Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison was one of rock's founding fathers, emerging as a jukebox Hamlet, the dark, moody prince of pop. His almost otherworldly tenor bled soul-shattering cries of isolation like "Only the Lonely," drenched in high drama and baited with perfect pop hooks. He became the hero of the heartbroken, churning up the deepest, darkest emotions — paranoia, regret, despair — in heart-shredding pop epics like "Crying" and "Running Scared." But then Orbison could turn around and growl out "Oh, Pretty Woman," the ultimate libido-unleashed rocker, dripping with sweaty sensuality and escalating the temperature of the nation.

Rev up your engine with Roy's rockabilly roots, in Next Steps.

Roy Orbison became legendary for his dark-night-of-the-soul tear-tuggers, but he started out as a Memphis-prowling rockabilly wildcat, kicking up a ferocious, blues-fueled ruckus on Sun Records alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. The fever and fury of the jolting jump shot "(Go! Go! Go!) Down the Line" and the sexy strut of "Candy Man" helped build the black-pompadoured Texan's rock 'n' roll rep from the get-go, and he even penned an early Everly Brothers hit along the way, in his hot-and-bothered ode to an outta-sight gal, "Claudette."

Follow Orbison's superstar-studded comeback trail, in Deep Cuts.

Like a lot of first-generation rock 'n' rollers, Roy Orbison fell below the radar after the British Invasion exploded in the mid-'60s, despite helping to ignite its flame in the first place. But he was the only Sun Records vet to stage a full-scale comeback in the '80s. He was a driving force in supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, unreeling his mighty pipes atop the backing of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne on the majestic "Not Alone Any More," among other Wilbury wonders. The re-energized Roy's train kept rolling even after his untimely passing in 1988, with similarly superstar-studded cuts like "In the Real World" and "I Drove All Night," posthumous tracks whose echoes of his early-'60s hits provided Orbison with a sublime elegy.

With his skyscraper-scaling tenor and God-given gift for pop tragedy, Roy Orbison created the original rock operas when Pete Townshend was still learning skiffle riffs. But the lonely figure with the black threads and inscrutable shades was always a dyed-in-the-wool rocker at heart, too, and that's exactly the contrast that made him a hero to everyone from Bruce Springsteen to the British beat groups of the '60s. Well, we've combed the corridors of rock 'n' roll heaven, sweeping across the decades to show you the best of all Orbison's multiple musical personalities. From rockabilly rave-up "Ooby Dooby" to the heart-hammering epic "It's Over" and his comeback-kid turn with the Traveling Wilburys on "Handle With Care," it's still Roy Orbison's world, but he'll let you live in it for a while.