The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh 17 ONLY THE LONELY, Roy Orbison Produced by Fred Foster; written by Roy Orbison and Joe Melson Monument 421 1960 Billboard: #2 Roy Orbison came into RCA's Nashville studio for his second session accompanied by two sidekicks. As he rehearsed his new song at the microphone, the friends whispered alongside him. Engineer Bob Porter and producer Fred Foster said it was impossible to record him that way. Well, said Roy, you'd better, because that's the sound of my next record. What they were singing, of course, was "Dum, dum, dum, dum-dee-doo-wah; ooo, yay, yay, yay, yeah; oh, oh, oh, oo-wah; only the lonely." These nonsense syllables aren't sung or hummed or crooned; they're whispered into our hearts. Like the rest of Orbison's hits, "Only the Lonely" has tremendous dynamics (made possible by Orbison's near-operatic range) and a lyric that renders everyday heartbreak so universal that it acquires a tinge of the cosmic. What's most remarkable, though, is that at the end, Orbison shrugs off all the agony and asks only for the chance to lose his loneliness to love once again. This transcendental dismissal of the worst life has to offer should by itself earn Orbison a place in the pantheon of rock legends. If Phil Spector is pop music's truest romantic and John Fogerty its greatest fatalist, Roy Orbison stands as its ultimate stoic. Maybe he wore those shades all the time to disguise the fact that he never blinked no matter what you threw at him. Created: September 26, 2021 at 8.38 am at http://www.lexjansen.com with FPDF 1.81 Page 1.