“Too Soon to Know” by Roy Orbison


Roy Orbison was no stranger to tragedy in the 1960s. As a popular American singer,  he recorded his version of the Don Gibson-penned song, “Too Soon to Know,” to cope with his wife Claudette’s sudden death in a motorcycle accident in 1966 when she was just 24. The song’s title, as well as its lyrics such as, “my heart’s been broken in too many pieces,” capture the raw emotions that people experience when losing loved ones, especially when death comes so unexpectedly.

Backed by a simple yet haunting piano melody, Orbison’s voice shines through with a sense of heart-wrenching honesty about the difficulty of knowing how he will get through his grief. This touching memorial song represents the conflicting feelings people have regarding what is an appropriate amount of time for grief over lost loved ones. “Too Soon to Know” reassures us that the uncertainties of grief are normal and we should not worry if we do not seem to be completing the grieving process as quickly as others. Everyone experiences grief in different ways and we should not care if someone else finds the length of our grieving process strange.

This touching memorial song serves as a beautiful and gentle example of how people should not encourage others to grieve exactly the same as another person may. Moreover, Orbison’s rendition of “Too Soon to Know” demonstrates that he deeply loved his wife and that he struggled with coming to terms with the loss of her.

It’s too soon to know if I can forget her
My heart’s been broken in too many pieces
And It’s too soon to know

Time passes slow will I ever know
If I can forget her and not let it show
But it’s too soon to know…

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Listen to other memorial songs we’ve selected:

• “This grand show is eternal. The dew is never dried all at once; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”
• 

”Don’t grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”
• ”Rue’s Farewell” in “The Hunger Games”