A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL
ROY ORBISON
SONGWRITERS: ROY ORBISON & JEFF LYNNE
COUNTRY: U. S.A
ALBUM: ROY ORBISON WITH THE ROYAL PHILARMONIC
ORCHESTRA
LABEL: ROY’S BOYS
GENRE: ORCHESTRAL POP
YEAR: 2017
Roy Kelton Orbison(April 23, 1936– December
6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his
impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional
ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the
nicknames "the Caruso of Rock"
and "the Big O." Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability at a
time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project defiant
masculinity. He performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes
to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his
shyness and stage fright.
Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager. He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956,
but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of
Orbison's singles reached the Billboard Top 40. He wrote or co-wrote almost all
of his own Top 10 hits, including "Only the
Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared"
(1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty
Woman" (1964).
After
the mid-1960s, Orbison suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career
faltered. He experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1980s following the
success of several cover versions of his songs. In 1988,
he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys(a
rock supergroup)
with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Orbison died of a heart attack in
December 1988 at age 52. One month later, his song "You Got It"
(1989) was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach the US
& UK Top 10 in nearly 25 years.
Orbison's honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, the Songwriters
Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Musicians
Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014. He
received a Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award and five other Grammy
Awards. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on its list of the "Greatest
Artists of All Time" and number 13 on its list of the "100 Greatest
Singers of All Time". In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74
on its list of the Top 600 recording artists.
A Love So Beautiful is a compilation album by American singer Roy Orbison.
It was released on November 3, 2017 by Roy's Boys, Monument, Legacy, Sony. The
album features archival vocal recordings of Orbison accompanied by new
orchestral arrangements by the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra. It also features a duet with
English country duo Ward Thomas.
A Love So Beautiful debuted and peaked at
number 2 on the UK Albums Chart,
becoming Orbison's highest charting album for almost 30 years.
"Oh,
Pretty Woman" opens with a guitar strum played by Orbison's grandson Roy
III, then aged about ten months
The summer sun went
down on our love long ago
But in my heart I feel the same old after glow
A love so beautiful in every way
A love so beautiful we let it slip away
We were all too young
to understand to ever know
That lovers drift apart and that's the way love goes
A love so beautiful a love so free
A love so beautiful a love for you and me
And when I think of you I fall in love again
A love so beautiful
we let it slip away
A love so beautiful
in every way
A love so beautiful we let it slip away