Elvis said he wished he had Orbison's voice but he said the same thing about Jackie Wilson. I liked almost everything Orbison did but have to admit that he frequently resorted to falsetto to nail the high notes, whereas singers who appealed to an older crowd could sing the same song without falsetto.
There are singer who have what I refer to as a "novelty voice." They are not technically good singers, but they are popular, nonetheless. I'll take Jack Jones over Rod Stewart (or Vicki Carr over Janis Joplin) any day of the week.
Roy Orbison was a small-town unknown with a penchant for music. His appearance was visually a bit offensive, compared to the he-man stars: The record producers saw great revenue potential in the man, and allegedly did all they could to suppress pictures of him. Back in the '60s as it became "in" to be associated with drug use, rumor had it Orbison was a notorious drug user. Those in the know, however, knew he refused even to drink a single beer! His life was fraught with pain. He and his wife both enjoyed motorcycling, and he witnessed his wife drive her cycle under a semi. She was killed. Some years later, both his sons died in a house fire. Here is my all-time favorite:
Have to laugh when reading your observation. It was well after he had a number of hits under his belt before I saw an approximation of his image on an LP, and even that was sort of shadowy and hidden.