Roy Orbison – The Ultimate Collection (Vinyl 2LP)

First Career-Spanning Roy Orbison Anthology!

Roy’s Boys LLC, the Nashville-based company founded by the sons of Roy Orbison to administer their late father’s catalog and safeguard his legacy, has teamed up with Sony Legacy Recordings, to release Roy Orbison – The Ultimate Collection. The 26-track anthology, available as a double vinyl LP set, spans four decades, from his start at Sun Records in the mid 1950s, all the way through his massive comeback in the late ’80s. The collection chronicles Orbison’s work both as a solo artist and with supergroup Traveling Wilburys until his tragic death at the age of 52. The Ultimate Collection marks the first time ever that any Roy Orbison compilation album has incorporated tracks from all of the aforementioned sources.

Born in north Texas and raised in the western part of the state, Roy Orbison first made his mark on the national music scene when he recorded for Sam Phillips’ fabled Sun Records in 1956. Orbison connected with the rockabilly flavored “Ooby Dooby” for Sun, but his truly significant commercial breakthrough came with his string of hits on the Monument label, starting in the early ’60s. Top 10 hits like “Crying,” “Only The Lonely,” “In Dreams,” “Dream Baby,” the No. 1 single “Running Scared” and the massive international chart topper, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” all are represented on The Ultimate Collection. The set also includes “Love Hurts,” “Blue Bayou,” “Falling,” “Leah,” “Mean Woman Blues,” “Blue Angel” and “It’s Over,” all from the Monument era.

Starting in 1965, Orbison’s eight-year stint with MGM Records continued to yield hits, particularly overseas. Among these present on The Ultimate Collection are “Walk On,” “Crawling Back,” “Ride Away” and “Too Soon To Know.” In 1988, the Traveling Wilburys released their debut album that went triple platinum. “Not Alone Anymore” and “Handle with Care” from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 are featured on The Ultimate Collection, the first time any of the group’s songs have appeared on a Roy Orbison release.

Roy spent much of 1988 recording his solo comeback studio album Mystery Girl, produced by Jeff Lynne. In December of that year, he died unexpectedly from a heart attack, ergo the album’s early 1989 release was posthumous. It proved to be a huge commercial success, due in part to the tremendous single “You Got It,” later covered by Bonnie Raitt, as well as “California Blue” and “She’s A Mystery to Me” (written by Bono and the Edge of U2). These tracks are included in The Ultimate Collection, in addition to the later “Heartbreak Radio” (from 1992’s King of Hearts album) and “I Drove All Night,” a song written for Roy by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, but made famous by Cyndi Lauper.

The Ultimate Collection was produced by Alex Orbison, Chuck Fleckenstein and John Jackson, and mastered by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios in New York.

LP1

1. Oh, Pretty Woman
2. I Drove All Night
3. You Got It
4. Crying
5. Only The Lonely
6. In Dreams
7. Love Hurts
8. Claudette
9. Blue Bayou
10. Dream Baby
11. Walk On
12. Falling
13. Running Scared
14. California Blue

LP2

1. Leah
2. Mean Woman Blues
3. Crawling Back
4. Ride Away
5. Too Soon To Know
6. She’s A Mystery to Me
7. Blue Angel
8. It’s Over
9. Ooby Dooby
10. Heartbreak Radio
11. Not Alone Anymore (Traveling Wilburys)
12. Handle With Care (Traveling Wilburys)