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SINGER

Roy Orbison

1936 - 1988

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Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's music is mostly in the rock genre and his most successful periods were in the early 1960s and the late 1980s. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O". Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Roy Orbison has received more than 14,781,702 page views. His biography is available in 54 different languages on Wikipedia (down from 55 in 2019). Roy Orbison is the 110th most popular singer (down from 100th in 2019), the 697th most popular biography from United States (down from 639th in 2019) and the 40th most popular American Singer.

Roy Orbison is most famous for his distinctive voice and his successful career as a rock and roll singer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 15M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 64.39

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 54

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.74

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 5.22

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Roy Orbisons by language


Among SINGERS

Among singers, Roy Orbison ranks 110 out of 3,528Before him are Nancy Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Teresa Teng, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, Lata Mangeshkar, and Françoise Hardy. After him are Renata Tebaldi, Dolly Parton, Domenico Modugno, Marvin Gaye, Annie Lennox, and Carmen Miranda.

Most Popular Singers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1936, Roy Orbison ranks 36Before him are Virna Lisi, Michael Landon, Burt Reynolds, Buddy Holly, Tariq Aziz, and Albert Finney. After him are Margaret Hamilton, Bill Wyman, Georges Perec, Steve Reich, Gerhard Ertl, and B. J. Habibie. Among people deceased in 1988, Roy Orbison ranks 14Before him are Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Robert A. Heinlein, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Chiang Ching-kuo, and Kim Philby. After him are Raymond Carver, Juan Pujol García, Abdul Basit 'Abd us-Samad, Virginia Satir, Gert Fröbe, and Felix Wankel.

Others Born in 1936

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Others Deceased in 1988

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Roy Orbison ranks 697 out of 18,182Before him are Joe Louis (1914), Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868), Chick Corea (1941), Donald Knuth (1938), Victor Fleming (1889), and Jamie Lee Curtis (1958). After him are Margaret Hamilton (1936), Thomas Harris (1940), Paul Morphy (1837), Carl Lewis (1961), Philip Johnson (1906), and Robert E. Howard (1906).

Among SINGERS In United States

Among singers born in United States, Roy Orbison ranks 40Before him are Art Garfunkel (1941), Meat Loaf (1947), Gloria Gaynor (1947), Donna Summer (1948), Nancy Sinatra (1940), and Bing Crosby (1903). After him are Dolly Parton (1946), Marvin Gaye (1939), Harry Belafonte (1927), Jon Bon Jovi (1962), Britney Spears (1981), and John Lee Hooker (1917).

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