Roy Orbison 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
Roy Orbison discography ten top-10 hits between 1960 and 1966, including three No. 1 singles. Born and raised in Texas, Orbison got his start in a rockabilly band in high school. According to the official Roy Orbison discography by Marcel Riesco, Orbison's first release was in March 1956 on the Je-Wel label. He broke into professional music under Sam Phillips at Sun Records in the summer of 1956, but found only marginal success there. After a couple years writing for other musicians (including "Claudette" recorded by The Everly Brothers), Orbison recorded several songs at Monument Records under producer Fred Foster starting in 1959.