Joe Melson

American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter, who from 1957 teamed up with a virtually unknown Roy Orbison, with whom he would write a string of hits for Monument Records, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961, #1 in the US), "Crying" (1961) and "Blue Bayou" (1963). Prior to their collaboration, Orbison had been solely a rockabilly performer. Although Melson himself was rooted in that music genre, he had begun writing rhythm and blues songs. Melson recognized the potential in Orbison's voice, encouraging the singer to explore its power through their first collaboration, "Only the Lonely." What resulted on 25 March 1960, was the first operatic rock ballad in the history of popular music. The song went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States and to #1 in the UK Singles Chart, which launched Orbison to international musical stardom. Not only did that song influence Orbison to write such operatic ballads as "In Dreams," but a few months later it also induced Orbison's friend Elvis Presley to record "It's Now or Never," based on the Neapolitan art song "'O Sole Mio." Over the years, Melson continued to perform at rockabilly and nostalgia festivals, and in 2002 he was inducted into the International Rock-A-Billy Hall of Fame in Jackson, Tennessee. Link to Wikipedia biography