Roy Orbison, one of rock and roll's most gifted singer-songwriters, once admitted that he viewed his contemporary Buddy Holly as a rival during the early stages of his career, and that Holly's meteoric rise left him feeling frustrated and left behind. The comparison mattered because Holly had become a global icon by his late teens, inspiring countless future musicians, whereas Orbison spent his early twenties watching the charts and feeling overshadowed by his fellow Texan's success.

Orbison recalled being "frustrated as a singer for a long time" because of the "friendly rivalry" with Holly, who achieved stardom that, in Orbison's words, "reached to the Moon". That changed in 1960 when Orbison scored his first hit with "Only the Lonely", after which he said he stopped obsessively tracking the charts. Although Holly's death in a 1959 plane crash at just 22 cemented his legendary status, Orbison went on to enjoy a far longer career and, by his own reckoning, notched up more hit singles overall.