Off-key note in Roy Orbison's "Crying": On purpose?

August 8, 2006 8:47 AM

Is the last note in Roy Orbison's "Crying" intended to be off key?

Roy Orbison's "Crying" is an amazing performance of an amazing song. It slowly builds and builds to an operatic climax. But, in my view, Orbison's final note keeps it from being the Perfect Pop Song: It's horribly off-key.

It makes me cringe.

Did Orbison intend it to be off-key?

I was wondering about this and Googled around for it. Didn't find anything except the Wikipedia page, which says: "It is remarkable in that Roy Orbison begins singing the climactic, final note slightly flat, sliding up by the end of the note to just under the correct pitch. That this was done for effect was confirmed in a live performance, Roy Orbison - Live at Austin City Limits, where he sang that note perfectly on key."

This isn't enough evidence to convince me. If he'd intended it to be off-key all along, why wouldn't he have sung it off-key in that live performance? If anything, that example suggests he intended it to be *on-key*, and that the original recording is flawed.

Any Roy Orbison experts out there know the answer? Did Orbison ever go on record about this?

posted by adrian_h to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

I'm not an expert, but I always assumed that he was trying to give the impression of losing it and breaking out in tears.

Goddamn American Idol is making it very hard to search for anything about this...
posted by equalpants at 9:03 AM on August 8, 2006

Nothing to add here except that, as a singer, I can attest that Roy Orbison songs are really hard to sing well. It also wouldn't surprise me at all if he did sort of flub the last note & thought, "oh well". Sometimes there's people waiting to record and you just have to suck it up & move on, esp. in the early days of rock'n'roll recordings. Anyways, I'd love to hear the answer too.
posted by stinkycheese at 9:23 AM on August 8, 2006

I always thought it was intentional. But nothing to back it up.
posted by BradNelson at 9:29 AM on August 8, 2006

A pro like Orbison doing that unintentionally. heh. You can assume that a career professional musician of thirty years experience is well aware of absolutely everything that is being done.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:35 AM on August 8, 2006

You have got to hear Rebekah Del Rio's Spanish-language version Llorando. That's the a capella version, and there's also a less operatic one with accompaniment.
posted by blueshammer at 9:36 AM on August 8, 2006 [2 favorites]

I suspect it was intentional. I was just pointing out that sometimes even the greats make mistakes (personal and professional limitations being what they are). Anyone doubting this would do well to re-examine Black Sabbath's first few albums.
posted by stinkycheese at 9:57 AM on August 8, 2006

I think Ironmouth is getting at it. The note is so obvious, and he is/was a professional of high caliber to say it was unintentional would be unlikely at best.
posted by edgeways at 9:58 AM on August 8, 2006

I don't know for sure about Orbison's final note, but musically I would think that he did it so that the ending almost resolves, but never does--which goes along with the emotional theme.

blueshammer, you beat me to the punch, I was going to post about Rebekah Del Rio's version. It's one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard, and a great scene in Mullholland Drive. I heard an interview with David Lynch and he said that he'd heard about Rebekah Del Rio's version from a friend (Lynch loves the Orbison song) and so he invited her to come by and they recorded it in one take at some godawful hour like 8:00am (that's the a cappella one).

It's breathtaking.
posted by witchstone at 9:58 AM on August 8, 2006

At the risk of nitpicking Ironmouth, Orbison wasn't even thirty years old when he recorded "Crying", let alone, "a career professional musician of thirty years experience". Anyways, yes, he was an amazing singer, and I'm sure he knew when he was flat or off-key or whatever.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:27 AM on August 8, 2006

I'm with witchstone - I don't hear that note as "horribly off-key", I hear it as aching for resolution, and almost getting there. I think it's a perfect ending, and loads trickier to pull off than singing the note exactly on key.

Also, this lends credibility to my theory that ol' Roy was a far-out alien creature (who says aliens have a 12-tone scale, anyhow)?
posted by sluggo at 12:52 PM on August 8, 2006

It sounds to me like a note that is unresolved until it just about resolves at the end (dramatic license could have it go either way). Don't think it is so off that it deserves attention. Certainly doesn't sound like a flub.

But that's me.
posted by qwip at 2:02 PM on August 8, 2006

Actually, to me it sounds like that Wikipedia page is saying that he did sing that note "off-key" in the live preformance. Perfectly "off-key". If he re-created that slightly flat note in a live performance, it would confirm that it was done for effect.
posted by mushroom_tattoo at 8:09 PM on August 8, 2006