Roy Orbison ~ The All-Time Greatest Hits

It's a measure of Roy Orbison's classics that even some of the uptempo songs that break up the dominant balladic mood of this 20-song collection are themselves fairly melancholic. Rarely does Orbison allow himself the outright celebration of something like "Mean Woman Blues," more often going for the shades of gray that slip into "Blue Angel" and "Leah." Few could do what he achieves on these singles, and not just because few are gifted with such a voice. The biggest achievement of all may be Orbison's ability to make a devastated cry like "Only the Lonely" sound somehow peaceful.

1 Only The Lonely

2 Leah

3 In Dreams

4 Uptown

5 It's Over

6 Crying

7 Dream Baby

8 Blue Angel

9 Working For The Man

10 Candy Man

11 Running Scared

12 Falling

13 Love Hurts

14 Shahdaroba

15 I'm Hurtin'

16 Mean Woman Blues

17 Pretty Paper

18 The Crowd

19 Blue Bayou

20 Oh Pretty Woman