Sony BMG & Orbison Records are proud to release The Soul Of Rock And Roll, the long-awaited definitive 4 CD box set of 107 seminal recordings -- including demos, live recordings and 12 previously unreleased cuts -- spanning the entire career of the profoundly influential American singer, songwriter and performer Roy Orbison.
The Soul Of Rock And Roll, the centerpiece release of Sony BMG’s mammoth Roy Orbison Reissue Project, is the first truly comprehensive Roy Orbison collection, an historic career-spanning compilation of breathtaking scope and variety drawn from all phases of Orbison's musical history.
Disc One of the collection opens with a previously unreleased recording of "Ooby Dooby" Roy's early group the Teen Kings followed by "Hey! Miss Fannie," an Ahmet Ertegun composition performed by Roy's first band, The Wink Westerners, in Dallas in 1955.
The first disc of The Soul Of Rock And Roll continues with a series of Orbison's 1950s recordings including Teen Kings sides cut with Norman Petty in 1956 and 1957 at Petty's legendary studio in Clovis, New Mexico as well an unreleased cover of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" from 1956.
Also featured on disc one are an ample selection of Orbison's early Sun Records rockabilly recordings, produced by Sam Phillips, including both sides of his first US chart hit, 1956's "Ooby Dooby" and "Go! Go! Go!" and several unreleased demos including "Claudette," "Night Owl" and "Love Struck" from 1958.
The first disc's fascinating cross section of Orbison's groundbreaking 1950s roots includes the previously unreleased "Guitar Pull Medley: I Want You, I Need You, I Love You/I Was The One/That's All Right/Mary Lou/You're My Baby" recorded in Galveston, Texas in 1956 featuring Roy Orbison solo on guitar and vocal.
The disc closes with Orbison's 1958 RCA Victor single, "Almost Eighteen," produced by Chet Atkins and a pair of his early 50's sides for Monument: "With The Bug" and "Pretty One."
Disc Two focuses on the artist's watershed recordings for Monument in the early 1960s, bringing together emotionally wrenching hits like "Love Hurts," "Blue Bayou" and "Only The Lonely" with career-defining masterpieces like "Oh, Pretty Woman", and "Crying" and "In Dreams" alongside a selection of rare b-sides from the period.
Disc Three continues with the Monument years with live recordings from the era and some of his strongest studio work including the signature classic, "Oh Pretty Woman," Roy's biggest hit and one of the most immediately recognized and popular rock songs of all time.
The third disc includes many of the singles Roy recorded for MGM as well as the Orbison songs from the films "Zabriskie Point" and "The Fastest Guitar Alive," the MGM western-musical which marked Orbison's only starring role in a movie.
Disc three premieres a demo recording from the late 1960s of an Orbison composition, "Precious," and a previously unreleased live recording of Chris Kenner's "Land of 1000 Dances" from 1972. It also includes Roy's duet with Emmylou Harris, "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again," (from the motion picture "Roadie") which won a Grammy in 1981 for Best Country Performance by a Group or Duo.
Disc Four collects a fantastic range of recordings from Orbison's creative renaissance of the 1980s including tracks from the Grammy-winning "Class of '55" album with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins; the 1987 recording of "In Dreams" from "Blue Velvet" produced by T Bone Burnett, Roy Orbison and David Lynch; "Not Alone Any More," one of Orbison's tracks with the Traveling Wilburys.
Orbison's Virgin Records singles: "You Got It" and "California Blue" produced by Jeff Lynne, "She's A Mystery To Me" produced by Bono, and "Crying," his duet with k.d. lang produced by Don Was; songs from Roy's final studio album, "Mystery Girl," and tracks from the acclaimed television special, "A Black And White Night Live" including Roy's Grammy-winning performance of "Oh Pretty Woman" with Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello on backing vocals.
The fourth disc of also includes a selection of tracks from Roy's posthumous release, "The King of Hearts" and well as Orbison's tracks for the films "Insignificance" ("Wild Hearts Run Out Of Time"), "The End of Violence" ("You May Feel Me Crying" produced by Brian Eno), and "Less Than Zero" ("Life Fades Away" produced by Rick Rubin).
Executive produced by Barbara Orbison, Roy's widow, and compiled by Roy Kelton Orbison Jr, Roy's son, The Soul Of Rock And Roll comes in a limited edition deluxe box set covered in white linen with an 80 page book featuring new liner notes from Barbara Orbison, Fred Foster, Joe Melson, Roy Orbison Jr and a host of testimonials from friends and fans including Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Dolly Parton, Glenn Danzig, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson, Lemmy Kilmister, Chris Isaak, Clint Black, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, K.D. Lang, Elvis Costello, and Neil Diamond.