Roy Orbison's 'Greatest' reissued

Legacy Recordings has just issued, for the first time on the label, Roy Orbison In Dreams - The Greatest Hits on CD.

Originally released in 1987 as a double album set, now finally available after nearly two decades, the 19 selections were the means by which Roy Orbison revisited much of his classic repertoire utilizing contemporary recording technology.

By the late 1980s, with the song "In Dreams" playing an important role in director David Lynch's groundbreaking film Blue Velvet and the singer finding a new groove with the Traveling Wilburys, Roy Orbison was enjoying a major career renaissance.

The In Dreams - The Greatest Hits title track--produced by Orbison, T Bone Burnett and Lynch in April 1987--was joined by a raft of signature Orbison standard bearers including "Crying," "Dream Baby," "Only The Lonely" and "Oh, Pretty Woman."

Many committed fans as well as critics have contended that the versions of Orbison classics heard on In Dreams - The Greatest Hits surpass the earlier recordings of those titles in terms of both performance and audio quality. The album's artistic merit was borne out by its success in the marketplace when it stormed onto the Billboard album charts upon release and went on to achieve Gold certification from the RIAA in the US and went to #2 on the UK album charts. 

Launched last week, through RoyOrbison.com is a 'CompareOtronic13' application which will allow for comparison of five songs from the album -- "Oh, Pretty Woman," "Crying," "In Dreams," "Running  Scared" and "Only The Lonely" -- side by side with the versions recorded in the 1960's.

The user is able to toggle from one version to the other to experience the sonic differences. The user is guided by the professional analysis of highly regarded audio engineer Matt Andrews  -- chief engineer at Nashville's Sound Emporium Studios and for the hit ABC-TV series Nashville -- through the process. Through an interactive voting features, listeners are able to cast their own ballot regarding which version is superior and users enter comment in a shared blog.

Roy Orbison 
In Dreams - The Greatest Hits

1. Only The Lonely

2. Leah

3. In Dreams

4. Uptown

5. It's Over

6. Crying

7. Dream Baby

8. Blue Angel

9. Working For The Man

10. Candy Man

11. Running Scared

12. Falling

13. I'm Hurtin'

14. Claudette

15. Oh, Pretty Woman

16. Mean Woman Blues

17. Ooby Dooby

18. Lana

19. Blue Bayou