Roy Orbison – Crying

When I played music as I was younger our singer could sing Journey songs and AC/DC songs (from both singers) but when it came to Orbison…a totally different story. Mark is a very good singer but he balked at Roy Orbison. He told me that couldn’t happen…at least not in the way Roy did it. 

Not only did the man have a once in a generation voice he was also known to be an extremely nice and good guy. He went through so many tragedies in his short life. He lived around 30 minutes from me but I never got to catch him in concert or just seeing him. 

There was a quote that Tom Petty gave…that when he joined the Wilburys he called his mom and told her “Mom, I’m in a band with Roy Orbison!” Not Mom I’m in a band with Bob Dylan or a Beatle George Harrison…no it was Roy. That voice was golden and magical but he paid for his success dearly as you will read below.

 In 1957, Orbison married his sweetheart, Claudette Frady. She was 17 at the time and he was 21. As the young couple’s romance was soon thrust into jeopardy given Orbison’s rapid rise to fame, cracks began to appear. In November 1964, Orbison divorced Claudette over her alleged infidelities. However, within ten months, the pair had reconciled their differences and were once more in a loving relationship. They had three children.

It started on June 6, 1966, when Claudette and Roy were riding motorcycles. Claudette hit the door of a pickup truck and was killed instantly. Orbison poured himself into his work after that. He wrote and toured but was out of step with the mid to late-sixties music.  It was in Birmingham, England in September 1968 when catastrophe struck once more. News reached Orbison that a fire had broken out at his home in Tennessee and that his two eldest sons had tragically passed away. His younger child went to live with his grandparents.

This song was written by Orbison and Joe Melson and released in 1961. It was a smash here, peaking at #2 on the Billboard 100, #3 in Canada, #11, and #25 in the UK. It would hit again in 1980-81, with Don Mclean covering it. It peaked at #5 on the Billboard 100, #1 on the Canadian Country Charts, #7 in Canada, #11 in New Zealand, and #1 in the UK. 

 Roy Orbison died suddenly on December 6, 1988, in Hendersonville Tennessee. His new album Mystery Girl would be released around a month and a half after Roy passed. The album was hugely successful peaking at #5 in America and #4 in Canada.

Crying

I was alright for a while, I could smile for a whileThen I saw you last night, you held my hand so tightWhen you stopped to say, “Hello”You wished me well, you couldn’t tell

That I’d been crying over youCrying over you then you said, “So long”Left me standing all aloneAlone and crying,

Crying, crying, cryingIt’s hard to understandThat the touch of your handCan start me crying

I thought that I was over youBut it’s true, so trueI love you even more than I did beforeBut darling what can I do?For you don’t love me and I’ll always be

Crying over youCrying over youYes, now you’re goneAnd from this moment onI’ll be crying, crying, crying, crying,Crying, crying, over you

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

62 thoughts on “Roy Orbison – Crying”

  3. As you said a once in a generation voice. This is an incredible song and I can well imagine very difficult to sing. Though there are a few incredible cover versions. Maybe it’s just my imagination but he seemed genuinely surprised at how well received his comeback if you want to call it, aka A Black and White Night . As you mentioned what Petty said about him many others shared that enthusiasm at his and his participation in the Travelling Wilburys as well. Very sad he wasn’t around for that to continue.

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    1. It was so sad…after all he went through and to come all the way back and a little more…then he passed away. At least that introduced him to a new generation.

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      4. I have seen this before thanks Lisa. Top of the Pops had performers lip sync up until about 1991. There were some exceptions and its hard to find out if this was one of them. Roy had the reputation of sounding exactly the same every time he did one of his songs. So this may have been live. Regardless they did a stunning rendition.

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  4. Tragic life story about one of the greatest. Loved the video, as I don’t remember watching that before. Roy Orbison smoked cigarettes, sometimes as many as 80 a day and he died of a heart attack at age 52. 

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      3. That is basically one hand holding the ciggie, the other holding the Zippo, ready to spark up the next one. That’s not going to help the odds longevity-wise, but hey, back then that was the way of life of that generation. Sorry, poor choice of words, but ‘life choices’ sounds even worse.🙄 Huge loss, and what a tragic life.

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      4. Ob, I know exactly what you mean about that’s what they did back then. Dad always had an unfiltered Pall Mall in his hand (and a zippo in the other) and Granddad smoked unfiltered Camels. In a weird bit of synchronicity, I was looking for some paperwork needed for the interview and came across the Zippo my dad inscribed for me in the box. I remember how mad he was when he caught me out on the front porch at 16 smoking. He threw a wingding fit!

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      5. Yep Lisa, different (unfiltered) times. I’ve smoked half a cigarette in my life, probably one of Ma’s Du Maurier’s. Just to see what the fu-fuss was about. Ghastly wretched retch inducing things. I had a real hatred of them because I was the unlucky one sent down to the inconvenient store when Ma or Pa ran out. Yes, little kids, 7-8 could buy ’em legally back then. Gawd, I hated being the kid told to go down in all weathers for a pack of of 20s. Or tens if it was coming up to pay day. How much of their pay packets went up in smoke I shudder to think.

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  6. Hey Max…I think that I mentioned in one of your other reports that for me at least I have a real appreciation for Roy Orbison’s music between ’59-’64 (his hit making years). I’m familiar that the songwriters, backup singers & session musicians played those sessions mostly in Nashville in those hit making years. I had both of his 1st two greatest hits albums that were the original prints. I bought them from a guy that was selling his stuff on the street in the upper Haight in San Francisco one Saturday in ’88 as I was hanging out going to & from ‘Reckless Records’. I think that I only paid $10 for both of those classic albums. I gave them away years later. I wonder how much those would be worth today.

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    1. $10 …..absolutely crazy…now that won’t get you in the door. No telling on some albums…some are worth a lot. I could have bought the Beatles Butcher cover in the 80s but I didn’t have the money… around $100…. I wish I would have…

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  10. definitely a one of a kind, great singer. That’s funny Petty mentioning him ahead of HArrison or Dylan to his mother… shows what music she listened to , I guess. And don’t forget it being a hit again for Roy , with his duet with kd lang redoing it in 1988… it hit #2 in Canada and was an AdCon hit here for them, and a surprisingly decent remake

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    1. Yea that was her generation as well…right before rock took over.
      That is right…it did come back in the late 80s

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  11. Omigosh he passed away that long ago??? Time does fly. So many of his productions feel like operettas, narratives that build to a blinding crescendo. It isn’t unreasonable to believe that he poured the anguish of his real life tragedies into his voice to bring his songs to a feeling of real life. I love the guy and he knows no peer.

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  12. That voice was something else. I recall him singing a nothing pop little song, trying to get a hit in the late 60’s, ‘Penny Arcade’ and it would have been unlistenable pop pap sung by anyone else. His voice dredged it up towards grudging acceptance. And he didn’t even have to try! That is genius.

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    1. Very few artists can do that…I told Dave many times that Aretha actually made “You Light Up My Life” sound good! Yes…that is genius.
      I just listened to Penny Arcade…yes I totally get it.

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  15. I saw him in concert in Chicago in ’86 or ’87. Every time he hit one of high notes, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. What a voice! Seeing him with the Wilburys did my heart good. I don’t know why, it just did. We had the “Mystery Girl” tape bouncing around here a while ago, but it’s gone now.

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    1. Oh Im jealous John…I was happy to see the man back in the spotlight when he hadn’t been since when? The 60s? Mystery Girl is really good and was a solid comeback for him.

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  16. Of course, I knew the song but wasn’t aware of the sad background story. Roy Orbison just was an incredible artist. His operatic voice was second to none, at least in pop and rock. I’ve also always liked that just like Buddy Holly, Orbison didn’t exactly look like what most folks associate with a rock star, and yet he was one of the best!

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  22. He always had a phenomenal voice and presence on his songs. I’ve loved listening to him since I was quite young. I hadn’t know of the tragedies in his life, no wonder he put some much emotion into everything. Poor guy.

    Did you know Bono and Edge of U2 wrote a song for him? Another one I love of his: She’s A Mystery Girl. Released after he died.

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