Editing Roy Orbison (section)

===1956–1959: Solo work and Acuff-Rose Music===
[[File:Roy Orbison 1965 (2).png|thumb|Orbison in 1965, wearing thick-rimmed glasses]]

After the Teen Kings split, Orbison stayed in Memphis with his girlfriend Claudette.{{efn|Alan Clayson's biography refers to her as Claudette Hestand.}} They stayed in Phillips' home, and Phillips stated that they did not sleep together in his house.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p63}} However, Orbison was broke, and realized that he could not survive as a recording artist, so after several weeks, he returned to the road. He toured with Johnny Cash, [[Sonny Burgess]], [[Eddie Cochran]], and Gene Vincent, playing mostly songs from other artists before finishing the set with a song of his own.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p64}} At the time, Orbison was addicted to sleeping pills and speed.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p67}} Orbison was introduced to Elvis Presley's social circle, and at some stage picked up a date for Presley in his purple [[Cadillac]].<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p53}}

In August 1957, Orbison returned to the Sun Recording Studio and recorded several new songs with just his acoustic guitar instead of a backing band.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p68}} None was successful, though, and Roy gave up on becoming a recording artist.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p68}} Sam Phillips remembered being much more impressed with Orbison's mastery of the guitar than with his voice.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p60-61}} Orbison returned to Odessa, Texas, in the fall of 1957 to be together with his 16-year-old girlfriend, Claudette.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p69}} The two began to talk about getting married. On a professional level, Orbison met singer [[Joe Melson]] while in Memphis, who would collaborate with Orbison on his biggest hit songs in the early 1960s.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p70}}

A ballad Orbison wrote, "The Clown", met with a lukewarm response; after hearing it, Sun Records producer [[Jack Clement]] told Orbison that he would never make it as a ballad singer.<ref>Clayson, Alan, p. 45.</ref> Nonetheless, he continued to pitch his ballad "[[Claudette (song)|Claudette]]" (on which he began working in early 1956) to singers he met on tour,<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p68}} and in April 1958, [[the Everly Brothers]] recorded it as the B-side of their hit "[[All I Have to Do Is Dream]]".<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p76}} "Claudette" reached number 30 in the charts in March 1959.<ref name="offbio" /> Orbison then left Sun Records, due to a dispute about royalties from "Claudette" (which was recorded by Nashville Records).<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p72}} Orbison and Claudette had married in 1957, and their first child was born on September 16, 1958.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p76}} Using the royalty payments from the Everly Brothers hit "Claudette", Orbison bought the most expensive new pink Cadillac available.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p76}} However, Roy and Claudette spent the money lavishly and were soon broke and living with Roy's parents in Wink.<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p78}}

Increasingly frustrated at Sun, he gradually stopped recording. He toured music circuits around Texas, and then quit performing for seven months in 1958.<ref>Clayson, Alan, p. 56.</ref>

During the period of 1958–1959, Orbison made his living at [[Acuff-Rose Music]],<ref name="offbio" /> a songwriting firm concentrating mainly on country music. After spending an entire day writing a song, he would make several demonstration tapes at a time and send them to [[Wesley Rose]], who would try to find musical acts to record them. Orbison then worked with, and was in awe of, [[Chet Atkins]] (who had played guitar with Presley) and attempted to sell his recordings of songs by other writers to the [[RCA Records|RCA Victor]] record label. One of these songs was "Seems to Me", by [[Felice and Boudleaux Bryant|Boudleaux Bryant]]. Bryant's impression of Orbison was of "a timid, shy kid who seemed to be rather befuddled by the whole music scene. I remember the way he sang then—softly, prettily, but almost bashfully, as if someone might be disturbed by his efforts and reprimand him."<ref>Clayson, Alan, p. 62.</ref>

Playing shows at night and living with his wife and young child in a tiny apartment, Orbison often took his guitar to his car to write songs. Songwriter [[Joe Melson]], an acquaintance of Orbison's, tapped on his car window one day in Texas in 1958, and the two decided to write some songs together.<ref>Clayson, pp. 68–69.</ref> In three recording sessions in 1958 and 1959, Orbison recorded seven songs for [[RCA Victor]] at their [[RCA Studio B|Nashville studios]]; only two singles ("Paper Boy" and "With the Bug"<ref name="Amburn"/>{{refpage|p86}}) were judged worthy of release by the label.<ref name="Zak, p. 32.">Zak, p. 32.</ref> Wesley Rose brought Orbison to the attention of the producer [[Fred Foster]] at [[Monument Records]], the record label to which  Orbison would soon switch.<ref name="offbio" />