The Orbison Way – ROY ORBISON****

Crawling Back/It Ain’t No Big Thing/Time Changed Everything/This Is My Land/The Loner/Maybe/Breakin’ Up Is Breakin’ My Heart/Go Away/A New Star/Never/It Wasn’t Very Long Ago/Why Hurt The One Who Loves You

By 1966 Roy Orbison was far more successful in retaining his fan base in Britain than he was in his native USA. This is reflected in the relative chart placings of The Orbison Way. Contains the UK No. 19 hit single Crawling Back. (US:128 UK:11)

"The Orbison Way, offers a varied body of songs, half of them recorded with his new backing band The Candy Men, and the other half featuring orchestral accompaniment. Orbison rises to new heights of drama in his singing on the latter songs, and it is interesting to hear him switch gears between the two musical backings and genres. The Loner is one place where he melds the two genres."

"Roy Orbison cut his most creative and aesthetically satisfying long player with his magnum opus The Orbison Way. If one were to put a label on this disc, I can only think of the term 'baroque-pop'. All twelve selections are wonderfully arranged by Bill McElhiny, and the LP has a consistency that wasn't always the case with Roy's albums."

"Every track here is a gem, starting off with the two hit singles Crawling Back and Breakin' Up Is Breakin' My Heart, which open each side respectively."

"None of these songs are on any Roy Orbison 'greatest hits' I've ever seen, but half of them wouldn't seem out place on one. This is one of his original albums from the 60s and it's pretty great. If he ever recorded any bad material, I haven't heard it."

"This is one of Roy's best MGM recordings. He was still recording songs that were similar to his Monument stuff and the songs on this are all excellent."

"Great stuff, from a man who had his own voice and didn't try to play chameleon with styles."

"The MGM period is a bit different to the Monument years - less of the saccharine strings that over burdened some of the Monument hits, and less of the too often present chorus. The songs on these MGM albums are thus a bit 'stripped down', with more interesting guitar and drumming."