Recorded in 1969 and delivered to MGM that August with the expectation it'd be released before the end of the year,
One of the Lonely Ones was scrapped for some reason but unearthed decades later when Universal prepared a deluxe reissue of
Roy Orbison's MGM catalog in 2015. Nowhere in the brief liner notes is it mentioned why
One of the Lonely Ones didn't see a release but, compared to a lot of his MGM LPs of the mid-'60s, this is a better album, and it's stronger and more adventurous than 1969's
Roy Orbison's Many Moods, to boot. In fact, that title fits this album better than that record, because this contains a rare rocker in "Child Woman, Woman Child," along with an effective evocation of his classic Monument ballads in the title track, a nimble bit of country-psychedelia in "Give Up," a good bit of fuzz-colored schmaltz in "Little Girl (In the Big City)," and an effective reading of two
Mickey Newbury songs ("Leaving Makes the Rain Come Down," "Sweet Memories"). Both the material and the production are richer than the albums that MGM did wind up releasing, so its shelving is a mystery, but the record serves as proof that if the stars aligned,
Orbison could still deliver compelling work in the late '60s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine