Joe Melson

Rockabilly singer Joe Melson found his greatest success not as a performer, but as a songwriter, collaborating with Roy Orbison on many of his best-known hits. Melson was born in the west Texas town of Bonham in 1935, and later led a rockabilly band called the Cavaliers, who were based in Midland. He met Orbison, then trying to revive his career after leaving Sun, through a mutual friend, and the two struck up a songwriting partnership. Their first collaboration, "Up Town," was Orbison's first single for the Monument label, and it became his biggest hit in four years when it w...