Roy Orbison – Only the Lonely

About The Song

By the late 1950s, Roy Orbison was living in a small apartment in Nashville with his wife and baby, and he often used his car as a refuge to write songs. In 1958, Orbison’s friend rockabilly singer and songwriter Joe Melson tapped on his car window and asked if he could work with him on some songs.

From there on, the two co-wrote and recorded a series of songs, including “Uptown”—later released as a bonus track to Lonely and Blue in 2006—along with “Come Back to Me (My Love),” “Blue Avenue,” “Blue Angel,” “I’m Hurtin’,” and “Twenty-Two Days,” which all made it on Orbison’s 1961 debut Lonely and Blue.

The duo also co-wrote the opening track, and Orbison’s first big hit, “Only the Lonely (Know The Way I Feel).”
When “Only the Lonely” was written Orbison and Melson initially wanted Elvis Presley or the Everly Brothers to cut the song, but both turned it down. The Everly Brothers suggested Orbison record the song himself, and he released it on Lonely and Blue.

The opening track on Lonely and Blue, “Only the Lonely” went to No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart and peaked at No. 14 on the R&B chart.

Though Presley initially turned down “Only the Lonely,” when the song was released he purchased a box of copies of the single and passed it on to his friends. Presley also called Orbison “quite simply, the greatest singer in the world,” during a performance in Las Vegas in 1976.

Orbison admitted that most of his shadier ballads, like “Only The Lonely,” were written in happier times. For Melson, the song was inspired by a real-life experience, when a girl broke his heart as a teenager. When she took off in a Cadillac, the words to the song came to him.

“I’ve always been very content when I wrote all those songs,” said Orbison of his sadder songs in a 1980 interview. “By this, I’m saying that a lot of people think you have to live through something before you can write it, and that’s true in some cases, but I remember the times that I was unhappy or discontent, and I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t communicate, and I certainly couldn’t write a song, no way.”

He added, “All the songs I wrote that were successful were written when I was in a contented state of mind.”

Video

Lyric

Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know the way I feel tonight (ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know this feeling ain’t right (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)

There goes my baby
There goes my heart
They’re gone forever
So far apart

But only the lonely
Know why I cry
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah, ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
(Oh, oh oh oh oh ooh-ah-ah, only the lonely)
(Only the lonely)

Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know the heartaches I’ve been through (ooh yay, yay, yay, yeah)
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)
Know I cry and cry for you (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)

Maybe tomorrow
A new romance
No-o-o more sorrow
But that’s the chance
You’ve got to take
If your lonely heart breaks
Only the lonely (dum-dumb-dummy doo-wah)