Roy Orbison end to be represented as A-B-C-D-E-F-A-B'-C'-D'-E'-F'. Although Orbison recorded and wrote standard structure songs before "Only the Lonely", he claimed never to have learned how to write them: Elton John's songwriting partner and main lyricist Bernie Taupin wrote that Orbison's songs always made "radical left turns", and k.d. lang declared that good songwriting comes from being constantly surprised, such as how the entirety of "Running Scared" eventually depends on the final note, one word. Some of the musicians who worked with Orbison were confounded by what he asked them to do. The Nashville session guitarist Jerry Kennedy stated, "Roy went
Roy Orbison Jr. age 17 he co-wrote a song for U2 with Bono, before becoming a professional musician himself. In 2008 Orbison co-produced the 4-disc career retrospective of his father entitled "The Soul Of Rock And Roll", as well as the 2016 collection "Roy Orbison: The Ultimate Collection". He has also written the liner notes for further retrospective collections. The album reached number 10 on the UK album charts. Orbison has also mastered previously unreleased recordings of his father and has begun to distribute them, including the song “The Way is Love”, a track on which he also played the guitar and contributed