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Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection To Be Released

• 8th Feb 2011

Monument Records – The House That Roy Built: The Big O's Monument Singles CollectionDebuts First-Ever CD Release Of Original Mono Mixes of All A & B Sides Cut For The Label, Plus DVD of Nine Songs From “The Monument Concert 1965” Digitally Restored, Includes The Official Video For “Oh Pretty Woman”.

“Orbison…transcended all the genres–folk, country, rock and roll or just about anything. His stuff mixed all the styles and some that hadn't even been invented yet…. He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop and he meant business.” – Bob Dylan, Chronicles Vol. 1

“Roy's ballads were always best when you were alone in the dark. They were scary. His voice was unearthly…. I always wanted to sing like Roy Orbison…” – Bruce Springsteen

“”But Roy Orbison! It was only because we were with Roy Orbison that we
were there at all. He was definitely top of the bill… What a beacon
in the southernmost gloom. The amazing Roy Orbison.” – Keith Richards, Life

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, is celebrating the 75th birthday (April 23, 1936) year of Roy Orbison with the long-awaited release of Roy Orbison: The Monument SinglesCollection, a 2 CD/1 DVD set including all the A&B sides recorded by Orbison for the groundbreaking Monument label during an electrifying peak from 1959-1966. Restored to pristine mono mixes for the first time since their original 7″ vinyl releases, Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection presents The Big O's core classic catalog the way it's meant to sound.

Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection, a 2 CD/1 DVD set, will be available Monday 11 April 2011.

A small independent record label enjoying modest successes in the late 1950s, Monument Records grew to become a major force in American rock and roll, country, jazz and rhythm & blues, its label identity synonymous with its biggest star, Roy Orbison. Other artists on the Monument label have included Kris Kristofferson, Boots Randolph, Dolly Parton, Ray Stevens, Tony Joe White, Charlie McCoy, Willie Nelson and others.

The 75th birthday commemorative release of Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection includes the first-ever DVD release of Orbison performing nine songs from “The Monument Concert 1965,” including the official video for “Oh Pretty Woman,” digitally restored for especially for this collection.

Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection includes liner notes by Roy Orbison Jr. featuring new interviews with Fred Foster, Joe Melson, Bob Moore and others.

Best recognized around the world for his otherworldly voice, Roy Orbison was both rock & roll pioneer and prototypical singer-songwriter, beginning with his first high school band (the Wink Westerners/Teen Kings) and shifting into mass consciousness in the 1960s with a string of singles for the Monument label that defined an artist and helped launch a label.

Orbison–along with a short list that included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins–was one of the undisputed originators and architects of rock & roll at Sam Phillips' Sun Records. Orbison cut his first chart hit (it reached #56), “Ooby Dooby,” for Sun in 1956, staying with the label for two years before a brief stint at RCA in 1958.

Roy Orbison signed with the newly emerging independent label Monument Records in mid-1959. While his second single for Monument, “Uptown,” became his biggest hit as a performer since “Ooby Dooby,” it was 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, crossed over to #14 on the Billboard Black Singles chart, and rocketed up to #1 on the UK charts.

Orbison followed up the breakthrough with a pair of respectfully charting singles — “Blue Angel” (#9 Pop, #23 Black) and “I'm Hurtin'” (#27 Pop) — before knocking it out of the park with “I'm Hurtin',” his first US #1.

After that came an unbroken four-year string of Top 40 hits — “Crying,” “Candy Man,” “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),” “Working for the Man,” “Leah,” “In Dreams,” “Pretty Paper,” “Blue Bayou,” “Mean Woman Blues, “It's Over” — during which Roy Orbison became America's top-selling recording artist and one of the world's most celebrated entertainers.

In May 1963, Roy Orbison accepted an invitation to tour England on a bill with the Beatles, a group then-unknown in the United States. The tour sold-out in a single afternoon. On the tour's opening night, Roy Orbison was called back for 14 encores before the Beatles could get on-stage.

Roy Orbison was one of the few established hit-makers from the late 1950s and early 1960s to not only hold his ground, but to actually increase his popularity in the wake of the British Invasion. He maintained his popularity through music which displayed an extraordinary variety of content, structure, tempo and rhythm and an authentic emotional connection that transcended mere craft, exemplified in his signature classic, “Oh Pretty Woman,” recorded on August 1st, 1964. Written by Orbison with his new writing partner Bill Dees, “Oh Pretty Woman” became Roy's biggest hit and is one of the most immediately recognized and popular rock songs of all time. Released in August 1964 in the US and in September of that year in the UK, the song hit the #1 slot in virtually every country in the world where people had record players, selling some seven million copies that year.

ROY ORBISON: THE MONUMENT SINGLES COLLECTION

Disc One: The A-Sides

1. Uptown
2. Only The Lonely
3. Blue Angel
4. I'm Hurtin'
5. Running Scared
6. Lana
7. Crying
8. Let The Good Times Roll
9. Blue Bayou
10. Dream Baby
11. The Crowd
12. Working For The Man
13. In Dreams
14. Falling
15. It's Over
16. Oh, Pretty Woman
17. Goodnight

Bonus Tracks:

18. Pretty Paper
19. (Say) You're My Girl
20. Paper Boy

Disc Two: The B-Sides

1. Pretty One
2. Here Comes That Song Again
3. Today's Teardrops
4. I Can't Stop Loving You
5. Love Hurts
6. Summer Song
7. Candy Man
8. Mean Woman Blues
9. The Actress
10. Mama
11. Leah
12. Shahdaroba
13. Distant Drums
14. Indian Wedding
15. Yo Te Amo Maria
16. Only With You

Bonus Tracks:

17. Beautiful Dreamer
18. Sleepy Hollow
19. With The Bug

Roy Orbison – The Monument Singles Collection – DVD

1. Only the Lonely
2. RunningScared
3. Crying
4. What'd I Say
5. Dream Baby
6. Mean Woman Blues
7. It's Over
8. Oh, Pretty Woman
9. Goodnight