Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)
Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel) is the title of a piece of music and the first million seller by Roy Orbison from 1960.
History of origin
Neither the music producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records (until September 1958) nor Chet Atkins at Monument Records (until April 1959) succeeded in expressing Roy Orbison's vocal strengths in a marketable manner. He sang unsuccessfully for four record labels and just as often changed his musical accompanists. Only when Fred Foster, owner of the record label Monument Records , took over the producer role himself, this should change.
The right sound was found in the third recording session under Foster's direction as a music producer on March 26, 1960 at the RCA Victor Studios in Nashville . In the occupation Grady Martin / Hank Bradley (guitar), Bob Moore (bass), Floyd Cramer (piano), Boots Randolph (saxophone) and Buddy Harman (drums) emerged Only the Lonely . The cast belonged to the core of the Nashville A-Team . There was also a violin section and the Anita Kerr Singers as a background choir ; The sound engineer was Bill Porter.
Only the Lonely was a collaboration between Orbison (music) and Joe Melson (text) as a team of authors. A clever rhyme within the music track makes the listener curious. Since the title had already existed as a composition by Sammy Cahn / Jimmy Van Heusen since 1958 (first published on the Frank Sinatra LP of the same name in September 1958), Orbison's version was subtitled (Know the Way I Feel) to distinguish it. Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers turned down the song, particularly because it required more than two octaves in vocals in the last verse. As a composer Orbison fluctuated between beat music, as it later did with Oh, Pretty Woman, and ballads , the content of which fluctuated between separation and longing; he ultimately preferred the ballad form.
The piece of music required a voice between B minor 3 to C 5, the latter in falsetto ; that's a little over 2 octaves within a 17-note range. The song brings Orbison's tenor and falsetto skills to full advantage. It was Melson's idea to use the falsetto voice at the end of the eight-bar crescendo . The song took Orbison's actual baritone voice to the limits of his vocal abilities. The choir responds to Orbison's stories in a call and response style with echo-like repetition of the opening phrase, while the metrical extension is dictated by the choir. The banal text is about the painful loneliness caused by a past love and the chance for a new romance.
A guitar riff doubled for the purpose of sound strength forms the distinctive core of Grady Martin's guitar work. The intro starts with drums only, with the bass drum beating every beat and the snare drum doubling this rhythm, while the closed hi-hat is struck with every upbeat. One bar later the arpeggio- like guitar riff begins on an acoustic 12-string guitar. After two repetitions, the guitar melody is doubled by bass and lead guitar. Later, a significantly reinforced tremolo sets in . Sound engineer Bill Porter used an unusual recording technique in the small “RCA Studio B”. He turned up the microphone inputs for the instruments and asked the studio musicians to play softly. Conversely, the Orbison and Choir should sing as loud as possible in microphones with a low recording level. In addition, Orbison's thin voice was recorded with a slapback echo on the three-track tape recorder, which can be easily heard in the final chord without any background noise.
Publication and Success
Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel) / Here Comes That Song Again (Monument Records 421) was released in April 1960 and sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide. On July 31, 1960, the single reached number 2 on the US pop hit parade , where it could not displace the number one hit I'm Sorry by Brenda Lee and therefore remained in second place for only a week. For this she became number one hit in Great Britain. In the wake of success, Orbison made his national TV debut in American Bandstand on July 23, 1960. The hit also appeared on his first album Lonely and Blue (December 1960). The ballad-like successor hits were similar in terms of their vocal requirements and their dramaturgy and thus ensured recognition value . The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 . The music magazine Rolling Stone has led it since 2004 in the list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time at number 232. The song received a BMI award .
Cover versions
Because of the complicated voice requirements, there are only a few cover versions . Of the at least 28 versions, the German version by Bobby Franco Noch bist Du sich einsam (German text: R. Retter; May 1961), Kitty Wells (recorded on January 27, 1966), Glen Campbell (September 12, 1966), should be mentioned. Sonny James (November 21, 1968), Jack Greene (January 6, 1969). Howard Carpendale sang a Fred Jay text with Lonely - Together (LP ... and I'm waiting for a sign ; 1975), the Stars on 45 included it in their characteristic medley (May 1981). Larry Branson sang the song for the movie soundtrack Only the Lonely: The Roy Orbison Story (August 1995), other versions were by Chris Isaak (October 1996) and Showaddywaddy (May 2002).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marc Spicer, John Covach (Ed.): Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music , 2010, pp. 18 ff.
- ↑ If You Like Roy Orbison ... , New York Times, September 25, 2012.
- ↑ Peter Lehmann, Roy Orbison: The Invention of an Alternative Rock Masculinity , 2003, p. 54.
- ^ Alan Clayson, Only the Lonely - The Life And Artistic Legacy of Roy Orbison , 1990, p. 79
- ↑ Mark Spicer, John Covach (Ed.): Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music , 2010, p. 23.
- ↑ Mark Spicer, John Covach (Eds.): Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music , 2010, p. 29.
- ^ Walter Everett, The Foundations of Rock , 2008, pp. 85 f.
- ^ Recording from Roy Orbison's 'Only the Lonely' , Steve Hoffman Music Forum, March 18, 2003.
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 145