First comprehensive Roy Orbison collection on the way

Roy’s Boys LLC, the Nashville-based company founded by the sons of Roy Orbison to administer their late father’s catalog and safeguard his legacy, has teamed up with Legacy Recordings to release Roy Orbison – The Ultimate Collection.

The 26-track anthology, out Oct, 28, will be available as a single CD and as a double vinyl LP set, spans four decades, from his start at Sun Records in the mid 1950s, all the way through his massive comeback in the late ‘80s. The collection chronicles Orbison’s work both as a solo artist and with supergroup Traveling Wilburys until his tragic death at the age of 52. The Ultimate Collection marks the first time ever that any Roy Orbison compilation album has incorporated tracks from all of the aforementioned sources.

Roy Orbison – The Ultimate Collection is available for pre-order now: http://smarturl.it/Orbison_Ultimate 

Alex Orbison selected songs that were most representational of his father’s vast catalog, which totals 27 studio albums, four live albums, and over 60 singles, 22 of which placed in the U.S. Billboard Top 40 chart. Narrowing it down was no easy task.

 

"It is a great honor for me and my brothers, Wesley and Roy Jr., to finally and definitively distill our father's entire career onto a single disc as best one can possibly do and, certainly, as never done before," said Alex. "It is the result of years of research, archiving and listening, and it is with supreme and heartfelt pleasure that we will be able to share it with the world."
Two selections by the Traveling Wilburys - Roy plus friends Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and George Harrison - also appear on The Ultimate Collection, marking the first time any of the group’s songs have appeared on a Roy Orbison release.

 

"It was my favorite thing I ever did," said Jeff Lynne, referring to "Handle with Care," who co-produced the album with George Harrison. "I put in all these nice, Roy Orbison-type chords, to make his voice shine even more. I played it to the rest of the group, and they just went, 'Wow, that's fantastic.'"

 

Commenting about his father to journalist Jeff Slate - who wrote liner notes for The Ultimate Collection and is also co-author of the forthcoming authorized Roy Orbison biography - Alex Orbison said, "He came from nothing, but he had these amazing gifts and this amazing drive and, of course, that voice.

 

"I think it would be hard to imagine the story if you tried to write it."

The Ultimate Collection was produced by Alex Orbison, Chuck Fleckenstein and John Jackson. 

Track listing:

1 Oh, Pretty Woman
2 I Drove All Night
3 You Got It
4 Crying
5 Only The Lonely
6 In Dreams
7 Love Hurts
8 Claudette
9 Blue Bayou
10 Dream Baby
11 Walk On
12 Falling
13 Running Scared
14 California Blue
15 Leah
16 Mean Woman Blues
17 Crawling Back
18 Ride Away
19 Too Soon To Know
20 She’s A Mystery to Me
21 Blue Angel
22 It’s Over
23 Ooby Dooby
24 Heartbreak Radio
25 Not Alone Anymore (Traveling Wilburys)
26 Handle With Care (Traveling Wilburys)