Customer Reviews

Crying (Reis) (Rpkg)

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The timbre of Roy Orbison's operatic like singing voice and impressive range, instantly commanded your undivided attention and reeled you into an etheral world of sound and vision unequalled by any other singer before or after him. The orchestra and band playing behind him contributed small complement to his colorfully impacting and imposing instrument. Roy's voice painted the songs he chose to sing to memorable excellence. Nobody else could sing or sounded like Roy - he was one of a kind. In film footage of him in "live" performance and radiating his dark mysterious presence, you never saw Roy desperately clutching his microphone, much less throw his head back to gasp for a hurricane sized inhale as he sang to hit all the notes perfectly, he stood there almost motionless, exercising his unique vocal instrument with incredible ease to full power and effect. Simply breathtaking and resounding. Like his female counterpart, Patsy Cline, Roy sang quite expressively with little effort, as though it hurt terribly bad inside, all over["Crying"]with the pain being too unbearable to withstand. In "Running Scared", he encapsulates the gut wrenching feeling of fear laced with unfathomed insecurity on what might be his finest performance - this single hit #1. You not only understood the point of his lyrical message, but, felt it deep inside - you related very well. In a recording studio, Orbison seemed to easily allow his emotions to flow freely from his heart and soul into his recording efforts to astounding results and success. He never seemed to have his guard up, as they say, you could just hear his tears well up in his eyes and run down his face throughout his vocalizing. You can also feel and be inspired by his overjoyed thrills and excitement["Oh, Pretty Woman"] at the sight of the object of his attraction. Roy simply sung a perfect little soundtracks for the many positive and negative emotions we all experience throughout our everyday lives. Even so, Roy could also make you wanna jump up, dance your tail off and move about to many of his other lively tracks["Dance"-"Mean Woman Blues"]- oh yeah(!) - he could take a song such as "LONELINESS" and turn it into a fun, energetic, rollicking dance track. Very diverse that Roy Orbison! 1962's "CRYING", reissued here exclusively in remastered glory with four "bonus" tracks, 16 tracks total, [including some of the noted above]original liner notes, studio musician and chart position listings - is one of three classic ROY ORBISON albums from his much heralded and coveted MONUMENT RECORDS era[1960-65], when Roy was king of radio and record charts. "CRYING" is the most diverse set of tunes from the trio of Orbison reissues which includes his signature ballads and rockers. In celebration of Roy's 70th Birthday, Barbara Orbison, in partnership with Sony, has issued an impressive trio of her husband's classic hit albums which will certainly ignite long time fans' memories and win many new ones. This is music that needs to be heard, never forgotten or left to gather dust in a vault. Roy remains a highly regarded musician with mass public interest and these albums will satisfy the neverending demand for his Monument Records recordings.

Roy Orbison outshines most artists. His vocal range is outstanding and fresh today as in the late 50's and 60's. This CD is a real treat because you have some of Roy's most impressive hits along with other songs that are not heard as often. Sure wish the powers that be would release all those unreleased songs that he recorded. As many songs as have been released have never seen the light of day.
C. Blume

Orbison's second album for Monument followed the template of his debut, "Lonely and Blue," with several key singles leading an album full of decidedly lesser works. Which isn't to suggest that the album tracks are uninteresting; they simply don't match the magnificence of the hits.

Orbison continued to construct dramatic operettas of pain and loneliness, but unlike the previous Monument hits, his new batch followed arcs that end in breathless emotional and aural crescendos. Such is the album's opener, "Crying," with Orbison transitioning from cast-aside to mortally wounded in a mere 2'49. The bookend closing to the original album, "Running Scared," has a similar architecture, and an emotional arc that takes Orbison from apprehension and paranoia to a surprisingly happy ending.

The album tracks include a couple of covers, "The Great Pretender," "She Wears My Ring," and "Love Hurts," none of which eclipse the better known hit singles. The rest of the originals from the pen of Orbison and his writing partner Joe Melson. The upbeat "Dance" shows off a soulful side, "Loneliness" has a lightly Latinized twist-beat, "Let's Make a Memory" is catch mid-tempo pop tune, and "Nite Life" has a jazzy horn chart.

Legacy's reissue adds a quartet of bonus tracks to the original dozen, including the saucy hit single "Candy Man," a bluesy cover of Shirley & Lee's "Let the Good Times Roll," the top-5 "Dream Baby" and its obscure B-side, "The Actress." Sound quality is top-notch stereo, and the booklet reproduces both the front and back cover (with Boudleaux Bryant's original liner notes also rendered more readably within the booklet). Like most of Orbison's seminal recordings, the album tracks don't measure up to the hits, but this will still be of great interest to anyone who wants to go beyond the typical anthology. [©2006 hyperbolium dot com]

2011 and still loving Roy's music. Streamed his "Black And White Night" show here on Amazon tonight and it is outstanding. If you haven't seen it, it's a great DVD to have, or to stream from here.

I believe Roy's last studio recording was his great song called "Not Alone Anymore", from the first of the two Traveling Wilburys albums and mp3 downloads, also here on Amazon. The song is upbeat, but also very meaningful considering that Roy had previously lost his wife and his son, both in separate tragic events while Roy was touring and making appearances; and that shortly after recording "Not Alone Anymore", Roy met his own sudden death from a heart attack at age 52.

Roy Orbison's second album for Monument was recorded in 1961-2. "Crying" has Orbison's classic melodic build that expands to that glorious chorus "Yes, now you're gone, and from this moment on I'll be crying." Orbison's sound was a template for the band Jay & the Americans that hit the charts a few years later with "Cara Mia." Other tracks like the classic "The Great Pretender" and "Love Hurts" intrigue with Orbison's treatment. "Wedding Day" is a weeper with Orbison's tear-in-your beer sadness. I enjoy hearing Roy rock out on the toe-tapper "Dance," "Put rings on your fingers, bells on your toes, get with the feeling body & soul." He does a rock n' roll cha-cha with "Night Life." The original album ends with the monster hit "Running Scared" that builds dramatically to a thrilling crescendo. The bonus tracks are welcome additions to this great album that is getting close to 50 years old! The sound dynamics on this re-release are excellent. Enjoy!

Although Roy Orbison made some great rock'n'roll recordings on the Sun label, his career only really became significant after he joined Monument. On that label, he was considered mainly a singles artist, but for those who want more of his music than just the hits, he recorded a few albums too. He mixed some but not all of his hits with other original songs plus cover versions of country and rock'n'roll songs. This particular album was his second for Monument and the 2006 re-mastered version includes four bonus tracks, all recorded during the sessions in which Roy recorded the tracks that appeared on the original album.

Including the bonus tracks, there are three massive American hits here, these being Crying (a number two hit), Running scared (a number one hit) and Dream baby (a cover of one of Bobby Darin's hits that made number four). Candy man, the B-side of Crying, made the top thirty in its own right. Two other singles didn't do so well in America, with Let the good times roll being a very minor hit while Lana didn't even make the top 100.

In Britain, Running scared made the top ten, Crying made the top thirty, Dream baby made number four and Lana eventually made the top twenty in 1966. Brian Poole and the Tremeloes had a top ten hit with their cover of Candy man. Clearly, it was a mistake for Roy's own version to be consigned to a B-side.

The B-sides of Running scared (Love hurts, a cover of an Everly brothers song), Lana (Summer song) and Dream baby (The actress) are also featured here. Another wonderful song is She wears my ring. Roy's version is the original and I don't think his version was released as single, but Solomon King covered it and had a British top three hit with it in 1968. Roy could do covers too, as he demonstrates here with his version of The great pretender (The Platters) as well as with the previously mentioned Dream baby and Love hurts. But most of the songs here are originals, including the tracks I so far haven't mentioned (Wedding day, Dance, Loneliness, Let's make a memory and Night life). No, Night life is not a cover of the famous identically-titled Willie Nelson song, it's completely different.

This is yet another brilliant album from the early part of Roy's career that will be appreciated by those who want to hear more than just the hit singles.

It may just be me, but I've always been a little troubled by Roy Orbison's vocal on the original version of "Crying." Later versions such as the one on BLACK AND WHITE NIGHT were simply elegant--and the duet version with k.d. lang was also fine--but the original seemed a bit strained to me, especially at the song's oh-so-dramatic end. I say this as a HUGE Roy Orbison fan (although I AM trying to slim down a bit), and while it's true that singers mature and gain increasing confidence over time, I couldn't believe that my man Roy, would experience anything like vocal strain, even at the very outset of his career.

So recently, I conducted an experiment, and played this CD on as many systems as I could to see if I could figure out just where the problem (if any) really lay. And as you might guess, the worse the sound system, the more strained the vocal seemed. On a really good system, the vocal seems to emerge from the rather busy arrangement--and it soars as intended. In other words, the problem (and, yeah, I do think there is one) is mainly in the production. The arrangement is way too cluttered. And while it may have worked in mono, even a remastered CD sounds too clunky--everything but the kitchen sink thrown in to no real good effect.

You could say that these rather ill-conceived production values mar the whole ORIGINAL album to some degree. Horns and strings crop up on most of the tracks, a shame when you just know a simpler arrangement would have served to highlight the singer's voice so much better. Guitar, bass, drums, maybe some piano and back-up vocals as needed would have sufficed. The horns DO work on a few tracks ("Night Life"), but they're still too loud. Moderation in all things, especially all things musical. It's just not nice to drown out the singer.

The CD's bonus tracks pretty much prove the point. "Candy Man" and "Dream Baby"--both hit singles--are much cleaner sounding. The vocal is also much more front and center on the extra tracks "Let The Good Times Roll" and "The Actress," despite the fact "Good Times" has a full arrangement with horns, back-up singers and harp.

CRYING is certainly a must for Orbison completists, and listening to the whole album is like opening a time capsule from 1962. But it's also an object lesson in how even the best singers can be buried by cluttered arrangements. Devotees will still suss out the subtleties in the singing, but for more casual listeners that still might prove a frustrating exercise.

Still I'll take it. No use "Crying" over spilt milk.