Elvis Refused a Million-Selling Song From Roy Orbison — The Real Reason Took 16 Years to Come Out

What would you do if someone drove three hundred miles in the middle of the night to hand you a guaranteed hit, at the exact moment you needed one most? In March 1960, Elvis Presley had been home from the Army for barely ten days. His mother was gone, the industry was asking out loud whether rock and roll was finished, and the Colonel needed a smash. At three in the morning, a broke 23-year-old singer named Roy Orbison pulled up to the Graceland gates with his writing partner Joe Melson and a song called "Only the Lonely." Elvis invited them in, listened to it twice in the music room, and then said four words neither of them expected: "That ain't my song." What followed was sixteen years of uncashed one-dollar checks, a running joke between two of the most famous voices in the world, and a night at the Las Vegas Hilton when Elvis finally tried to sing Roy's high note himself. At the end, we look at the real history behind "Only the Lonely," Sun Records, and the doubts both men carried about their own voices. This video is a dramatized retelling inspired by the lives and careers of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison, with Joe Melson, Fred Foster, Claudette Orbison, Sam Phillips, Vester Presley, Colonel Tom Parker and Billy Smith. Dialogue and certain events have been recreated for storytelling purposes. #RoyOrbison #ElvisPresley #OnlyTheLonely #Graceland1960 #SunRecords #MonumentRecords #NashvilleStudioB #TheBigO