Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Paper Boy
2. Uptown
3. Only the Lonely
4. Blue Angel
5. I'm Hurtin'
6. Running Scared
7. Crying
8. Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)
9. Crowd
10. Working for the Man
11. In Dreams
12. Falling
13. Blue Bayou
14. Pretty Paper
15. Borne on the Wind
16. It's Over
17. Oh, Pretty Woman [Mono Version][Version]
18. Goodnight
19. (Say) You're My Girl
20. Let the Good Times Roll
21. Lana
22. Belinda
23. (I'm A) Southern Man
24. Drifting Away
25. Oh, Pretty Woman [Stereo]
26. (Say) You're My Girl [Mono Version]

Disc 2:

1. With the Bug
2. Pretty One
3. Here Comes That Song Again
4. Today's Teardrops
5. I Can't Stop Loving You
6. Love Hurts
7. Candy Man
8. Actress
9. Mama
10. Leah
11. Shahdaroba
12. Distant Drums
13. Mean Woman Blues
14. Beautiful Dreamer
15. What'd I Say
16. Indian Wedding
17. Yo Te Amo Maria
18. Summer Song
19. Only with You
20. Sleepy Hollow
21. House Without Windows
22. No Chain at All
23. Born to Love Me
24. Under Suspicion
25. San Fernando [German Language Version of Shahdaroba]
26. Mama [German Version]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123840 in Music
• Released on: 1998-11-02
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Enhanced, Import
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Description
Fantastic collection of all 24 of the legendary late singer's hit singles on Monument Records from the 1960's plus a couple more stereo mixes. The set also contains a few of Roy's covers of classic songs like 'Distant Drums', 'What'd I Say', 'Let The Good Times Roll', 'Beautiful Dreamer' and 'Love Hurts'. There are other notable songs here too, many of them obscure songs, all of which confirm what a talented singer Roy was. The second disc includes all the b-sides, so collectors can be satisfied that they have all his single output from the era. Sony. 2005.

Customer Reviews

The "Best of" - literally
This album starts off with a strong aim - to collect all of Roy Orbison's Monument singles under one umbrella. And we all know that this is the most successful period of the Orbison career. The great thing about this Cd is that it doesn't limit itself to "Greatest Hits". So whilst you get the obvious tracks like "Oh Pretty Woman" and "Only the Lonely", you also get tracks which are just as strong, but which, for one reason or another, didn't make it. "Belinda", "The Crowd", "Drifting Away" and "Goodnight" are all examples of songs which were strong A sides, but didn't really achieve commercial success. And then you have the B sides. Some are banal, such as "Candy Man" and "What'd I Say". But some eclipse their more famous A-sides in terms of artistry. See "Only With You", "Here Comes That Song Again", "Yo Te Amo Maria", "Indian Wedding" and "The Actress" to understand just how special this man really was as a singer.

ESSENTIAL MONUMENT COLLECTION
This is the best collection of Roy's Monument era material available on CD. There are far too many compilations out there that have been put together without any thought or care. This one is different, containing ALL his monument singles (both A and B sides) and several rare tracks. All tracks are in STEREO (except the mono single version of "pretty woman"-to give it the correct title) and the sound quality is superb. The stereo version of this track is also included, which has different lyrics. If you are looking for a good compilation of hits buy this one and get a GREAT compilation instead.

Buy the Raven Records CD "Communication Breakdown-the MGM years" for the best of his later hits and you will be in "BIG O" heaven. The only quibble is the lack of a comprehensive essay but I guess you can't have everything. The Raven CD does contain a essay by Glenn A. Baker. (Australia's rock brain of the universe)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The complete Monument singles
When I notice in the track list entries such as "Oh, Pretty Woman (Original single version) (Mono)" and later "Oh, Pretty Woman (Stereo) ('Come With Me' Lyric)", I feel that the compiler is exactly the kind of obsessive completist I want to be responsible for anthologies such as this one.

There is a fairly simple concept behind this 1998 UK collection: all 24 of the original Monument label singles, with the A-sides in chronological order on disc 1 and their B-sides on disc 2. A table in the booklet lists the highest chart positions and dates of chart entry were relevant, and there are cover shots of some of the record labels and sleeves.
 
It isn't as simple as that, of course, and when it all unravels the sleeve information says nothing. All is well for the first 14 tracks, with the corresponding B-sides in order on the second disc, though track 14, Pretty Paper/Beautiful Dreamer, was a US-only release (not mentioned in the liner notes).

Borne On The Wind and its B-side, What'd I Say, complicate matters slightly by being released in the UK but not in the USA, but the notes cope with this. The collection also supplies the original mono variant of another single, (Say) You're My Girl, because it includes Roy Orbison saying "Mercy!" at the end, as is right and proper, except that it appears to have been transcribed from a well-worn vinyl single and has some distortion. All the other A-sides are presented in stereo, and the single version of Oh, Pretty Woman bizarrely bursts into stereo on the very final note. CD2 ends with a German-language single comprising two of his hit songs.

In 1965, Roy Orbison was disappointed with the commercial failure of Goodnight, and, blaming Monument Records, moved to MGM. Monument continued to release singles, but these were old recordings, either previously unreleased, like (Say) You're My Girl, Let The Good Times Roll and Sleepy Hollow, or album tracks like Lana, House Without Windows and Summersong (the B-side of the belated UK appearance of Pretty Paper, a Willie Nelson Christmas song which had been a festive US hit the year before). As these did not chart, it isn't possible to tell the year of origin from the CD, or that the A/B side parallels between the 2 CDs has gone awry for a few tracks.

In 1976, having run out of hits with MGM and after a brief spell with Mercury, Roy Orbison returned to Monument and recorded the LP Regeneration, from which three singles were taken. All of the 6 tracks involved are included, but as none charted there is no mention as to what they are, and no indication of a ten-year gap. The problem is mostly not with the compilation, which is more comprehensive than the notes would have you believe, but with inadequate information.

Most of side one was very familiar and stands up well, apart from some over-production and dated girlie choruses, but there were some pleasant surprises on side 2, including The Actress, a ballad which surely should have been an A-side, and a sturdy version of Mean Woman Blues. 

Sound quality is good overall but on my copy at least a handful of the tracks suffer from some extraneous noise and distortion, notably on Crying, Falling and Candy Man. These faults are absent from the same tracks on the Definitive Collection CD, and rob this CD of a fourth star