Roy Orbison was in his sixth year with MGM Records at the time he cut the songs for
Roy Orbison Sings -- he'd seen his fortunes wax and wane, mostly the latter, during that time, principally because, in his view, the label had never given his records the promotion they deserved; by contrast, London Records, which released the same recordings in Europe and the rest of the world, did promote them there, and he'd had major hits in Europe and Australia during this same extended dry spell in America. He still threw everything he had into his recordings, however, as can be heard here -- despite four different production credits spread among its 11 songs (including
Orbison and his occasional writing partner and backup singer
Joe Melson), it's an amazingly consistent album and features
Orbison as the co-author on five of the songs. Mainly, it features his voice at its strongest and most confident, whether on romantic ballads such as "God Love You" or "Rings of Gold," or on slightly more country-flavored numbers like "Plain Jane Country (Come to Town)." He achieves new heights of drama and soaring vocal purity on "Harlem Woman," and jumps to a bouncy, acoustic guitar-driven country-pop number on "Cheyenne." "Changes," an original number by
Orbison and
Melson, sounds like a lost single, and its melody seems to owe a debt to either
Anton Karas' "Third Man Theme" or
Kurt Weill's "Mack the Knife."