Search - Roy Orbison :: Roy Rocks

Digs Deep Into The Roy Orbison Discography

07/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The hallmarks of any release by Bear Family are excellent sound reproduction and informative and detailed liner notes, not to mention the fact they tend to dig deeper into the discography of many artists than you'll find with most other distributors. However, they are also consistently more expensive than most others as well, including the best in the business (in my humble opinion anyway), Ace Records of London. In most instances some 25% higher in terms of cost. I have no idea why that is so.



In this compendium of Roy Orbison in their large "Rocks" series they throw in just enough of his big hits at Monument (where he had 21 from 1960 to 1965) to make the CD enticing, including his first there, Up Town, which was a minor # 72 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in January 1960.



Other Monument hit singles here are: Candy Man, a # 25 Hot 100 in late summer 1961 as the flip of Crying (not included); Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream), a # 4 Hot 100 in March 1962; Workin' For The Man, a # 33 Hot 100 in October 1962 as the flip of Léah (not here); Mean Woman Blues, a # 5 Hot 100 in October 1963 and also a # 8 R&B cross-over (he had 5 such cross-overs); Oh, Pretty Woman, a # 1 Hot 100 in late summer 1964 billed to Roy Orbison And The Candy Men and his second of just two # 1 Hot 100 hits, the other being Running Scared in spring 1961 (not here); and Let The Good Times Roll, a # 81 Hot 100 in November 1965 and released by Monument after he had moved over to MGM that same year.



They also provide the B-side to his 1960 hit Blue Angel, Today's Teardrops. Written by Gene Pitney, this would become a # 54 hit for Rick Nelson in late 1963/early 1964.



His only hit at Sun is also here, Ooby Dooby, which, billed to Roy Orbison & The Teen Kings (the new name for his band, The Wink Westerners, which he had first formed back in 1949 when he was 13 years old), scored at # 59 Billboard Pop Top 100 in July 1956 b/w Go! Go! Go! He had earlier cut Ooby Dooby at Norman Petty's Je-Wel label where it was released with Tryin' To Get To You on the B-side.



Other Sun releases in this volume include: Rock House b/w You're My Baby on Sun 251 in October 1956; Sweet And Easy To Love on Sun 265 in April 1957; and I Like Love b/w Chicken Hearted on Sun 284 in January 1958. Sides cut at Sun heard here, but never released in that time, were Cat Called Domino in 1956, and Fool's Hall Of Fame, Mean Little Mama, and Claudette, all in 1957.



They even provide one release from his brief stay at RCA Victor, January 1959's Almost Eighteen which came out on RCA Victor 47-7447, as well as one previously-unreleased RCA cut, The Bug. For details on the really obscure cuts like Double Date, Darkness, and Dance I refer you to the liner notes.



I just wish Bear Family would lower their average price to a competitive level with the likes of Ace, Eric, Jasmine and others of that calibre."