Roy Orbison

A 24-year-old from Texas, Roy Orbison had sprung to prominence in 1960 when Only The Lonely reached Number Two in the US. In summer 1961, Running Scared topped the charts and Orbison went on to accumulate the remarkable total of 12 million sellers in four years.

Even as Beatlemania was sweeping all before it he reached the top again with Oh Pretty Woman, also a Number One (his third) in Britain, where he toured consistently during the sixties.

Ill-health ultimately brought his career to a standstill, but he returned to the stage in 1980, just in time to see Don McLean take Orbison's song Crying to the top of the British charts.