Key factors contributed to the rebirth of Roy's career in the USA. A Grammy with Emmylou Harris in 1980 for "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again", "Wild Hearts Run out of Time" being in the film Insignificance, the Class of '55 LP with fellow Sun record mates, his move to Malibu, California in late 1985, he re-recorded his greatest hits for an upcoming LP for Silver Eagle from Canada, and the use of the song "In Dreams" in the film Blue Velvet, but for sure helped a big deal to put Roy's music back in the map. Blue Velvet is considered a cult film and it helped Roy to become very contemporary again, as he always wanted to be.

It was announced that Roy would be inducted into the 2nd annual Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in New York in January 21, 1987. He was inducted by Bruce Springsteen who said, "In 1975, when I went into the studio to make Born to Run, I wanted to make a record with words like Bob Dylan that sounded like Phil Spector. But most of all, I wanted to sing like Roy Orbison." Right after this, Roy signs with Virgin Records who immediately re-releases the greatest hits tapes on an LP called In Dreams-Greatest Hits. There are a few new songwriting collaborators, among them Jeff Lynne. New material is being recorded for the upcoming Virgin LP in Los Angeles and the expectations start to grow.

Roy wanted to do a TV Special for a long time. A couple of them were recorded, for instance Roy Orbison at the Los Angeles Country Club and Live in Birmingham, Alabama but nothing ever came close to the beautiful Roy Orbison and Friends - A Black and White Night Live. The event was taped at the legendary Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The band was filled up with familiar faces. Among them were Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, k.d. Lang, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, T-Bone Burnette, Jackson Browne, J. D. Souther, and they were backed up by Elvis Presley's TCB band which included James Burton on guitar. This Special was going to air on Cinemax cable TV on January 1988, and subsequently released on video. This became a landmark in Roy career.

A duet of "Crying" with k.d. Lang was released as a single and on video. It also gave Roy another Grammy Award. His collaboration with Jeff Lynne was becoming very prolific. Jeff had just produced George Harrison's Cloud Nine and was working on Roy's and Tom Petty's material at the same time. That led to the Traveling Wilburys project which became a huge success. The group features Roy, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. The record was released in October and entered the Top 10. This was also followed by a beautiful video for their first single "Handle with Care".

Roy's new solo LP was already finished and scheduled for release in January 1989. Roy landed in Europe in mid-November and appeared on the Diamond Awards Festival in Antwerp, Belgium on November 19th as the main attraction of the evening. The show was filmed and Roy sang to a playback of a brand new song, "You Got It". It was obvious that Roy had a new band and he looked better than ever sporting a ponytail. Roy's new look was outstanding and even a bit shocking. He was Roy Orbison again.

He came back to America played his last show in Highland Heights, Ohio, had big European and American tours planned out already for the next year. He headed down to Nashville on December 4 and on Tuesday, December 6, spent time shopping for model airplane parts and flying them, but during the afternoon he complained of chest pains. Roy collapsed at his mother's house right before midnight. He was on top of the charts again, but he was dead at 52.

Posthumously released in 1989, Mystery Girl became the biggest selling album of his career. Two cuts from the album became hits: "You Got It" made it in the U.S. Top 10 and Bono's "She's A Mystery To Me" climbed to the Top 30 in the U.K. In 1992, Virgin released King of Hearts, a collection of previously unreleased songs, and The Very Best of Roy Orbison in 1996, which documented his career from its beginning through the last years of his life.