison concerts; and a trademark, all-black stage wardrobe, which earned him the nickname “The Man in Black.” He traditionally began his concerts by simply introducing himself, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” followed by his signature song “Folsom Prison Blues”.

Much of Cash’s music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his career. His other signature songs include “I Walk the Line”, “Ring of Fire”, “Get Rhythm”, and “Man in Black”. He also recorded humorous numbers like “One Piece at a Time” and “A Boy Named Sue”; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called “Jackson” (followed by many further duets after their wedding); and railroad songs including “Hey, Porter”, “Orange Blossom Special”, and “Rock Island Line”. During the last stage of his career, Cash covered songs by several late 20th-century rock artists, notably “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails and “Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden.

Drifters

are a long-lasting American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group. They were originally formed to serve as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter (of Billy Ward and his Dominoes) in 1953.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, the Drifters were the least stable of the great vocal groups, as they were low-paid musicians hired by George Treadwell, who owned the Drifters name. There have been 60 vocalists in the history of the Treadwell Drifters line, including several splinter groups by former Drifters members (not under Treadwell’s management). These groups are usually identified with a possessive credit such as “Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters”, “Charlie Thomas’ Drifters”, etc.

There were three golden eras of the Drifters; the early 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s (post-Atlantic period). From these, the first Drifters, formed by Clyde McPhatter, was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as “The Drifters”. The second Drifters, featuring Ben E. King, was separately inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as “Ben E. King and the Drifters”. In their induction, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selected four members from the first Drifters, two from the second Drifters, and one from the post-Atlantic Drifters.

Carl Perkins was an American singer-songwriter who recorded most notably at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954. His best-known song is “Blue Suede Shoes”.

According to Charlie Daniels, “Carl Perkins’ songs personified the rockabilly era, and Carl Perkins’ sound personifies the rockabilly sound more so than anybody involved in it, because he never changed.” Perkins’s songs were recorded by artists (and friends) as influential as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Johnny Cash, which further established his place in the history of popular music. Paul McCartney claimed that “if there were no Carl Perkins, there would be no Beatles.”

Called “the King of Rockabilly”, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. He also received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award.

Chet Atkins

was an American musician, occasional vocalist, songwriter, and record producer, who along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson, among others, created the country music style that came to be known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country music’s appeal to adult pop music fans. He was primarily known as a guitarist. He also played the mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and ukulele.

Atkins’s signature picking style was inspired by Merle Travis. Other major guitar influences were Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and, later, Jerry Reed. His distinctive picking style and musicianship brought him admirers inside and outside the country scene, both in the United States and abroad. Atkins spent most of his career at RCA Victor and produced records for the Browns, Hank Snow, Porter Wagoner, Norma Jean, Dolly Parton, Dottie West, Perry Como, Floyd Cramer, Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Don Gibson, Jim Reeves, Jerry Reed, Skeeter Davis, Waylon Jennings, and many others.

The post Rock, Pop, Doo Wop, Country and Rockabilly (Part 1) appeared first on The History of Rock and Roll Radio Show.

Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band in high school. He was signed by Sam Phillips, of Sun Records, in 1956, but his greatest success came with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of his singles reached the Billboard Top 40, and he wrote or co-wrote almost all that rose to the Top 10, including “Only the Lonely” (1960), “Running Scared” (1961), “Crying” (1961), “In Dreams” (1963), and “Oh, Pretty Woman” (1964). Soon afterward, Orbison was struck by several personal tragedies while his record sales declined. In the 1980s, he experienced a resurgence in popularity through the success of several cover versions of his songs, and in 1988, co-founded the Traveling Wilburys, a rock supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. He died of a heart attack later that year, at the age of 52. One month later, his song “You Got It” (1989), co-written with Lynne and Petty, was released as a solo single and became his first to break the U.S. Top 10 in 25 years.

His honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in the same year, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the “Greatest Artists of All Time” and number 13 on their list of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time’.

Early life

Roy Kelton Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas, the middle son of Orbie Lee Orbison (1913–1984), an oil well driller and car mechanic, and Nadine Vesta Shults (July 25, 1913 – May 28, 1992), a nurse. Both of his parents were unemployed during the Great Depression, and searching for work, moved the family to Fort Worth in 1942. He attended Denver Avenue Elementary School until a polio scare prompted the family to return to Vernon. Later, in 1946, they moved to Wink, Texas. Orbison later described life in Wink as “football, oil fields, oil, grease, and sand” and expressed relief that he was able to leave the desolate town. All the Orbison children were afflicted with poor eyesight; Roy used thick corrective lenses from an early age. He was not confident about his appearance and began dyeing his nearly-white hair black when he was still young. He was quiet, self-effacing, and remarkably polite and obliging—a product, biographer Alan Clayson wrote, of his Southern upbringing. He was readily available to sing, however, and often became the focus of attention when he did. He considered his voice memorable, if not great.

On Roy’s sixth birthday, his father gave him a guitar. He later recalled that by the age of seven, “I was finished, you know, for anything else”; music would be his life. His major musical influence as a youth was country music. He was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzell’s singing, with its slurred syllables. (When he later joined the British-American supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, he adopted the name “Lefty” Wilbury). He also enjoyed Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers. One of the first musicians he heard in person was Ernest Tubb, who was playing on the back of a flatbed truck in Fort Worth. In West Texas, he was exposed to many forms of music: “sepia” (a euphemism for rhythm and blues), Tex-Mex, the orchestral arrangements of Mantovani, and cajun. The cajun favorite “Jole Blon” was one of the first songs he sang in public. At the age of eight, he began singing on a local radio show. By the late 1940s, he was the show’s host.

In high school, Orbison and some friends formed a band, the Wink Westerners. They played country standards and Glenn Miller songs at local honky-tonks and had a weekly radio show on KERB in Kermit. When they were offered $400 to play at a dance, Orbison realized that he could make a living in music. After graduating from Wink High School, he enrolled at North Texas State College in Denton, planning to study geology so that he could secure work in the oil fields if music did not pay. Orbison heard that his North Texas State schoolmate Pat Boone had signed a record deal, which further strengthened his resolve to become a professional musician. While at North Texas State College, Roy heard a song called “Ooby Dooby”, composed by Dick Penner and Wade Moore in mere minutes atop a fraternity house at the college, and after his first year of college, he returned to Wink with “Ooby Dooby” in hand and continued performing with the Wink Westerners. Orbison moved to Odessa, Texas, and enrolled in Odessa Junior College. As two members of the band quit, one to attend school elsewhere and one to join the Navy, two new members were added to the group, who won a talent contest and obtained their own television show on KMID-TV in Midland, Texas. The Wink Westerners kept performing on local TV, played dances on the weekends, and attended college during the day.

While living in Odessa, Orbison saw a performance by Elvis Presley, who was only a year older and a rising star. Johnny Cash toured the area in 1955 and 1956, appearing on the same local TV show as the Wink Westerners, and suggested that Orbison approach Sam Phillips at Sun Records, the home of rockabilly artists Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis (in late 1956), and Cash. Orbison telephoned Phillips and during their conversation was curtly told, “Johnny Cash doesn’t run my record company!” The success of their KMID television show got them another show on KOSA-TV, and they changed their name to the Teen Kings, as they were appealing more and more to a younger audience. Due to the initial rejection from Sam Phillips, the Teen Kings recorded “Ooby Dooby” for the Odessa-based Je–Wel label. According to the official Roy Orbison discography by Marcel Riesco, this was the first release by Orbison in March 1956. Phillips was impressed with the song, after the local record store owner Poppa Holifield played it for him over the telephone, and offered the Teen Kings a contract in 1956.

1956–59: Sun Records and Acuff-Rose

The Teen Kings went to Sun Studio in Memphis, where Phillips wanted to record “Ooby Dooby” again, in his studio. The song was released on Sun 242 in May 1956. and broke into the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 59 and selling 200,000 copies. The Teen Kings toured with Sonny James, Johnny Horton, Carl Perkins, and Cash. Much influenced by Elvis Presley, Orbison performed frenetically, doing “everything we could to get applause because we had only one hit record”. The Teen Kings also began writing songs in a rockabilly style, including “Go! Go! Go!” and “Rockhouse”. The band ultimately split over disputed writing credits and royalties, but Orbison stayed in Memphis and asked his 16-year-old girlfriend, Claudette Frady, to join him there. They stayed in Phillips’s home, sleeping in separate rooms. In the studio, Orbison concentrated on the mechanics of recording. Phillips remembered being much more impressed with Orbison’s mastery of the guitar than with his voice. A ballad Orbison wrote, “The Clown”, met with a lukewarm response; after hearing it, Sun Records producer Jack Clement told Orbison that he would never make it as a ballad singer.

Orbison had some success at Sun Records, however, and was introduced to Elvis Presley’s social circle, once going to pick up a date for Presley in his purple Cadillac. Orbison wrote “Claudette”—about Claudette Frady whom he married in 1957—and the Everly Brothers recorded it for their subsequent release as the B-side of their smash hit “All I Have to Do Is Dream”. The first, and perhaps only, royalties Orbison earned from Sun Records enabled him to make a down payment on his own Cadillac. Increasingly frustrated at Sun, he gradually stopped recording. He toured music circuits around Texas and then quit performing for seven months in 1958 after touring with Patsy Cline, Eddie Cochran, and Gene Vincent.

For a brief period in the late 1950s, Orbison made his living at Acuff-Rose, a songwriting firm concentrating mainly on country music. After spending an entire day writing a song, he would make several demonstration tapes at a time and send them to Wesley Rose, who would try to find musical acts to record them. Orbison attempted to sell to RCA Victor his recordings of songs by other writers, working with and being in awe of Chet Atkins, who had played guitar with Presley. One song he tried was “Seems to Me”, by Boudleaux Bryant. Bryant’s impression of Orbison was of “a timid, shy kid who seemed to be rather befuddled by the whole music scene. I remember the way he sang then—softly, prettily but almost bashfully, as if someone might be disturbed by his efforts and reprimand him.”

Playing shows late into the night and living with his wife and young child in his tiny apartment, Orbison often sought refuge by taking his guitar to his car and writing songs there. The songwriter Joe Melson, an acquaintance of Orbison’s, tapped on his car window one day in Texas in 1958, and the two decided to try to write some songs together. In three recording sessions in 1958 and 1959, Orbison recorded seven songs at RCA Nashville, with Atkins producing, but only two singles were judged worthy of release by RCA; Wesley Rose brought Orbison to the attention of the producer Fred Foster at Monument Records.

1960–64: Monument Records

Early singles

Orbison was one of the first recording artists to popularize the “Nashville sound”, doing so with a group of session musicians known as the A-Team: guitarists Grady Martin, Harold Bradley, Fred Carter, Jr., and Ray Edenton; bassist Bob Moore; pianists Floyd Cramer or Hargus “Pig” Robbins; drummer Buddy Harman; and backup vocals by the Jordanaires or the Anita Kerr Singers. The Nashville sound was developed by producers Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley (who worked closely with Patsy Cline), Sam Phillips, and Fred Foster. In his first session for Monument in Nashville, Orbison recorded a song that RCA had refused, “Paper Boy”, backed by “With the Bug”, but neither charted.

According to musician and author Albin Zak, the studio (with sound engineer Bill Porter, who experimented with close miking the doo-wop backing singers), the production by Foster, and the accompanying musicians gave Orbison’s music a “polished, professional sound … finally allow Orbison’s stylistic inclinations free rein”. To augment the Nashville sound, Orbison requested a string section in the studio. With this combination, he recorded three new songs, the most notable of which was “Uptown”, written with Joe Melson. Impressed with the results, Melson later recalled, “We stood in the studio, listening to the playbacks, and thought it was the most beautiful sound in the world.” The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll states that the music Orbison made in Nashville “brought a new splendor to rock”, and compared the melodramatic effects of the orchestral accompaniment to the musical productions of Phil Spector.

“Uptown” reached only number 72 on the Billboard Top 100, and Orbison set his sights on negotiating a contract with an upscale nightclub somewhere. His initial success came just as the ’50s rock-and-roll era was winding down. Elvis Presley was serving in the US Army, Jerry Lee Lewis had become disgraced after marrying his 13-year-old cousin, and Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash. Starting in 1960, the charts in the United States came to be dominated by teen idols, novelty acts, and Motown girl groups.

1960–62

Experimenting with a new sound, Orbison and Joe Melson wrote a song in early 1960 which, using elements from “Uptown”, and another song they had written called “Come Back to Me (My Love)”, employed strings and the Anita Kerr doo-wop backing singers. It also featured a note hit by Orbison in falsetto that showcased a powerful voice which, according to biographer Clayson, “came not from his throat but deeper within”. The song was “Only the Lonely”. Orbison and Melson tried to pitch it to Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers, but were turned down. They instead recorded the song at RCA’s Nashville studio, with sound engineer Bill Porter trying a completely new strategy, building the mix from the top down rather than from the bottom up, beginning with close-miked backing vocals in the foreground, and ending with the rhythm section soft in the background. This combination became Orbison’s trademark sound.

“Only the Lonely” shot to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and hit number one in the UK and Australia. According to Orbison, the subsequent songs he wrote with Melson during this period were constructed with his voice in mind, specifically to showcase its range and power. He told Rolling Stone in 1988, “I liked the sound of [my voice]. I liked making it sing, making the voice ring, and I just kept doing it. And I think that somewhere between the time of “Ooby Dooby” and “Only the Lonely”, it kind of turned into a good voice.” Its success transformed Orbison into an overnight star and he appeared on Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beechnut Show out of New York City. When Presley heard “Only the Lonely” for the first time, he bought a box of copies to pass to his friends. Melson and Orbison followed it with the more complex “Blue Angel”, which peaked at number nine in the US and number 11 in the UK. “I’m Hurtin'”, with “I Can’t Stop Loving You” as the B-side, rose to number 27 in the US, but failed to chart in the UK.

Orbison was now able to move to Nashville permanently with his wife Claudette and two sons Roy DeWayne and Anthony King. Back in the studio, seeking a change from the pop sound of “Only the Lonely” and “I’m Hurtin'”, Orbison worked on a new song, “Running Scared”, based loosely on the rhythm of Ravel’s Boléro; the song was about a man on the lookout for his girlfriend’s previous boyfriend, whom he feared would try to take her away. Orbison encountered difficulty when he found himself unable to hit the song’s highest note without his voice breaking. He was backed by an orchestra in the studio and Porter told him he would have to sing louder than his accompaniment because the orchestra was unable to be softer than his voice. Fred Foster then put Orbison in the corner of the studio and surrounded him with coat racks forming an improvised isolation booth to emphasize his voice. Orbison was unhappy with the first two takes. In the third, however, he abandoned the idea of using falsetto and sang the final high ‘A’ naturally, so astonishing everyone present that the accompanying musicians stopped playing. On that third take, “Running Scared” was completed. Fred Foster later recalled, “He did it, and everybody looked around in amazement. Nobody had heard anything like it before.” Just weeks later “Running Scared” reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 9 in the UK. The composition of Orbison’s following hits reflected “Running Scared”: a story about an emotionally vulnerable man facing loss or grief, with a crescendo culminating in a surprise climax that employed Orbison’s dynamic voice.

“Crying” followed in July 1961 and reached number two; it was coupled with an up-tempo R&B song, “Candy Man”, written by Fred Neil and Beverley Ross, which reached the Billboard Top 30, staying on the charts for two months. While Orbison was touring Australia in 1962, an Australian DJ referred to him affectionately as “The Big O”, partly based on the big finishes to his dramatic ballads, and the moniker stuck with him thereafter. Orbison’s second son was born the same year, and Orbison hit number four in the United States and number two in the UK with “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)”, an upbeat song by country songwriter Cindy Walker. (Orbison’s producer would later form the Candymen quintet, which was Orbison’s backing band from 1965 to 1970, while releasing a few singles and two albums of their own). Also in 1962, he charted with “The Crowd”, “Leah”, and “Workin’ for the Man”, which he wrote about working one summer in the oil fields near Wink. His relationship with Joe Melson, however, was deteriorating over Melson’s growing concerns that his own solo career would never get off the ground.

1963–64

Orbison eventually developed a persona and an image that did not reflect his personality. He had no publicist in the early 1960s, therefore he had little presence in fan magazines, and his single sleeves did not feature his picture. Life called him an “anonymous celebrity”. After leaving his thick eyeglasses on an airplane in 1963, while on tour with the Beatles, Orbison was forced to wear his prescription Wayfarer sunglasses on stage and found that he preferred them. His biographers suggest that although he had a good sense of humor and was never morose, Orbison was very shy and suffered from severe stage fright; wearing sunglasses helped him hide somewhat from the attention.

The ever-present sunglasses led some people to assume that the stationary performer was blind. His black clothes and the desperation in his songs emanated the image of mystery and introversion. His dark and brooding persona, combined with his tremulous voice in lovelorn ballads marketed to teenagers, made Orbison a star in the early 1960s. His string of top-40 hits continued with “In Dreams” (US number seven, UK number six), “Falling” (US number 22, UK number 9), and “Mean Woman Blues” (US number five, UK number three) coupled with “Blue Bayou” (US number 29, UK number three). According to the official Roy Orbison U.S. discography by Marcel Riesco, a rare alternate version of “Blue Bayou” was released only in Italy. Orbison finished 1963 with a Christmas song written by Willie Nelson, “Pretty Paper” (US number 15 in 1963, UK number six in 1964).

As “In Dreams” was released in April 1963, Orbison was asked to replace the guitarist Duane Eddy on a tour of the UK in top billing with the Beatles, whose popularity was on the rise. When he arrived in Britain, however, he saw the amount of advertising devoted to the quartet and realized he was no longer the main draw. He had never heard of them, and annoyed, asked rhetorically, “What’s a Beatle, anyway?” to which John Lennon replied, after tapping his shoulder, “I am”. On the opening night, Orbison opted to go onstage first, although he was the more established act. Known for having raucous shows expressing an extraordinary amount of energy, Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr stood dumbfounded backstage as Orbison performed completely still and simply sang through 14 encores. Finally, when the audience began chanting “We want Roy!” again, Lennon and McCartney prevented Orbison from going on again by physically holding him back. Starr later said, “In Glasgow, we were all backstage listening to the tremendous applause he was getting. He was just standing there, not moving or anything.” Through the tour, however, the two acts quickly learned to get along, a process made easier by the fact that the Beatles admired his work. Orbison felt a kinship with Lennon, but it was Harrison with whom he would later form a strong friendship.

Touring in 1963 took a toll on Orbison’s personal life. His wife Claudette began having an affair with the contractor who built their home in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Friends and relatives attributed the breakdown of the marriage to her youth and her inability to withstand being alone and bored. When Orbison toured Britain again in the fall of 1963, she joined him. He was immensely popular wherever he went, finishing the tour in Ireland and Canada. Almost immediately, he toured Australia and New Zealand with the Beach Boys and returned again to Britain and Ireland, where he was so besieged by teenaged girls that the Irish police had to halt his performances to pull the girls off him. He continued to tour, traveling to Australia again, this time with the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger later remarked, referring to a snapshot he took of Orbison in New Zealand, “a fine figure of a man in the hot springs, he was.”

Orbison also began collaborating with Bill Dees, whom he had known in Texas. With Dees, he wrote “It’s Over”, a number-one hit in the UK and a song that would be one of his signature pieces for the rest of his career. When Claudette walked in the room where Dees and Orbison were writing to say she was heading for Nashville, Orbison asked if she had any money. Dees said, “A pretty woman never needs any money”. Just 40 minutes later, “Oh, Pretty Woman” was completed. A riff-laden masterpiece that employed a playful growl he got from a Bob Hope movie, the epithet mercy Orbison uttered when he was unable to hit a note, and a merging of his vulnerable and masculine sides, it rose to number one in the fall of 1964 in the United States and stayed on the charts for 14 weeks. It rose to number one in the UK, as well, spending 18 weeks total on the charts. The single sold over seven million copies. Orbison’s success was greater in Britain; as Billboard magazine noted, “In a 68-week period that began on August 8, 1963, Roy Orbison was the only American artist to have a number-one single in Britain. He did it twice, with ‘It’s Over’ on June 25, 1964, and ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ on October 8, 1964. The latter song also went to number one in America, making Orbison impervious to the current chart dominance of British artists on both sides of the Atlantic.”

1965–69: Career decline and tragedies

Following “Oh, Pretty Woman”, Orbison endured some upheavals. Claudette and he divorced in November 1964 over her infidelities, but the two reconciled 10 months later. His contract with Monument was expiring in June 1965. Wesley Rose, at this time acting as Orbison’s agent, moved him from Monument Records to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (though in Europe he remained with Decca’s London Records) for $1 million, and the understanding that he would expand into television and films, as Elvis Presley had done. Orbison was a film enthusiast and, when not touring, writing or recording, would dedicate time to seeing up to three films a day.

Rose also became Orbison’s producer. Fred Foster later suggested that Rose’s takeover was responsible for the commercial failure of Orbison’s work at MGM. Engineer Bill Porter agreed that Orbison’s best work could only be achieved with RCA Nashville’s A-Team. Orbison’s first collection at MGM, an album titled There Is Only One Roy Orbison, sold fewer than 200,000 copies. With the onset of the British Invasion in 1964–65, the direction of popular music shifted dramatically, and most performers of Orbison’s generation were driven from the charts.

While on tour again in the UK in 1966, Orbison broke his foot falling off a motorcycle in front of thousands of screaming fans at a race track; he performed his show that evening in a cast. Claudette traveled to England to accompany Roy for the remainder of the tour. It was now made public that the couple had happily remarried and were back together (they had remarried in December 1965).

Orbison was fascinated with machines. He was known to follow a car that he liked and make the driver an offer on the spot. He had a large collection of cars by the late 1960s.

Orbison and Claudette shared a love for motorcycles; she had grown up around them, but he claimed Elvis Presley had introduced him to motorcycles. Tragedy struck on June 6, 1966, however, when Orbison and Claudette were riding home from Bristol, Tennessee. She struck the door of a pickup truck which had pulled out in front of her on South Water Avenue in Gallatin, Tennessee, and died instantly.

A grieving Orbison threw himself into his work, collaborating with Bill Dees to write music for The Fastest Guitar Alive, a film that MGM had scheduled for him to star in as well. It was initially planned as a dramatic Western but was rewritten as a comedy. Orbison’s character was a spy who stole, and had to protect and deliver, a cache of gold to the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and was outfitted with a guitar that turned into a rifle. The prop allowed him to deliver the line, “I could kill you with this and play your funeral march at the same time”, Orbison was pleased with the film, although it proved to be a critical and box office flop. While MGM had included five films in his contract, no more were made.

He recorded an album dedicated to the songs of Don Gibson and another of Hank Williams covers, but both sold poorly. During the counterculture era, with the charts dominated by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Rolling Stones, and the Doors, Orbison felt lost and directionless, later saying: ” didn’t hear a lot I could relate to so I kind of stood there like a tree where the winds blow and the seasons change, and you’re still there and you bloom again.”

During a tour of England and playing Bournemouth on Saturday, September 14, 1968, he received the news that his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, had burned down, and his two eldest sons had died. The property was sold to Johnny Cash, who demolished the building and planted an orchard on it. On March 25, 1969, Orbison married German teenager Barbara Jakobs, whom he had met several days before his sons’ deaths. Wesley (born 1965), his youngest son with Claudette, was raised by Orbison’s parents. Orbison and Barbara had a son (Roy Kelton) in 1970 and another (Alexander) in 1975.

1970s–80s

Orbison continued recording albums in the 1970s, but none of them sold more than a handful of copies, and by 1976, he had gone an entire decade without a charting album. Aside from a few minor hits in Australia, he also failed to produce any charting singles after the 1960s. His fortunes sank so low that he began to doubt his own talents and several of his 1970s albums were not released internationally due to low US sales. He left MGM Records in 1973 and signed a one-album deal with Mercury Records. Author Peter Lehman would later observe that his absence was a part of the mystery of his persona: “Since it was never clear where he had come from, no one seemed to pay much mind to where he had gone; he was just gone.” His influence was apparent, however, as several artists released covers of his songs, which proved popular. Orbison’s version of “Love Hurts”, a song composed by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant and first recorded by the Everly Brothers, was remade by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, again by hard rock band Nazareth, and by blues adept Jim Capaldi. Sonny James sent “Only the Lonely” to No. 1 on the country music charts. Bruce Springsteen ended his concerts with Orbison songs, and Glen Campbell had a minor hit with a remake of “Dream Baby”.

A compilation of Orbison’s greatest hits went to No. 1 in the UK in January 1976. The same year, he began to open concerts for the Eagles, who started as Linda Ronstadt’s backup band. Ronstadt herself covered “Blue Bayou” in 1977, her version reaching No. 3 on the Billboard charts and remaining in the charts for 24 weeks. Orbison credited this cover in particular for reviving his memory in the popular mind, if not his career. He signed again with Monument in 1976 and recorded “Regeneration” with Fred Foster, but it proved no more successful than before.

In late 1977, Orbison was not feeling well and decided to overwinter in Hawaii. While there, he checked into a hospital where testing discovered that he had severely obstructed coronary arteries. On January 18, 1978, Orbison underwent a triple coronary bypass. He had suffered from duodenal ulcers since as early as 1960 and had been a heavy smoker since adolescence. He felt revitalized following the triple bypass, but he continued to smoke, and his weight fluctuated for the remainder of his life.

In 1980, Don McLean charted with “Crying” and his version unexpectedly went to the top of the charts at first in the Netherlands, afterward hitting No. 5 in the US and staying on the charts for 15 weeks; it was No. 1 in the UK for three weeks, and also topped the Irish Charts. Although he was all but forgotten in the US, Orbison reached the most unlikely places for a rock and roll legend, like Bulgaria for example in 1982. He was astonished to find that he was as popular there as he had been in 1964; he was forced to stay in his hotel room because he was mobbed on the streets of Sofia. In 1981, he and Emmylou Harris had won a Grammy Award for their duet “That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again” (from the comedy film Roadie, in which Orbison also had a cameo role) and things were picking up. It was his first such award, and he felt hopeful in making a full return to popular music. However, it would be several more years until this came to fruition. In the meantime, Van Halen released a hard-rock cover of “Oh, Pretty Woman” on their 1982 album Diver Down, again further exposing a younger generation to Orbison’s legacy.

Career revival

By 1987, Orbison’s career was fully revived. He released an album of his re-recorded hits, titled In Dreams: The Greatest Hits. A song he recorded, “Life Fades Away”, written with his friend Glenn Danzig, was featured in the film Less Than Zero (1987). He and k.d. lang performed a duet of “Crying” for inclusion on the soundtrack to the film, Hiding Out (1987), winning a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.

Also in 1987, Orbison was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and initiated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen, who concluded his speech with a reference to his own album Born to Run: “I wanted a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector—but, most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison. Now, everyone knows that no one sings like Roy Orbison.” In response, Orbison asked Springsteen for a copy of the speech, and said of his induction that he felt “validated” by the honor. A few months later, Orbison and Springsteen paired again to film a concert at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles. They were joined by Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, James Burton, and k.d. lang. Lang later recounted how humbled Orbison had been by the display of support from so many talented and busy musicians: “Roy looked at all of us and said, ‘If there is anything, I can ever do for you, please call on me’. He was very serious. It was his way of thanking us. It was very emotional.” The concert was filmed in one take and aired on Cinemax under the title Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night; it was released on video by Virgin Records, selling 50,000 copies.

Traveling Wilburys and Mystery Girl

It was also in 1988 that Orbison began collaborating seriously with Electric Light Orchestra bandleader Jeff Lynne on a new album. Lynne had just completed production work on George Harrison’s Cloud Nine album, and all three ate lunch together one day when Orbison accepted an invitation to sing on a song of Harrison’s new single. They subsequently contacted Bob Dylan, who, in turn, allowed them to use a recording studio in his home. Along the way, Harrison made a quick visit to Tom Petty’s residence to obtain his guitar; Petty and his band had backed Dylan on his last tour. By that evening, the group had written “Handle with Care”, which led to the concept of recording an entire album. They called themselves the Traveling Wilburys, representing themselves as half-brothers with the same father. They gave themselves stage names; Orbison chose his from his musical hero, calling himself “Lefty Wilbury” after Lefty Frizzell. Expanding on the concept of a traveling band of raucous musicians, Orbison offered a quote about the group’s foundation in honor: “Some people say Daddy was a cad and a bounder. I remember him as a Baptist minister.”

Lynne later spoke of the recording sessions: “Everybody just sat there going, ‘Wow, it’s Roy Orbison!’… Even though he’s become your pal and you’re hanging out and having a laugh and going to dinner, as soon as he gets behind that [mic] and he’s doing his business, suddenly it’s shudder time.” Orbison was given one solo track, “Not Alone Any More”, on the album. His contributions were highly praised by the press. Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 spent 53 weeks on the US charts, peaking at number three. It reached No. 1 in Australia and topped out at No. 16 in the UK. The album won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. Rolling Stone included it in the top 100 albums of the decade.

Orbison was in high demand for concerts and interviews once again, and was seemingly ecstatic about it. He began writing songs and collaborating with many musicians from his past and newer fans, to develop a solo album, Mystery Girl.

Mystery Girl was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, whom Orbison considered the best producer he had ever collaborated with. Elvis Costello, Orbison’s son Wesley and others offered their songs to him. The biggest hit from the album was “You Got It”, written with Lynne and Tom Petty. It posthumously rose to No. 9 in the US and No. 3 in the UK.

In 2014, a demo of Orbison’s “The Way Is Love” was released as part of the 25th-anniversary deluxe edition of Mystery Girl. The song was originally recorded on a stereo cassette player around 1986. Orbison’s sons contributed instrumentation on the track along with Roy’s vocals; it was produced by John Carter Cash.

Although the video for the Wilburys’ “Handle with Care” was filmed with Orbison, the video for “End of the Line” was filmed and released posthumously. During Orbison’s vocal parts in “End of the Line”, the video shows a guitar in a rocking chair, next to Orbison’s framed photo.

Death

Orbison determinedly pursued his second chance at stardom, but he expressed amazement at his success: “It’s very nice to be wanted again, but I still can’t quite believe it.” He lost some weight to fit his new image and the constant demand of touring, as well as the newer demands of making videos. In the final three months of his life, he gave Rolling Stone magazine extensive access to his daily activities; he intended to write an autobiography and wanted Martin Sheen to play him in a biopic. In November 1988, Mystery Girl was completed, and Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was rising up the charts. Around this time, Orbison confided in Johnny Cash that he was having chest pains and said he would have to do something about his health, but he never did. He went to Europe, was presented with an award there, and played a show in Antwerp, where footage for the video for “You Got It” was filmed. He gave several interviews a day in a hectic schedule. A few days later, a manager at a club in Boston was concerned that he looked ill, but Orbison played the show, to another standing ovation.

Orbison performed at the Front Row Theater in Highland Heights, Ohio, on December 4. Exhausted, he returned to his home in Hendersonville to rest for several days before flying again to London to film two more videos for the Traveling Wilburys. On December 6, he spent the day flying model airplanes with his sons and ate dinner at his mother’s home in Hendersonville. Later that day, he died of a heart attack, at the age of 52.

The tabloid National Enquirer suggested on its cover that Orbison had worked himself to death. A memorial was held in Nashville, and another in Los Angeles. He was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in an unmarked grave. On April 8, 1989, Orbison became the first deceased musician since Elvis Presley to have two albums in the US Top Five at the same time, with the Traveling Wilburys album at number 4 and his own Mystery Girl at number 5. In the United Kingdom, he achieved even greater posthumous success, with two solo albums in the Top 3 in the chart dated February 11, 1989, Mystery Girl at number 2 and the compilation The Legendary Roy Orbison at number 3.

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