Roy Orbison also very tragic. He was a wonderful singer. I loved his songs and still do. He is a singer's singer is what they would say. Some guy told me he was a one hit wonder but that is not what it was.

"The voice!"  Suffered through a series of tragedies that robbed him of his wife and then his children.  It was truly inspiring to see his career take off again in the mid 80's.

It's a bit of a cliche to suggest that everything between 'the fall' of the original rock musicians- post army Elvis, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, et. al who were replaced by 'wholesomey' teen idols and the rise of the Beatles, Stones, et al was crap: Del Shannon was pretty good, Dion had some good tracks, and you had Dylan, the early Phil Spector acts like The Ronettes, and the early Motown/ soul stuff etc.. It wasn't the greatest period in the genre's history, but it did have Orbison, who had a phenomenal voice, wrote good lyrics, and was a pretty good guitar player. His music ranged from eerie to touching. A big influence on The Beatles, Springsteen, and many others. The death from a heart attack in his early 50's was a bit shocking in that after many years he became a star again with the Wilbury's. Almost certainly the best American rock star between the 50's and the rise of Dylan and the British Invasion heavyweights. Four stars for the career, 3 for the tragic aspect of it.