Roy Orbison ‎– The Best Of The Sun Years / The Original Sun Recordings / Including: Ooby Dooby, Go Go Go, Rock House, Devil Doll, and Claudette / Not Now Music ‎2x Audio CD 2008 / NOT2CD255

UPC 5060143492556

Product Details:

Review:

Out of Sam Phillip's tiny Sun Studio in Memphis came the real rise of rock 'n' roll, created by mainly combing its roots in blues, spirituals and country. In doing so, we were given the likes of Messrs Presley, Lewis, Perkins, Cash and the visually unlikely Orbison, who all went on to gain world fame. They all stripped their music to a basic rawness and clung on to their careers performing like this for as long as they could -- four are now gone of course, but Jerry Lee still does his stuff that way, whereas Elvis sold out to making awful films and entertaining in Las Vegas. Orbison's unique vocal range, however, led him onto big ballads, gaining huge respect from more modern stars such as Dylan, Petty, Harrison and Lynn in his final years as part The Travelling Wilburys. Here we have the Big 'O' doing what he did at Sun -- growling along to his own compositions and producing some beautiful guitar licks at the same time. As Orbie might have said in his Texan drawl 'Great recud ... great recud'. He's right!

About the Artist:

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Many critics described his music as operatic, nicknaming him "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O". Many of his songs conveyed vulnerability at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project defiant masculinity. He performed standing still, wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.

Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band in high school. He was contracted by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of his singles reached the Billboard Top 40, and he wrote or co-wrote almost all that entered the Top 10, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). From the mid-1960s he suffered a number of personal tragedies and his career faltered amidst declining record sales.

In the 1980s, Orbison experienced a resurgence in popularity following the success of several cover versions of his songs. In 1988, he co-founded the Traveling Wilburys, a rock supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Orbison died of a heart attack in December that year at age 52. One month later, his song "You Got It" (1989) was released as a solo single and became his first hit to reach the U.S. Top 10 in nearly 25 years.

Orbison's honors include inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2014. Rolling Stone placed him at number 37 on their list of the "Greatest Artists of All Time" and number 13 on their list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2002, Billboard magazine listed him at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists.