9 Songs You May Not Know Roy Orbison Wrote

Roy Orbison was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his stratospheric vocals and his ability to blend rock and roll sounds with deep vulnerability. His voice is what stands out to most listeners first—a voice that Dwight Yoakam described as “the cry of an angel falling backward through an open window.” 

His songwriting was also imbued with a unique emotional rawness, and helped him stand out from other rockers at the time. Orbison “[built] a persona from song to song about himself as this suffering male character who experiences these intense emotions linked to extreme loneliness, crying, suffering, and pain, at a level of intensity that was not the norm for men at that point of time in the early ’60s,” biographer Peter Lehman wrote of the artist. 

Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas on April 23, 1936, and broke out as a songwriter before releasing a number of Top 40 hits of his own in the early 1960s. However, his career stalled in the late ‘60s. During this time, he lost his first wife, Claudette, in a motorcycle accident, as well as two of his children in a house fire.

Yet by the 1980s, his songs had been covered by a number of famous artists. Some of his tracks were used in famous films, such as “In Dreams,” which was featured in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. In 1988, he joined the band Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty. Because of all this, Orbison’s career began to thrive again. He finished recording his final album, Mystery Girl, shortly before his death in 1988 at the age of 52.

Since then, Orbison’s legacy has only grown more respected. His transportive, almost mystical songs have soundtracked many a movie scene and have provided solace for the heartbroken across decades. The artist was also a skilled songwriter with a knack for weaving musically complex compositions that sounded effortlessly simple—and occasionally, he lent his skills to other artists. That was the case with the following nine songs.

1. “See Ruby Fall” // Johnny Cash
2. “You Tell Me” // Johnny Cash
3. “You’ve Got Love” // Buddy Holly and the Crickets
4. “As Long As I Can Dream” // Exposé
5. “Claudette” // The Everly Brothers
6. “So Long I’m Gone” // Warren Smith
7. “Precious” // Arlene Harden
8. “When the Blue Hour Comes” // Rodney Crowell
9. “Blue Bayou” // Linda Ronstadt

“See Ruby Fall” // Johnny Cash

Music legends Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison first crossed paths when Cash was on tour with Elvis Presley. At the time, Cash suggested Orbison reach out to Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, which helped kickstart his career. The pair shared a long friendship and supported each other throughout their lives. “It was a particularly close friendship, too,” Cash said. “We became like brothers right from the start, and we stayed that way until the end.”

The pair collaborated a number of times and even lived near each other in Tennessee at one point, yet they only wrote one song together. That song was “See Ruby Fall.” The pair pulled the title from a phrase written on signs that directed visitors to an underground waterfall in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The lyrics tell the story of a woman who leaves a relationship to pursue a more thrilling life downtown. The song was released in 1969 as the first single off Cash’s 1970 album Hello, I’m Johnny Cash. 

“You Tell Me” // Johnny Cash

While Cash and Orbison only wrote one song together, Orbison also penned a song specifically for his friend: the track “You Tell Me.” Written while they were both signed to Sun Records, the track was released in 1958 just after Cash left for Columbia Records. The song, which is about someone wondering why their partner left them, helped cement their friendship. Orbison, for his part, released his version of Cash’s song “You’re My Baby” in 1961.

“You’ve Got Love” // Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Buddy Holly died at just 22 in a 1959 plane crash sometimes referred to as “The Day the Music Died.” Before then, the rising star managed to record a few Orbison-penned compositions, including “You’ve Got Love,” which was released in 1957. Other songs by Orbison that Holly recorded include “A True Love Goodbye” and “An Empty Cup (And a Broken Date),” the latter of which Orbison co-wrote with Norman Petty.

Holly and Orbison were both from the same area of Texas, and the two shared a friendship and helped inspire each other at the start of their careers. “I was frustrated as a singer for a long time, particularly when some friendly rivalry broke out between me and a young guy in Texas named Buddy Holly, who, within a couple of months, had a couple of number one singles and soon had stardom that reached to the moon,” said Orbison. Of course, the artist would have his own number one hit a few years later with “Only the Lonely.”

“As Long As I Can Dream” // Exposé

Roy Orbison joined forces with songwriter Diane Warren for this tune, which was written for the girl group Exposé. It was first released in 1992, and is an uplifting song that urges the listener to look into their heart for hope when things get hard. 

“Claudette” // The Everly Brothers

This song was written by Orbison for his wife, Claudette, whom he had married the year before penning the track. In the hands of the Everly Brothers, it became Orbison's first major songwriting success.

“We were backstage. I met the boys and Ike Everly, their father,” Orbison recalled of how he came to give the Everly Brothers the song. “Everybody backstage was pitching songs. They would sit down and say, ‘Sing four or five songs for the boys.’ I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll do that; I won’t impose on them.’ I started to leave the dressing room and they said, ‘Roy, do you have any songs?’ I said, ‘I’ve got one song.’ So, I sat down to sing that (Claudette) for them and they liked it very much and wrote the lyric down on the top of a shoebox. Took it back to Nashville and recorded it and it was a co-number one with ‘All I Have to Do is Dream.'”

“So Long I’m Gone” // Warren Smith

Warren Smith was a friend of Orbison’s while they were both at Sun Records, and Smith recorded Orbison’s song “So Long I’m Gone” in 1957. Smith’s band also accompanied Orbison during some of his tours and recording sessions, and on one 1956 tour that featured both Smith and Orbison, the band would play a set with Orbison, change their clothes, and join Smith, usually without any audience members being the wiser.

“Precious” // Arlene Harden

Orbison wrote this track in the late ‘60s, and it was covered by Arlene Harden on her 1970 tribute album Arlene Harden Sings Roy Orbison. Orbison’s version, meanwhile, wasn’t released until 2008, when it appeared posthumously on his box set The Soul of Rock and Roll. Harden also found great success with a cover of “Lovin’ Man (Oh Pretty Woman),” a take on Orbison’s classic hit “Oh, Pretty Woman.”

“When the Blue Hour Comes” // Rodney Crowell

Orbison partnered with Rodney Crowell and Will Jennings to pen this track, which was released in 1986. The song blends R&B with country-folk and pop stylings and finds the singer promising someone he loves that he’ll always be there for them in a time of need, even if they're no longer close. 

“Blue Bayou” // Linda Ronstadt

Orbison’s ethereal version of this song was released in 1961, but it became even more famous when Linda Ronstadt released her cover as a single in 1977. The song became a smash hit for Ronstadt and turned into her signature track, though of course, many fans associate it mostly with Orbison.

The tune has a distinctly melancholy quality, and its lyrics describe longing for a beautiful place, a bygone time, and a lost love. But for Orbison, the whole thing was always meant to be somewhat joyful. “That’s simply a song about being on the road,” Orbison said. “And that is really a happy song. It probably sounds very strange to you for me to say that. The fellow’s bound and determined to get back to where you sleep all day, and the catfish play, and the sailing boats and the girls and all that stuff. It’s a beautiful thought. Now granted that it is a sad song, a lonely song, but it’s a loneliness that precedes happiness.”