145 Song Review – In Dreams

SONG: In Dreams

ARTIST: Roy Orbison

YEAR: 1963

Listen to it here: 

THE SONG:

After 4 years of struggling to fit the rock mold at Sun Records, Roy Orbison moved to Monument Records in 1960, where he changed his style to the plaintive balladeer that he’s known as today. His popularity started with a song he co-wrote with Joe Melson, Only the Lonely. The song we’re looking at today, In Dreams, came to Orbison while he was sleeping, like many of his songs did. When he woke up he thought the song he heard was great, sat down and finished the entire thing in 20 minutes. 

Orbison thought of this song as a bridge from more classical styles to rock and employed imagery, a spoken-sung introduction, and adds an instrument at a time as the narrator falls deeply to sleep. The climax is a huge cry from Orbison as all the instruments and singers conclude with him abruptly. The song never repeats a section – it goes through seven distinct movements in two minutes and forty eight seconds. 

In Dreams was recorded in Nashville on January 4, 1963 and released later that same month. It peaked at number 7 on the Billboard charts. Orbison toured England shortly thereafter on a joint tour with the Beatles, who Orbison had never heard of, but who were experiencing the very start of Beatlemania. Orbison was surprised to hear he was the opening act for the Beatles, but the audience was mesmerized by him. As the audience screamed for a fifteenth encore, John Lennon (of course) held him back from re-entering the stage. 

In the 1980s David Lynch used the song in his movie Blue Velvet, which reignited Orbison’s stalling career. 

THE ARTIST:

Roy Orbison was born in 1936 in Vernon, Texas. His parents were (no joke) Orbie Orbison and Nadine Shults. His father gave Orbison a guitar on his sixth birthday, and by the time he turned 7, music was the sole focus of his life. As a child, country music was his main obsession and he was particularly moved by Lefty Frizzell’s singing. He adopted the name Lefty Wilbury years later when playing with the Traveling Wilburys.

Orbison started singing on a local radio show at age 8, and became the show’s host by the late 1940s. At that time he also started a degree in geology in case the whole music thing didn’t pan out. When he heard that classmate Pat Boone had signed a record deal, he knew he could do the same though. His resolve was further strengthened by seeing a performance by Elvis, and then meeting Johnny Cash in 1955/56. Cash heard Orbison sing with his band and suggested that he approach Sam Phillips at Sun Records. When he did so, Orbison was told “Johnny Cash doesn’t run my record company!” But a few weeks later, Phillips heard Orbison with his band and signed him. 

His time at Sun Records was rocky, and his band eventually broke up. He befriended Elvis, and lived with his then girlfriend Claudette in separate rooms in Phillips’ house and became increasingly frustrated with his music. He stopped altogether for 8 months in 1958.

Orbison’s fame came when he wrote Only the Lonely. Not wanting to sing it himself, he pitched it to Elvis and the Everly Brothers, who both turned it down. In the end, Orbison begrudgingly agreed to record the song in Nashville with a sound engineer who tried a completely new strategy of building the mix from the top down instead of from the bottom up. This new strategy became Orbison’s trademark sound. 

After that the hits kept coming with “Running Scared” and “Crying”. At this point Orbison’s signature look developed, purely by accident. After leaving his thick eyeglass on a plane while on tour with the Beatles, Orbison had to wear his prescription wayfarer sunglasses on stage and found that he preferred them. Combining that with his black clothes and song lyrics, he was touted as a man of mystery and introversion. The early half of the 1960s were huge for Roy Orbison. 

Orbison’s professional and personal life took a turn in the second half of the 1960s. His try at a film career flopped. His albums sold poorly as audiences flocked to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. His wife Claudette was killed instantly in a motorcycle accident, and two years later his house burned down, killing his two eldest sons. The 1970s proved to be a very difficult decade for Orbison as well, but to his surprise a series of covers in the 1980s and new recordings revived his floundering career.

Roy Orbison died at age 52 of a heart attack.

FACTOID CORNER:

When Orbison’s fame in the US and UK was at its lowest, he somehow was discovered in Bulgaria. When he traveled there to play a concert in Sofia, he had to stay in his hotel room due to the mob of adoring fans. 

KELLY’S REVIEW:

An old friend of mine once called Roy Orbison songs “pop arias” and I feel like that’s true, and true with this song.  Also, if I say anything bad about this song our mom will kill me.  I’m kidding.  Anyhow, the aria allusions hold up here because Roy starts the song with a recitative, a rhythmically loose intro introducing us to what he’ll be singing about, and then he starts into the main body of the aria.  The song builds slowly until it culminates into a big, dramatic diva moment towards the end.  For some reason I never really think of Roy as a songwriter and had to check the song’s history to see whether or not he did write the song.  It’s one of those interesting numbers that doesn’t have a verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure, it’s just a constant, lateral narrative (like Paranoid Android). In typical early 60’s fashion we have that band + orchestral instruments combo, which would normally kind of annoy me, but it works for Roy because of the power and operatic quality of his voice.  The song has that same tempo and bossa nova rhythm that a lot of Roy’s songs have, and in this case it works as a churning entity to keep the song moving and building.  There’s a bit of back up vocals giving Roy some support as the song approaches his climax, but they’re kept a bit on the softer side.  As far as the lyrics and melody, this is a really beautiful song that evokes beautiful (and relatable) imagery.  Who of us hasn’t dreamt of an unrequited or lost love, believing that they’re ours again, only to wake up, grasping at the fading vapor and feeling that ache in missing them?  Lovely song.

HOLLY’S REVIEW:

This song is a journey. In some songs you can really hear Orbison’s classical music influences,  whether it be the Bolero drum part, or the recitative at the beginning of this song, you can often hear it. I have to say, I’ve heard a LOT of Roy Orbison in my life, but this song, though I know it, is not one I’m super duper familiar with. Orbison is paired with a small orchestra, but unlike many other pop musicians/orchestras of the 1960s, this one really works. I think it’s the power of Orbison’s voice that makes this combo actually work. I also like how this song is such a gradual build. Orbison has an INCREDIBLE range, and I really like that the mixing was sensitive to him. The background singers are always there, but never overpowering the lead, and the whole group seems to be really well balanced. Also, the melody just sort of keeps growing. No repetition, no verse-chorus-verse-chorus. What a refreshing listen!

Average mark out of 10:

Holly: 8/10

Kelly: 8/10

Other notable versions of this song:

Well, not many people attempt to cover Roy Orbison. Here’s a Swedish version:

Just for fun, here’s the Travelling Wilburys:

Listen with us!

Link to 1,001 Songs to Hear Before You Die spotify playlist:

Link to the Best of the Best 1,001 Songs to Hear Before You Die spotify playlist: