Soul of Rock & Roll

This lavish, four-disc box set is undoubtedly the definitive summation of the career of Roy Orbison, rock & roll's great drama king. Behind those dark glasses and cool veneer lurked a man with an operatic voice and a rockabilly heart, and this set expertly guides you through every phase of his discography. The first disc features Orbison the Sun Records rock-&-roll cat, turning out rollicking rockabilly gems like "Ooby Dooby," and there are a number of mouth-watering demo recordings from this period featured as well. Disc Two really begins to get into the meat of the Orbison discography. Tracks like "Only the Lonely," "Running Scared," and "In Dreams" are lush, otherworldly pop operas where Orbison's unearthly tenor soars above clouds of strings to cry out, sometimes in longing, sometimes in terror. These immortal tracks pierce the listener to the soul, and by the final disc in the set, Orbison is surrounded by younger artists who grew up on those tunes, like k.d. lang, who joins him in a tear-jerking remake of "Crying." If you want the full Orbison experience, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than this box.