Roy Orbison Best-Loved Standards 320cbr (Big Papi) 1989 CBS

Boy, somebody knew what they were doing here. The sound is pristine, obviously from first-generation tapes and balanced superbly, with every glorious Nashville moment as if recorded in your own living room. But the great selection is also the thing; these are generally lesser-known, even obscure Orbison numbers, though several rank with his very best. "Distant Drums", "Beautiful Dreamer" and "No One Will Ever Know" are prime Orbison-Fred Foster work, and "(I'd Be A) Legend In My Time" - fabulous Nashville production with strings, cascading piano, rising chorus, Boots Randolph's mournful, bluesey sax solo, the classic Don Gibson melody, Roy's magnificent vocal soaring over all of it, and a solitary bell note in the middle, to boot - is not only Orbison-Foster's finest moment, but a model testament for the Nashville Sound genre. Not an all-comprehensive selection of Roy Orbison by any stretch, but a great introduction to his best stuff, the Monument years, at a great price. But why not a better, more accurate photo of Roy from, say, the early sixties - when most of these were recorded - than the aging geezer in disco duds that somebody thoughtlessly slapped on the cover of this otherwise admirable collection?