16 Biggest Hits

by Roy Orbison

Product Description:

All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.

The title here is, of course, not entirely accurate. None of Orbison's '80s material is here, which means no duets with Emmylou Harris or kd lang, and nothing from his Travelling Wilbury/final-stellar-solo-album period. This is, however, pretty much the best of Orbison's '60s tenure at Monument Records, and within those confines it's something of an embarrassment of riches, with all the big, paranoid operatic ballads that Orbison more or less patented--"Running Scared," "Only the Lonely," "Crying,"--along with more conventional, albeit ethereally lovely songs like "Blue Bayou" and "In Dreams." There's also a smattering of rockers including "Pretty Woman," whose opening guitar riff is by now imprinted on the basic genetic material of most of the human race. Obviously, essential listening.