Roy Orbison - At The Rock House (1:a Albumet US 1961)

250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Roy Orbison's 1:a Album på SUN Records.)

Roy Orbison at the Rock House is the first album by Roy Orbison. It was released in 1961 by Sun Records at a time when Orbison had already moved to the Monument label but had not yet put out an album. Sun Records owner Sam Phillips had a collection of songs Orbison had recorded at Sun between 1956 and '58. Phillips capitalized on the national recognition Orbison had achieved at Monument through three major hit singles in 1960 and '61 that had gone to the top of the Billboard charts.

Most of the songs on Roy Orbison at the Rock House were written by Orbison but the songwriting credits were assigned to Sam Phillips, and are in the traditional rockabilly style the Sun label was known for. Notable exceptions are compositions by other Sun artists Harold Jenkins (better known as "Conway Twitty") and Johnny Cash. "Rock House" was written by Orbison and Twitty.

For this release all tracks except Devil Doll have been overdubbed with background vocals and/or additional instruments.

Although it was technically Roy Orbison's first album, At the Rock House wasn't really an LP effort on his part so much as a cash-in effort by Sun Records in the wake of Orbison's later success on Monument Records with "Uptown," "Only the Lonely," etc. And understandably, the sound is very retro for 1960-1961, comprised as the record is primarily of the rock & roll and hardcore rockabilly numbers that he cut for Sun in 1956 (with his original group the Teen Kings) and 1957, including the Johnny Cash-authored "You're My Baby," the Orbison/Harold Jenkins collaboration "Rock House," and Sam Phillips' "Mean Little Mama" and "Problem Child." 

Not everything is quite as briskly paced as those two numbers, but even the ballads, such as "Sweet and Easy to Love" and "Devil Doll," and the melodic "This Kind of Love" and "It's Too Late," have an edge to them -- they stand midway between the rock & roll that was happening in 1956 and the more lush and dramatic sound that Orbison would perfect at Monument Records from 1959 onward. All of the material is fascinating as a sort of alternate-universe version of where Orbison might've headed musically, and most of it is downright bracing and exciting, though it's easy to see why it never succeeded at the time -- numbers like "You're Gonna Cry" and "Problem Child" were a little too intense and ambitious as rock & roll, with too many changes and involved lyrics, to hold that audience en masse. It was some of the best and most intense rock & roll you could buy in 1961 this side of Elvis Presley, however, and heard today the album is a fascinating curio from what's usually thought of as a fallow period in rock & roll history.

01. "This Kind of Love"
02. "Devil Doll"
03. "You're My Baby" (Johnny Cash)
04. "Trying To Get To You"
05. "It's Too Late" (Chuck Willis)
06. "Rock House" (Phillips, Harold Jenkins)
07. "You're Gonna Cry"
08. "I Never Knew"
09. "Sweet and Easy to Love"
10. "Mean Little Mama"
11. "Ooby Dooby" (Wade Moore, Dick Penner)
12. "Problem Child" (Roy Orbison)

Roy Orbison - Orbisongs (US 1965)

240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition.Utgången utgåva sedan länge.)

Orbisongs is the last album recorded by Roy Orbison for the Monument label before he signed with MGM Records. The album was released in 1965.

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter and musician, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis. His greatest success came with Monument Records in the early to mid 1960s when 22 of his songs placed on the Billboard Top Forty, including "Only the Lonely", "Crying", "In Dreams", and "Oh, Pretty Woman". 

His career stagnated through the 1970s, but several covers of his songs and the use of one in a film by David Lynch revived his career in the 1980s. In 1988, he joined the supergroup Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne and also released a new solo album. He died of a heart attack in December that year, at the zenith of his resurgence. His life was marred by tragedy, including the death of his first wife and two of his children in separate accidents.

Orbison was a natural baritone, but music scholars have suggested that he had a three- or four-octave range. The combination of Orbison's powerful, impassioned voice and complex musical arrangements led many critics to refer to his music as operatic, giving him the sobriquet "the Caruso of Rock". Performers as disparate as Elvis Presley and Bono stated his voice was, respectively, the greatest and most distinctive they had ever heard. 

While most men in rock and roll in the 1950s and 1960s portrayed a defiant masculinity, many of Orbison's songs instead conveyed a quiet, desperate vulnerability. He was known for performing while standing still and solitary, wearing black clothes and dark sunglasses which lent an air of mystery to his persona.

Orbison was initiated into the second class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 by longtime admirer Bruce Springsteen. The same year he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone placed Orbison at number 37 in their list of The Greatest Artists of All Time. In 2002, Billboard magazine listed Orbison at number 74 in the Top 600 recording artists. Rolling Stone rated Orbison number 13 in their list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008.

01."Oh, Pretty Woman" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
02."Dance" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
03."(Say) You're My Girl" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
04."Goodnight" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
05."Nitelife" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
06."Let The Good Times Roll" - (Leonard Lee)
07."(I Get So) Sentimental" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
08."Yo Te Amo Maria" - (Orbison, Bill Dees)
09."Wedding Day" - (Orbison, Joe Melson)
10."Sleepy Hollow" - (Bill Dees)
11."22 Days" - (Gene Pitney)
12."I'd Be A Legend In My Time" - (Don Gibson)
+ 9 Bonus Tracks