For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits

Roy Orbison | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino / Wea
• ASIN: B00000334M
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,820 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #60 in Music > Rock > Oldies & Retro > Rockabilly

Track Listings

1. Ooby Dooby

2. Rock House

3. Uptown

4. Only the Lonely

5. Blue Angel

6. I'm Hurtin'

7. Running Scared

8. Crying

9. Candy Man

10. Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)

11. Leah

12. Working for the Man

13. In Dreams

14. Mean Woman Blues

15. Blue Bayou

16. Pretty Paper

17. It's Over

18. Oh, Pretty Woman

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rock-solid collection, February 7, 2002

By 

Zub "Zubenelgenubi" (Forks Twp., PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Equally adept with rockabilly, plaintive ballads and drum-pounding rock, Roy Orbison was visible on the charts for thirty years from the very beginning of the rock era. His greatest legacy though, comes from his soaring, gut-wrenching musical melodramas. Other than Gene Pitney, only Roy Orbison was able to achieve this kind of incredible power and pathos flowing from his songs, examplified by "Only the Lonely", "In Dreams", "It's Over" and the incomparable "Crying".

This early CD-era release from Rhino brings together most of Orbison's biggest chart successes from his early years. With more than two dozen charted records to his credit, this can hardly be comprehensive but does offer a condensed cream-of-the-crop collection of hits. As it does not go beyond his Monument Records years, it includes none of his MGM recordings. And, having been produced in 1988, it does not include his 1989 revival hit, "You Got It". What it does offer, it presents superbly in excellent sound quality with tracks having been taken from the original mono (tracks one and two) or multitrack masters. Orbison's vocals and the instrumental backrounds come through in startling clarity. The musical background provided by way of the liner notes booklet follows the period of the recordings on the CD but could have provided a bit more on the tracks included on the CD.

Of all the numerous Orbison greatest hits CD's available, this is among the best. It provides an excellent starter piece around which to build a more comprehensive Orbison CD collection.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The cassette and vinyl version gets the five star rating, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

This 4 star rating might seem shocking, especially when 5 stars has seemed to be the rule. However, let's remember that this a truncated version of the 25 track vinyl and cassette release. Tracks such as Go!Go!Go!, Falling, and The Crowd are missing. And while the 18 tracks offered here are indeed his very best, and this is the only release that includes Sun recordings, with Roy Orbison less is not better.

What makes this infuriating is the fact that the entire album and cassette could fit on one CD!

The CD was to be the alternative to vinyl and cassette by having more disc space for bonus tracks. What's the point of this reverse rule-of-thumb by having the cassette verion be superior to the CD? Is it to force people to buy the cassette also, so they can get the seven bonus tracks?

Note to Rhino: Why not rerelease the longer version on CD, newly remastered by CD sound wiz Bill Inglot.

For now: Get the DCC version of All Time Greatest Hits, which includes superior sound, additional liner notes, and pics!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The classic collection of this Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, May 7, 2005

By 

Paul Tognetti "The real world is so much more... (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

In spite of the fact this this disc was released back in 1988, "For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits" remains one of the finest Roy Orbison anthologies ever issued. He achieved his initial success at Sam Phillips' Sun records way back in 1956 with his memorable recording of "Ooby Dooby". He bounced around for a few years before finally landing at Fred Foster's fledgling Monument Records in 1960. This was a match made in heaven. For the next five years Roy Orbison made some of the most memorable sides in rock and roll history.
"For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits" features a pair of his best recordings from his days at Sun including "Rockhouse" and the aforementioned "Ooby Dooby". The remaining 16 tracks are devoted to the Monument years. Oddly enough, his biggest hit of all time was one of his last at Monument. "Oh, Pretty Woman" went all the way to #1 in the late summer of 1964 and reportedly sold over 7 million copies! It remains one of the staples of oldies stations to this day! Among the other familiar hits you will find in this collection are "In Dreams", "It's Over", "Running Scared" and of course "Only The Lonely" from 1960. You might not be familiar with some of the lesser hits that are included but I would recommend to you "Working For The Man" and the wonderful "Uptown" which was his first single on the Monument label. I was also pleased to see Orbison's fine rendition of Willie Nelson's holiday classic "Pretty Paper" included here as well. For those who appreciate such things there is a nicely done 12 page booklet included for your enjoyment.
Roy Orbison left Monument records for what he hoped were greener pastures at M-G-M back in 1965. But despite the fact that he continued to churn out high quality material times had changed and Roy Orbison was simply out of tune with prevailing trends. He would be largely out of the limelight for the next two decades. Happily, Roy Orbison would be introduced to a whole new generation of fans in the late 1980's as a member of the Traveling Wilburys. We lost Roy Orbison unexpectedly in 1988 but the public honered him by making "You Got It" a surprise Top Ten hit shortly after his death.
No collection of classic rock and roll or American popular music for that matter can be considered complete without the biggest hits of Roy Orbison. This was actually one of the first discs I purchased when I bought my CD player back in 1988. And for my money, "For The Lonely: 18 Greatest Hits" remains the best Orbison collection around. Highly recommended!