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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Diverse Entertaining Collection, September 11, 2006
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a voice!, January 9, 2007
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
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still A Must For Fans, January 21, 2009
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.
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