It's Over

For about four years starting with 1960's "Only the Lonely," fans that bothered to be self-conscious enough about it must have wondered whether and how Roy Orbison could manage to possibly keep outdoing himself in the pop/rock melodrama sweepstakes. He usually managed to do so, with 1964's Top Ten hit "It's Over" being arguably his last true classic in that style, as well as perhaps the most over-the-top in its statement of customary Orbison themes: heartbreak and loss that built until the agony was unbearable. Thematically and structurally, "It's Over" bears some similarity to a prior Orbison hit, "Running Scared," though the melody is entirely different. The similarities are that, like "Running Scared," "It's Over" builds from a whisper to a scream, and also has a bolero-like beat in the verses. "It's Over" is more downbeat than "Running Scared," though, and in fact more downbeat than most romantic pop songs, quite a feat given how many millions of tunes compete for that slot. There's nothing but Roy, a guitar, and his gentle voice at the very beginning, but the orchestral crush of despair and angelic backup choir vocals pour on over the course of the song. The tone gets more despondent in the bridge, where the beats slow dramatically and Orbison operatically poses the question "what will you do?" when she tells you it's through. He doesn't answer the question in the song, and you fear to ask for the answer, given that his despair is so evident that the only obvious response is that he'll commit suicide. But the torture isn't over yet; after an explosive chorus, the orchestration largely drops out at the beginning of a return to another verse. The imagery here gets especially black for a pop song, Orbison warning that you won't see rainbows anymore, the crescendo of instruments and voices building yet again for another particularly belting chorus. The instruments come to a dead stop after one of Orbison's "it's over" phrases. But it's not over; he goes to a yet higher key and sings it again to really rub it in, after which the orchestra adds a couple of downbeat, muted bars, like a man who has come to the end of his rope.