Title - 'Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection'
Artist - Roy Orbison
The celebrating the 75th birthday year of Roy Orbison continues with the long-awaited 3-disc release of 'Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection.'
This delicious 2-CD/1-DVD set collects all twenty singles released in the U.S. on the Monument label, dividing the A and B-sides between the CDs. Disc one is an intense concentration of hits and valiant misses that digs deeper than the regularly anthologized chestnuts. All of the A's, save "Lana" and "Paper Boy," made the pop chart, offering up lesser known sides that include the pained "I'm Hurtin'," despondent "The Crowd," blue-collar "Working for the Man," and a bluesy cover of "Let the Good Times Roll" that features harmonica from Charlie McCoy.
Roy Orbison signed with the newly emerging independent label Monument Records in mid-1959. Orbison's third single for the label, "Only The Lonely (Know How I Feel)," which announced to the world the true artistry of Roy Orbison. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart and rocketed up to #1 on the UK charts.Orbison followed up the breakthrough with a pair of respectfully charting singles before knocking it out of the park with "Running Scared," his first US #1.
The set's DVD - the first-ever DVD release of Orbison performing nine songs from The Monument Concert 1965 - features a 25-minute black-and-white film of that live date recorded for a Dutch television station. The story goes that Orbison was in Holland to pick up an award for "Oh, Pretty Woman" (as it sadly turned out, his last chart-topper), and agreed to take part in the show.
All this is made all the more special as this was close to being his last musica efforts on Monument before decamping for MGM.
Note: The four-panel digipack and 36-page booklet includes recording (but not release or chart) dates, chart position, and (where known) recording personnel. Also included are photos, picture sleeve and label reproductions, and short liner notes that provide an overview of Orbison's time at Monument but no song-by-song rundown.