Roy Orbison (1936-1988)
Filed under the name Roy · February 13, 2026
Roy Orbison had that soaring voice and wrote 'Oh, Pretty Woman,' one of those songs that's basically outlived every trend that came after it, which got him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame eventually, deservedly. I hear a lot of oldies like his in the car between jobs — my radio stays on whatever station my mother listens to, mostly, but classic hits like his sneak in there too, alongside the banda and corridos I actually chose. What gets me about a song that famous is how it just keeps earning money and airtime decades after it was written, long after the work of making it was actually done — that's the dream, honestly, something you built once that keeps paying you back for the rest of your life, unlike most of the jobs I've had, where the work only pays for the hours you're actually there. Orbison built something with a kind of staying power most working people never get the chance to build.