{"id":886891,"date":"2026-04-11T13:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/886891\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T13:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T13:09:34","slug":"how-one-of-roy-orbisons-finest-weepers-conquered-great-britain-during-beatlemania-in-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/886891\/","title":{"rendered":"How One of Roy Orbison\u2019s Finest Weepers Conquered Great Britain During Beatlemania in 1964"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobody sang the heartbroken ballad quite like Roy Orbison. His vocals could be majestic, but he could also modulate them in a way that they conveyed vast troves of sorrow. And Orbison also understood how to write songs that landed right in his operatically sad wheelhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d found him in this mode for one of his last massive hit singles. Orbison and his collaborators telegraphed the song\u2019s sorrow in the title and didn\u2019t let up from there.<\/p>\n

Orbisonian Excellence<\/p>\n

Roy Orbison had been trying to make his way in the music business as both a member of various groups and a solo act for more than a decade before he finally broke through. Not even a stint at Sun Records in the company of folks like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash did anything for his prospects.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it helped in a way that Orbison struggled to get his recording career going. It forced him to look for other avenues to make it in the music business. That included songwriting. By building up this skill, he didn\u2019t have to rely on others for the material that would put him over the top.<\/p>\n

Eventually, he carved out a niche with unique musical arrangements that veered between rock, country, and non-pop forms such as Spanish bolero music. And he transformed into the artist folks sought when they wanted to wallow in their misery. \u201cOnly The Lonely (Know The Way I Feel)\u201d, \u201cRunning Scared\u201d<\/a>, and \u201cCrying\u201d, all from 1960 and 1961, established him in this vein.<\/p>\n

Betting on the \u201cOver\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as the music industry changed drastically during this time, Orbison stayed true to his signature sound. Not even getting to know The Beatles in 1963 changed him at all. That allowed him to score yet again with \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d in 1964.<\/p>\n

Orbison\u2019s songwriting partnership with early collaborator Joe Melton had been severed by this time. \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d united him for the first time with Bill Dees, who would also go on to write \u201c(Oh) Pretty Woman\u201d with the artist. Fred Foster ladled the typical Orbisonian production touches on the track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d soared to the Top 10 in the US upon its release. Perhaps even more impressive was the fact that the song hit No. 1 in England. In the year 1964, which was dominated by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, he was the only American act to reach the top spot in the UK.<\/p>\n

Examining the Lyrics of \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d<\/p>\n

In \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d, Orbison turns his formula on its head a bit by singing in the second person. This allows him to commiserate with all the bereft folks in his audience. \u201cYour baby doesn\u2019t love you anymore,\u201d he begins, a theme that\u2019s echoed by the days, the nights, the rainbows, and the setting suns in the song\u2019s verses.<\/p>\n

Orbison hopes that the person he\u2019s addressing can face up to these issues rather than hide away. \u201cBut oh, what will you do?\u201d he asks. \u201cWhen she says to you\/There\u2019s someone new\/We\u2019re through, we\u2019re through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orbison takes the title refrain into the ether as the song progresses, the final notes escalating as violins crash around him. He was singing \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d. But, as listeners, we never want weepers like this to end.<\/p>\n

Photo by David Redfern\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nobody sang the heartbroken ballad quite like Roy Orbison. His vocals could be majestic, but he could also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,711,119012,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-886891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-northern-ireland","tag-pop-music","tag-roy-orbison","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116386238678646657","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}