The singer Jeff Lynne thought was better than everybody: “The best voice of anybody”
Think about the most famous musician in the world, one who has reached the pinnacle of the industry and been a reliable source of brilliance for decades, and there’s a good chance their resume doesn’t come close to stacking up to Jeff Lynne.
He is, without a doubt, one of the most creative forces in the history of rock music. Not only did he have his own success with Electric Light Orchestra, but he also produced some of the most beloved albums of the 20th century, getting to work with quite literally every incredible artist you can think of. One such project saw him sidle up alongside Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and George Harrison as part of the emphatic supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys. But it wasn’t one of those three players that he considered to be at the very top of the singing game.
The music business has never run short on victims it has claimed throughout the years. As much as fans like to talk about how much their favourite artists seem indestructible, there are just as many that have been cut down in their prime out of the blue before anyone got to truly appreciate them. Although Jeff Lynne did at least get the chance to thank some of his greatest inspirations over time, he admitted that no voice would ever match what Roy Orbison captured during his prime.
When you look at the types of rock singers that came about during Orbison’s era, there were only a handful of people to choose from. There were the bluesy singers that copied greats like Howlin’ Wolf, there were shriekers like Little Richard that whipped audiences into a frenzy, and then there were balladeers that seemed to have the term rock and roll slapped on them despite sounding nothing like a rock outfit.
Even ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ wasn’t safe from that kind of schlock. Even though Elvis Presley got his foot in the door singing tracks like ‘Hound Dog’, there are just as many times that he would be caught singing cheap knockoffs of ‘Love Me Tender’ or ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ simply because that’s what the label wanted from him.
Orbison made his bread and butter off of singing ballads, but he found a way to actually make them sound dramatic. Clad in those striking dark sunglasses, Orbison shook with emotion every time he sang one of his ballads, making tunes like ‘Only the Lonely’ feel like a soap opera contained in just three minutes whenever he sang.
Although the crooner was seen as yesterday’s news for a while, he delivered one last final bow, thanks to Lynne. Outside of co-writing one of his final hits, ‘You Got It’, forming The Traveling Wilburys gave him one last classic to add to his collection, especially when playing off his bandmates in the supergroup on tunes like ‘Handle With Care’ and ‘End of the Line’.
Despite working with acts like Tom Petty and resurrecting lost Beatles tracks after their breakup, Lynne knew that replicating what Orbison did naturally was borderline unthinkable, saying, “You can’t replace Roy. It’s impossible. Roy had the best voice of anybody I’ve ever heard in rock ‘n’ roll, just magnificent.”
Listening back to that first Traveling Wilburys record, it’s not like Orbison didn’t go out on a high, either. The track ‘Not Alone Anymore’ is practically a vehicle for his voice, and once he goes for the high notes in the final chorus, it’s absolute bliss to listen to compared to Bob Dylan’s signature gravelly voice or even George Harrison’s smooth vocal tone.
ELO was always meant to be something much bigger than just a standard rock and roll outfit, but if you’re wondering where Lynne got his sense of drama from, look no further than the crooner who started it all. Just as Lynne implies today, there’s a lot more going on just behind those trademark sunglasses.
