Roy Orbison – Blue Bayou

About The Song

“Blue Bayou” sailed into release on August 1, 1963, credited to Roy Orbison and his frequent co-writer Joe Melson and issued on Monument Records. Though remembered today as a standard, the U.S. 45 actually positioned it as the B-side to “Mean Woman Blues”; across the Atlantic, the single was promoted as a double A-side, giving both songs equal billing. Either way, Orbison’s performance—intimate, breathy verses opening into a soaring chorus—instantly marked it out as something more than just a flip side.

The recording had been in the can for nearly two years. Orbison cut “Blue Bayou” at RCA Victor Studio B in Nashville on November 15, 1961, with producer Fred Foster and a crack A-team of session players. The Studio B sound—dry, present, and carefully layered—let Orbison’s tenor sit front and center while gentle guitars, piano, and background vocals shaded the edges. It’s a textbook example of how the Monument era framed him: orchestral in feeling, but built from small, unfussy parts.

Melodically, the song is a slow reveal. The verse keeps close to speech rhythm and a narrow range; then, on “I’m going back someday,” Orbison vaults skyward, the line blooming into the title image. That climb is where the emotion lives: a homesick narrator trading city grind for a dream of water, light, and rest “by my side.” The lyric is simple on the page but cinematic in performance—Orbison’s specialty in the early ’60s.

“Blue Bayou” also stitched neatly into Orbison’s 1963 LP In Dreams, where it sat alongside hits and covers to form a cohesive mood piece about memory and longing. On jukeboxes and radio, it traded plays with its punchier counterpart “Mean Woman Blues,” but the ballad proved remarkably portable: a song that could sit on pop playlists, easy-listening formats, and, later, country radio without feeling out of place.

Charts tell a two-continent story. In the U.S., with limited A-side push, “Blue Bayou” peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 26 on R&B. In the UK, where it shared top billing with “Mean Woman Blues,” it rose to No. 3 and earned a Silver certification. Elsewhere it went all the way: No. 1 in Australia and Ireland, Top 5 in Belgium, and Top 10 in New Zealand and Norway—evidence that the song’s wistful pull traveled easily across markets.

The afterlife is just as striking. Linda Ronstadt’s 1977 revival—cut for Simple Dreams with producer Peter Asher—became her signature ballad, climbing to No. 3 on the Hot 100, No. 2 Country, and No. 3 Adult Contemporary in the U.S., and earning RIAA Gold (later Platinum). That second wave pulled Orbison’s original back into view and helped cement “Blue Bayou” as a cross-genre standard.

Heard today, Orbison’s 1963 cut remains the quiet benchmark: a pocket orchestra of guitars, keys, and voices arranged to leave air around a voice that seems to float. The geography is imaginary, the homesickness universal, and the craft exact. Whether as a B-side that outlived its A-side, an album deep breath, or the seed of Ronstadt’s blockbuster cover, “Blue Bayou” still feels like dusk falling in real time.

Video

Lyric

I feel so bad I’ve got a worried mind
I’m so lonesome all the time
Since I left my baby behind on Blue Bayou

Saving nickels, saving dimes, working ’till the sun don’t shine
Looking forward to happier times on Blue Bayou
I’m going back some day come what may to Blue Bayou
Where you sleep all day and the catfish play on Blue Bayou

All those fishing boats with their sails afloat If I could only see
That familiar sunrise through sleepy eyes, how happy I’d be

Go to see my baby again
And to be with some of my friends
Maybe I’d be happy then on Blue Bayou

I’m going back some day, gonna stay on Blue Bayou
Where the folks are fine and the world is mine on Blue Bayou
Oh, that girl of mine by my side the silver moon and the evening tide
Oh, some sweet day gonna take away this hurtin’ inside
I’ll never be blue, my dreams come true on Blue Bayou