AAA Vinyl

"The Ultimate Roy Orbison" All Your Roy On Two LPs?

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 29, 2016

The Ultimate Collection
Roy Orbison
 
Sony/Legacy 88985368871 2 LPs
Produced by: Alex Orbison, Chuck Fleckenstein and John Jackson (compilation producers)
Engineered by: Various
Mixed by: Various
Mastered by: Vic Anesini at Battery Studios (lacquer cutting J.Powell)
 
MUSIC
SOUND
This is the first Roy Orbison collection that includes material from all of Roy's excellent recorded adventures. There are twenty six tunes in all, culled from Sun, Monument, MGM, Virgin and The Traveling Wilburys.

The gatefold packaging is well done, with each track getting a "mini-single" color picture, annotation for each song that's pleasingly complete, and the tracking is imaginative. Rather than ordering the songs chronologically, the compilation producers (Alex Orbison Chuck Fleckenstein and John Jackson) "mixed and matched" to produce a broad, exciting overview of Orbison's work.

So it opens with "Pretty Woman", then lurches forward from '64 Monument to the Jeff Lynne produced "I Drove All Night" from 1987/1992, then to the Lynne produced "You Got It" and then back to "Crying", "Only the Lonely", "In Dreams" and "Love Hurts." Quite a first side!

Side two opens with "Claudette" but live from "Black & White Night", then back to "Blue Bayou", "Dream Baby", "Walk On" (MGM), "Falling", "Running Scared" and then "California Blue" (Virgin).

It includes the Bono produced "She's a Mystery to Me", "Heartbreak Radio" from King of Hearts and finishes with "Not Alone Any More" and "Handle With Care" from The Traveling Wilburys.

So you have good packaging, imaginative tracking and for many tracks for the first time musician credits! There are also some great Roy photos. How's the sound? Obviously digitally sourced and mastered by Vic Anesini at Battery Studios. Vic cares, Roy's kids care but the sound is compressed, the high frequencies squelched and especially on the monumental Bill Porter engineered Monument tracks, what should be vibrant and three dimensional just lays there lonely and blue. The CD overall sounds at least as squashed and dulled but for some reason "Love Hurts" sounded good. Sad.

Still, for casual Roy listeners, this is a great musical compilation and if it leads to an appreciation, there are always better sounding versions to be had of the tunes but not as complete and well ordered as they are here. There's always The All Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison, which offers far better sound but a less imaginative and wide-ranging song selection.

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COMMENTS
Wimbo's picture
Submitted by Wimbo on Fri, 2016-12-30 01:35

but a fantastic artist.

Paul Robertson's picture
Submitted by Paul Robertson on Fri, 2016-12-30 05:31

That's disappointing. I wonder why. My impression of Legacy is that they haven't cut corners in the past. For me their rereleases and compilations have been stellar. My understanding is that it's "easier" and more "economical", but perhaps there was other reasoning for the digital sourcing. None the less, still disappointing.

cpp's picture
Submitted by cpp on Sat, 2016-12-31 06:34

I'll just hang on to my vinyl. I think in this day and age of "lets get it out quick", quality is lost in most digital re-do's They just seem forget about the artist and what they would have wanted all to re-issue music for profit.

Vinylghost's picture
Submitted by Vinylghost on Sun, 2017-01-01 17:43

Glad I made the purchase. Love the sequencing of the album, except I'm not sure why they used the live version of Claudette.

This was my first purchase of Roy Orbison on vinyl, so I have nothing to compare it to except my CD versions. I thought it sounded pretty good except for the compression. A little lifeless.

Still great music for the price. And the other title Michael mentioned is pretty much twice the price. That's ridiculous. Just my perspective.

AZ's picture
Submitted by AZ on Mon, 2017-01-02 03:14

IMO, it's worth $50. Or even more.

Vinylghost's picture
Submitted by Vinylghost on Tue, 2017-01-03 01:49

My point is most people can't afford to pay $50.00 per title. I'm in no way doubting the worth of Mr. Orbison's music.

I believe the biggest thing hampering vinyl's resurgence is the price gouging by some labels. I think they're taking advantage of the one's who love music the most. And that's us, the vinyl enthusiasts.

AZ's picture
Submitted by AZ on Tue, 2017-01-03 03:13

It may not be for everyone, but I think it's actually a pretty good price for a high quality all-analog 2LP reissue. Of course, it's not just the music that you're paying for. It's the top-notch mastering, plating, pressing etc. Also, remember that unlike Sony/Legacy, MFSL doesn't own these recordings. They have to license every title they release. Considering all this, I don't think there's much price gouging involved. And for me, "the biggest thing hampering vinyl's resurgence" is the disgracefully poor quality of most reissues. This music deserves better.

ArizonaBob's picture
Submitted by ArizonaBob on Wed, 2017-05-24 10:03

Please remember if you shelled out $4.98 for a stereo copy in 1965, that equates to $38.69 today. As a double album who knows, there weren't many double LPs back then. Also the quality of the vinyl (in most cases) far surpassed that of years gone by. Mobile Fidelity, Speakers Corner and others are an fair investment all things considered. AB

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Tue, 2017-01-03 14:34
To hear what you are missing and then you can establish a perspective—at least a sonic one. Many of Roy's recordings, especially the ones by Bill Porter for Monument are sonic spectaculars—of perceived dynamics, three-dimensionality and transparency. Bill Porter told me he liked to record everything from "D.C. to light". Of course he never accomplished that, but he did manage a lot more than you can hear on this reissue. When I return from C.E.S. I'll share a few minutes of this reissue and some originals and/or Classic Records or Mo-Fi reissues.
Vinylghost's picture
Submitted by Vinylghost on Tue, 2017-01-03 18:23

I'm very much looking forward to hearing the sound samples from these albums. And I've always appreciated your enthusiasm for music on vinyl Michael.

Still most can't afford albums at fifty dollars a title. I personally have to cherry pick which albums to spend that much on. And I do have some titles from MoFi and Analog Productions. Some were worth it, others not.

Oddly enough it seems some of my old vinyl (and not first pressings) sound better than some of the new reissues. Makes me think the pressing plants are at fault.

How nice would it be if every new vinyl album stated clearly on the back cover where the music was sourced from? If wishes were fishes.

AZ's picture
Submitted by AZ on Tue, 2017-01-03 22:22

They're only responsible for the quality of their plating and pressing. :) Only a few of them have in-house mastering facilities for those who want to use them.

AZ's picture
Submitted by AZ on Tue, 2017-01-03 22:08

The S&P is quite nice too. ;) The MoFi is great, but some of the songs (In Dreams in particular) somehow sound much better on the S&P.

AZ's picture
Submitted by AZ on Tue, 2017-01-03 22:08

The S&P is quite nice too. ;) The MoFi is great, but some of the songs (In Dreams in particular) somehow sound much better on the S&P.

Sam Lord's picture
Submitted by Sam Lord on Thu, 2017-03-02 02:36

Roy Orbison's "Mystery Girl" album was recorded to tape. David Manley (RIP) played the master at a Stereophile show in SF just after Orbison's death. So "She's a Mystery to Me" *could* have been sourced from the tape. The cut was incredible, we were all in tears. Wish I knew if the tape had been preserved, I think this was Roy's best studio performance and the best song he ever did.

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