Tag: 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 while
Then I saw you last night, you held my hand so tight
When you stopped to say, “Hello”
You wished me well, you couldn’t tell

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

Crying, crying, crying
It’s hard to understand
That the touch of your hand
Can start me crying

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

Crying over you
Crying over you
Yes, now you’re gone
And from this moment on
I’ll be crying, crying, crying, crying,
Crying, crying, over you

…