Emerging as the biggest name in the 1950s rock ‘n’ roll scene, Elvis Presley became one of the first-ever globalised superstars. He awakened a new potential for what we now know and live as pop culture. As the Beatles’ John Lennon once famously remarked, “Before Elvis, there was nothing”. Presley’s musical career blossomed through the decade, with US record shops turning over vast, unprecedented profits from his hotcake singles.
Then, the tap was turned off. In December 1957, Presley was drafted into the US Army. While the proud patriot might have quipped, “The Army can do anything it wants with me,” when he was honourably discharged in March 1960, the world had moved on, and his second chapter was one of diminished returns. Rock ‘n’ roll had evolved for a few years without him, and the ‘British Invasion’ was just around the corner, waiting to dethrone.
However, the appeal of some of the old favourites proved pervasive. In 1956, Roy Orbison was signed by Sun Records, Presley’s formative label, and alongside the likes of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, began to make a name for himself. Unlike Presley, Orbison liked to write his own lyrics. One of his early ambitions was to have Presley sing one of his songs, and in 1960, as the King returned from his military duties, Orbison made his move.
Understandably, Orbison saw Presley as the perfect man to take on his new anthem, ‘Only the Lonely’, full of soaring sentiment and enough swing for Presley’s potent timbre to work with. After getting in contact with the star, however, he was disheartened to receive a polite rejection. Sadly, Orbison received a similar response after pitching the track to The Everly Brothers. Consequently, a little-known Orbison ended up putting the single out himself in May 1960.
The success the unlikely star saw was rapid. On October 20th, 1960, Orbison’s quivering croon saw ‘Only the Lonely’ strike the top of the UK singles chart after reaching a peak at number two in the US. Needless to say, Presley will have felt a little regret as he reviewed the stats, but overall, he was happy for his fellow Sun Records alumnus.
In many ways, they were allies. Their more traditional blend of pop and rock defied the zeitgeist of rocking psychedelia. Above all, they were also virtuosos—both knew that while their ‘cool’ cache wasn’t quite competing anymore, they could crank out a tune and have an audience swoon all the same.
Through the 1960s, the pair’s friendship blossomed and during one of Presley’s famous Las Vegas concerts, he described Orbison as having the “perfect voice” and called him the “greatest singer in the world.” Presley wasn’t one to offer lavish praise all that often, but for Orbison, he made an exception—how couldn’t he?
In a return of praise, Orbison reflected upon seeing Presley perform in Odessa for the first time in February 1955, and how it inspired him to take a swing at making music himself. “His energy was incredible; his instinct was just amazing,” he recalled in a 1980 interview. “I just didn’t know what to make of it. There was just no reference point in the culture to compare it.”
Presley would go on to perform a cover of Orbison’s crooning classic ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ But beyond that, he always kept a keen eye on how the bespectacled star was able to still make his more classically-inclined tunes heard in a changing world. The answer for Presley was always the same, he had the perfect voice. That’s very, very high praise, indeed.