You can’t get more Texas than Roy Orbison.

The son of an oil worker, he was born in Vernon, Texas in 1936, and lived in communities with great small town names like Wink and Kermit. In high school he was in a band called the “Wink Westerners,” and in the mid 1950s he had the good fortune to appear on the same television show as Johnny Cash. Cash told him to go talk to Sam Phillips of Sun Records. It was not a successful meeting Later on Phillips got another chance to hear the new singer’s “Ooby Dooby” over the phone, and he finally caught a break. It wasn’t instant success, and one time a Sun Records producer even told Orbison he would never make it as a ballad singer.

Today, the late singer is part of several music hall of fames, gained a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, and was listed in Rolling Stone Magazine at number 13 of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time.” Guess he did make it, after all.

The early 60s were some of his first and most notable hits, but one that really captures his distinct voice was “Crying”.

Orbison died of a heart attack at age 52 in 1988, and he had some rocky patches in his career over time. His music was rediscovered in the late 1980s with the posthumous release of his final album Mystery Girl. The biggest hit came from the song “You Got It,” but it also yielded other gems like “She’s a Mystery to Me” written by U2’s Bono and The Edge:

Of course, there was that other little project that happened towards the end of his life called Traveling Wilburys. Yeah, you might of heard of this little supergroup with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne.

Their first big hit featured Orbison’s and Harrison’s vocals, “Handle with Care”:

Orbison may be long gone, but his voice is like a beautiful ghost reminding us of the massive talent packed in that Texas boy.