Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection, the Records That Made the Legend Presented in Their Original Mono Mixes, Available Everywhere Tuesday, April 26

NEW YORK, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, is providing the cornerstone for a number of campaigns and celebrations commemorating the 75th birthday (April 23, 1936) year of Roy Orbison with the long-awaited release of Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection, a 2 CD/1 DVD set including all the A&B sides recorded by Orbison for the groundbreaking Monument label during an electrifying sustained aesthetic peak running from 1960-1964.

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Restored to pristine monaural sound for the first time since their original 7" vinyl releases, Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection brings The Big O's classic core catalog into the digital age without compromising the integrity or the intensity of the original master recordings.

Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection, a 2 CD/1 DVD set, will be available everywhere Tuesday, April 26, 2011, the week of Orbison's 75th birthday. Roy Orbison - The Monument A-Sides will also be available on a single CD.

The 75th birthday commemorative release of Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection includes the first-ever DVD release of Orbison performing nine songs from "The Monument Concert 1965," including the official video for "Oh, Pretty Woman," digitally restored for especially for this collection.

An exclusive limited edition 7" vinyl single, featuring the mono mix of "Only The Lonely" and a previously unreleased live recording of "Oh, Pretty Woman," is available at independent record stores nationwide in celebration of Record Store Day 2011.

On April 17, TouchTunes Interactive Networks, the largest interactive in-venue entertainment network in North America, will promote a Roy Orbison 75th birthday playlist on 30,000 of its digital jukeboxes nationwide.

AOL Music will premiere the newly created official "Oh, Pretty Woman - 2011" video on its online Spinner site on Tuesday, April 19 and will begin streaming the full Monument Singles - A Sides album the week of release.

On April 29, 2011, in celebration of Orbison's 75th birthday year, the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles will debut a new exhibit, Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock-n-Roll, an exploration of the life and legacy of the music legend and cultural touchstone. Beginning April 19, Orbison fans can register for weekly ticket giveaways to the Grammy Museum Weekly at RoyOrbison.com and Facebook.com/royorbison.

As part of the Roy Orbison 75th birthday celebration, Starbucks will offer its own Roy Orbison Starbucks OPUS collection, a career-spanning 16 track anthology of essential tracks from 1958-1989. The Roy Orbison OPUS collection will be available exclusively at Starbucks beginning May 10, 2011.

A select variety of tracks from Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection will be streamed on Rolling Stone's online site.

Beginning April 26, Harmonix will offer a three-pack of songs from Roy Orbison in the Rock Band 3 Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Wii™. Roy Orbison: 75th Birthday Pack will feature "Blue Bayou", "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)" and "Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)".

Available on Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation®3 system (April 26):

    --  Roy Orbison - "Blue Bayou"
    --  Roy Orbison - "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)"
    --  Roy Orbison - "Only the Lonely (Know the Way I Feel)"

(All tracks are original master recordings)

(These tracks will be available in Europe on PlayStation®3 system April 27)

These tracks will be available for purchase as "Roy Orbison: 75th Birthday Pack" as well as individual tracks on Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 system and Wii.

"Orbison...transcended all the genres--folk, country, rock and roll or just about anything. His stuff mixed all the styles and some that hadn't even been invented yet.... He sounded like he was singing from an Olympian mountaintop and he meant business."

- Bob Dylan, Chronicles Vol. 1

"Roy's ballads were always best when you were alone in the dark. They were scary. His voice was unearthly... I always wanted to sing like Roy Orbison..."

- Bruce Springsteen

"... Roy Orbison! It was only because we were with Roy Orbison that we were there at all. He was definitely top of the bill... What a beacon in the southernmost gloom. The amazing Roy Orbison."

- Keith Richards, Life

"Roy the singer, people talk about him all the time, everyone curtsies to the voice, and so they should. The thing people don't talk about enough as far as I'm concerned is how innovative this music was, how radical in terms of its songwriting. As I become more interested in songwriting, you hit a wall where Roy Orbison is standing."

- Bono, 1999

A small independent record label enjoying modest successes in the late 1950s, Monument Records grew to become a major force in American rock and roll, country, jazz and rhythm & blues, its label identity synonymous with its biggest star, Roy Orbison. Other artists on the Monument label have included Kris Kristofferson, Boots Randolph, Dolly Parton, Ray Stevens, Tony Joe White, Charlie McCoy, Willie Nelson and others.

Best recognized around the world for his otherworldly voice and black sunglasses. Roy Orbison was both rock & roll pioneer and prototypical singer-songwriter, beginning with his first high school band (the Wink Westerners/Teen Kings) and shifting into mass consciousness in the 1960s with a string of singles for the Monument label that defined an artist and helped launch a label.

Orbison - along with a short list that included Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins - was one of the undisputed originators and architects of rock & roll at Sam Phillips' Sun Records. Orbison cut his first chart hit (it reached #1 on the local charts), "Ooby Dooby," for Sun in 1956, staying with the label for two years before a brief stint at RCA in 1958.

Roy Orbison signed with the newly emerging independent label Monument Records in mid-1959. While his second single for Monument, "Uptown," became his biggest hit as a performer since "Ooby Dooby," it was Orbison's third single for the label, "Only The Lonely (Know How I Feel)," which announced to the world the true artistry of Roy Orbison. The song peaked #2 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart, crossed over to #14 on the Billboard Black Singles chart, and rocketed up to #1 on the UK charts.

Orbison followed up the breakthrough with a pair of respectfully charting singles - "Blue Angel" (#9 Pop, #23 Black) and "I'm Hurtin'" (#27 Pop) - before knocking it out of the park with "Running Scared'," his first USA #1 Pop.

After that came an unbroken four-year string of Top 40 Hits - "Crying," "Candy Man," "Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)," "Working for the Man," "Leah," "In Dreams," "Pretty Paper," "Blue Bayou," " Mean Woman Blues," "It's Over" - during which Roy Orbison became America's top-selling recording artist and one of the world's most celebrated entertainers.

Orbison played shows with Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jimmy Page, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Isaak, and many, many others, the man and music leaving a deep impact on them all. The monumental 1963 Roy Orbison World Tour, which featured Patsy Cline (in the weeks before her death) as a support act in the states, helped break the then-rising Beatles (Orbison fans themselves who'd recorded Roy's hit "Dream Baby" for a BBC radio broadcast in 1962) when they played support on the European leg of the tour. Orbison's profound musical and emotional influences may be heard in early Beatles singles (e.g. "Love Me Do" after "Candy Man," "Please Please Me" after "Only The Lonely," "Daytripper" after "Oh, Pretty Woman").

Roy Orbison was one of the few established hit-makers from the late 1950s and early 1960s to not only hold his ground, but to actually increase his popularity in the wake of the British Invasion. He maintained his popularity through music which displayed an extraordinary variety of themes, structure, tempo and rhythm and an authentic, emotional connection that transcended mere craft, exemplified in his signature classic, "Oh, Pretty Woman," recorded on August 1st, 1964. Written by Orbison with his new writing partner Bill Dees, "Oh, Pretty Woman" became Roy's biggest hit and is one of the most recognized and popular songs of all time. Released in August 1964 in the US and in September of that year in the UK, the song hit the #1 slot in virtually every country in the world where people had record players, selling some seven million copies that year.

And this was only the beginning...

Ahead of Roy were 23 world tours, 12 albums for MGM, his starring role in the 1967 MGM feature film "The Fastest Guitar Alive," the 1988 all-star Cinemax special "Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night," The Traveling Wilburys (with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne), the Class of '55 reunion album (with Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins), television appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and "Austin City Limits," his 1988 Mystery Girl album, the 1992 posthumous collection King of Hearts (produced by Jeff Lynne), the posthumous hit singles "You Got It" and "I Drove All Night," not to mention lawsuits, deaths, fires, tragedies, and Grammy awards.

When Roy Orbison died in 1988, he had two albums in the Billboard Top 5. In 1990, the Pretty Woman soundtrack topped the charts. In 2010, Roy Orbison got his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the Capitol Records Building alongside John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Garth Brooks.

ROY ORBISON: THE MONUMENT SINGLES COLLECTION

Disc One: The A-Sides

    1. Uptown
    2. Only The Lonely
    3. Blue Angel
    4. I'm Hurtin'
    5. Running Scared
    6. Lana
    7. Crying
    8. Let The Good Times Roll
    9. Blue Bayou
    10. Dream Baby
    11. The Crowd
    12. Working For The Man
    13. In Dreams
    14. Falling
    15. It's Over
    16. Oh, Pretty Woman
    17. Goodnight

Bonus Tracks:

    1. Pretty Paper
    2. (Say) You're My Girl
    3. Paper Boy

Disc Two: The B-Sides

    1. Pretty One
    2. Here Comes That Song Again
    3. Today's Teardrops
    4. I Can't Stop Loving You
    5. Love Hurts
    6. Summer Song
    7. Candy Man
    8. Mean Woman Blues
    9. The Actress
    10. Mama
    11. Leah
    12. Shahdaroba
    13. Distant Drums
    14. Indian Wedding
    15. Yo Te Amo Maria
    16. Only With You

Bonus Tracks:

    1. Beautiful Dreamer
    2. Sleepy Hollow
    3. With The Bug

The Monument Concert - DVD

    1. Only the Lonely
    2. Running Scared
    3. Crying
    4. What'd I Say
    5. Dream Baby
    6. Mean Woman Blues
    7. It's Over
    8. Oh, Pretty Woman
    9. Goodnight

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SOURCE Legacy Recordings

SOURCE: Legacy Recordings

CONTACT: Tom Cording, VP of Media Relations, Sony Music - Legacy Recordings, 550 Madison Ave. - 17th floor, NY, NY 10022, tom.cording@sonymusic.com, +1-212-833-4448, or Randy Haecker, Sr. Director Media Relations, Legacy Recordings/SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, Randy.Haecker@sonymusic.com, +1-212-833-4101

Web Site: http://www.legacyrecordings.com