{"id":726075,"date":"2026-06-25T23:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/726075\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T23:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T23:30:10","slug":"on-this-day-in-1964-an-operatic-ballad-helped-roy-orbison-pull-off-an-elvis-sized-chart-feat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/726075\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1964, an Operatic Ballad Helped Roy Orbison Pull off an Elvis-Sized Chart Feat"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (June 25) in 1964, Roy Orbison<\/a> started a two-week run at the top of the UK Singles Chart with \u201cIt\u2019s Over.\u201d It made him the first American artist to have a No. 1 single in the United Kingdom since Elvis Presley topped the chart in December 1962. Interestingly, it was only his first single to reach the pole position that year. Months later, his most signature song found its way there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d wasn\u2019t as successful in the United States. It stalled at No. 9 on the Hot 100. This was far from the only time Orbison\u2019s music performed better in the United Kingdom, though. For instance, \u201cOnly the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)\u201d reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 in 1960. It was his first to top the chart across the pond. This trend was more evident near the end of the decade. At that time, most of Orbison\u2019s singles failed to make the Hot 100 but became top 40 hits across the pond.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

So, it comes as no real surprise that he was the first American to have a No. 1 single in more than a year. The last to do it was Elvis, who sent \u201cReturn to Sender\u201d to the top of the chart in December 1962.<\/p>\n

Roy Orbison Combined Three Songs for \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d<\/p>\n

As with several of his biggest hits, Roy Orbison wrote \u201cIt\u2019s Over\u201d with Bill Dees. He brought Orbison a song called \u201cIt\u2019s Over At Last.\u201d According to Songfacts<\/a>, he combined Dees\u2019 composition with two songs he had written. The result was a song about heartbreak and denial.<\/p>\n

Orbison described it as a \u201clonely type song.\u201d However, it is a little more nuanced than that. \u201cIt\u2019s not over if you listen to the lyrics very closely. Well, in fact, it is over, but I don\u2019t know it,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m telling everyone it\u2019s over. I was trying to say that certain things are over before you realize it, before anybody realizes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured Image by David Redfern\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (June 25) in 1964, Roy Orbison started a two-week run at the top of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[24911,88,216,2156,68852],"class_list":["post-726075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock-music","tag-roy-orbison"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}