Roy Orbison's Sun Recordings Roy Orbison. Orbison, still in Texas began writing with Joe Melson, who led a group in Midland called the Cavaliers. Together they wrote the hit "Uptown," which sold better than any single since "Ooby Dooby". Looking for a follow-up, Melson showed Orbison a piece of a song he had been working on called "Only the Lonely". This song was the "first song that truly probed the frightening potential of Orbison's voice." In the early sixties Orbison reached his first peak period from 1961-1964. Despite the lack of commercial success Orbison looked back at his time at Sun Records as an
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.