Track Listing

1. Only The Lonely
2. Bye Bye Love
3. Cry
4. Blue Avenue
5. I Can't Stop Loving You
6. Come Back To Me (My Love)
7. Blue Angel
8. Raindrops
9. I'd Be A Legend In My Time
10. I'm Hurtin'
11. Twenty Two Days
12. I'll Say It's My Fault
13. Uptown
14. Pretty One
15. Here Comes That Song Again
16. Today's Teardrops

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #93114 in Music
• Released on: 2006-10-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Big O's Monument debut
Although Roy Orbison made some great rock'n'roll recordings on the Sun label, his career only really became significant after he joined Monument. On that label, he was considered mainly a singles artist, but for those who want more of his music than just the hits, he recorded a few albums too. He mixed some but not all of his hits with other original songs plus cover versions of country and rock'n'roll songs. This particular album marked his Monument debut and the 2006 re-mastered version includes four bonus tracks, all recorded during the sessions in which Roy recorded the tracks that appeared on the original album.

The first single released from the album was Uptown, which became a minor American hit. It is included as a bonus track along with its B-side, Pretty one. The big hits from the album were Only the lonely (a British number one hit that peaked at two in America - Roy apparently wrote the song for Elvis Presley but he is probably thankful that he end up recording it himself) and Blue angel, a top ten American hit that just missed the top ten in Britain. The B-sides to those two singles (Here comes that song again, Today's teardrops) appear among the bonus tracks.

A fourth single, I'm hurting, made the American top thirty but failed to chart (or maybe wasn't released) in Britain. The B-side of that single, I can't stop loving you, was one of two Don Gibson songs that appeared on the original album, the other being Legend in my time. In view of Ray Charles' spectacular success with that song in 1962 with I can't stop loving you, I wonder what would happened to Roy's 1960 version had it been released as an A-side. Roy eventually recorded a lot of Don Gibson's songs, eventually scoring a British top three hit with one of them, Too soon to know, coming after he left Monument.

Gene Pitney wrote Twenty-two days, one of the other songs here, in his song writing days before he had a recording contract of his own. (Oddly, Gene rarely wrote new songs after securing a recording contract , as he was able to record songs by other writers such as Bacharach and David.) Four excellent original songs (Blue avenue, Come back to me, Raindrops, I'll say it's my fault) and two covers (Bye bye love, Cry) complete this excellent album.

For most people, a collection of Roy's hits will suffice, but for those who want more, there is plenty of great music here.