The songs that were written and sung accurately reflected life in grassroots backcountry society and the tendency to look back to the years when iconic singers and musicians strutted the stage is still a main pre-occupation.

The adage that recordings released posthomously of celebrated country performers are a guaranteed box office success is full-proof in very many cases, none more so than in the legacy left by Roy Orbison, one of the best singers of country/pop in the last century.

It is hard to believe that it’s almost 20 years since this Texan with the quavering high-toned operatic voice passed away in Tennessee and, ahead of the December 6 anniversary, special tribute albums are being prepared for release to honour a truly remarkable performer.

Orbison, a Texas singer-songwriter, turned out a string of hits in the 1960s, including Crying, Only the Lonely, Pretty Woman, Running Scared, In Dreams, It’s Over and Dream Baby. He was more comfortable on the high-octave ballads, than in up-tempo rockabilly.

Roy’s distinctive haunting vocal style and soulful ballads made him a star on pop and country charts, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.

During the 1970s, Orbison, with the distinctive dark glasses and jet black hair, focused more on country music and he remained a massive audience favourite. By the end of the decade, several of his songs became hits by other artistes, including Linda Ronstadt’s cover of Blue Bayou (1977) and Don McLean’s version of Crying (1980).

In 1986, the film Blue Velvet helped make a hit again of Roy’s 1963 song In Dreams, and he made a popular come-back.

In 1987 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and released a two-disc set of re-recorded hits, and in 1988, the year he died, he joined The Travelling Willburys, a “supergroup” that included Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty.

Roy’s 1989 album Mystery Girl was released posthumously and became his biggest-selling record.

Along with Emmylou Harris, he won a Grammy for their 1980 collaboration on That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again, and with k. d. lang a Grammy for their 1987 duet Crying.

Roy Orbison, once described by the late Elvis Presley as the greatest singer he had ever heard, toured Ireland in the early 1960s and I had the pleasure of hearing him at a dance in Newry Town Hall. That night before a packed awe-struck audience, Roy stood literally motionless on stage, churning out the string of No 1 hits that had made him such a legend.

He was an exceptional performer with enormous appeal, even though he could be prickly and personally lacked charisma in his relationships with other people.