Incredible back story on this great ditty...

'Drove All Night' was written especially for Roy Orbison by two young composers in the late 1980s. They pitched it to Orbison who decided one day to drop on by the composers' studio and record the vocals. THIS WAS DONE IN ONE TAKE.

Unfortunately, Orbison passed away not long after this recording, and the composers were "stuck" with this magnificent track.

Subsequently BOTH Cindy Lauper AND Celine Dion recorded 'Drove All Night' shortly afterward, and in both instances it became extremely popular (Dion's version became a theme for a Buick commercial I believe.)

FINALLY, Jeff Lynne (co-member of the Traveling Wilburys and good friend of Orbison's) did a lush re-mix of Orbison's one take in Roy's inimitable style -- and IT became a hit in 1992 (though not to the extent of either Lauper or Dion.)

Thus THREE different high-profile artists within just a few years performed this same tune, becoming a hit each time. I prefer Roy Orbison's version by far. Best video of the three as well.

Since I have seen reports that state you may even be human...

Not sure if anyone will care but Archive.org has established a large set of mp3's taken from old 78rpm vinyl records, almost 26,000 recordings. You can do searches by music genre and year if you like. Looking at the artist list, 440 Bing Crosby's, 116 Guy Lombardo's, 96 Gene Autry's, 87 Jimmy Dorsey's, etc.

Archive.org: 78rpm Records Digitized by George Blood, L.P.

I saw mention of it over at AoS, thought I'd post a link here.

Thus THREE different high-profile artists within just a few years performed this same tune, becoming a hit each time. I prefer Roy Orbison's version by far. Best video of the three as well.

Competing vocally with Roy Orbison is like taking on Ray Charles.

Although this guy comes so close it's scary. I will remain convinced to my dying day that Chris Issak's mother went to a Roy Orbison concert roughly 9 months before he was born,and got invited backstage.

R.I.P. Glen Campbell.