Roy Orbison stood stoically through the 1965 concert filling the DVD in the three-disc set The Monument Singles Collection (released by Legacy). All in black, from his shoes to his glasses and his Brill-creamed hair, Orbison rarely allowed himself a smile during his nine-song performance before a young Dutch audience in a hall resembling a high school gym.
Orbison maintained an unemotional stance although he was the most lovelorn of singers. In his universe the clouds filled the sky with tears, the rainbow had faded to gray and the sun always sets to a deep blue twilight. While Orbison's songs occasionally had happy endings, they seemed tacked on like the final scene in an old Hollywood movie. In the hands of lesser singers many of his lyrics might have sounded bathetic, but Orbison was in a rank by himself among singers of the rock'n'roll era. For this Dutch TV taping, Orbison was backed by a band playing stripped down arrangements of his lavish hits while voice shone undiminished, sweeping into operatic registers.
The other two discs of the Singles Collection contain every A and B side he recorded for the indie Monument Records from 1959 through 1965. They are magnificently produced edifices with string sections, choral groups and a crack team of Nashville session men. “Only the Lonely” and “In Dreams” somehow transcend the pop conventions of their time; “Oh, Pretty Woman” shows he can rock. The music of The Monument Singles Collection was restored to pristine mono and hasn't sounded better since their first release on vinyl.
