This Month's Thrift Store Vinyl Sharity

Roy Orbison, Cry Softly Little One (MGM Records, 1967)

Cry Softly Little One is generally thought of as one of Orbison’s better MGM releases. There are a number of tracks co-written by Orbison and Bill Dees, and some of them are pretty good. I’ve always liked “Communication Breakdown,” for example, but partly because of its pre-Zeppelin title and ripped-off “Wichita Lineman” introduction. Both “It Takes One (To Know One)” and “That’s a No No” are pretty competent pop songs, nicely produced. In general, the album seems confident: there are only a few instances of trying to cite or copy the Monument releases (the title track is guilty of that, though). And, as we’re still in the same decade as those earlier hits, Orbison’s work seems less a matter of nostalgia than of style: you can hear how the MGM stuff really is part of that larger oeuvre.

This album is available as an import CD.

Track list (*written by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees): She*; Communication Breakdown*; Cry Softly Little One; Girl Like Mine; It Takes One (to Know One)*; Just Let Me Believe; Here Comes the Rain Baby; That’s a No No*; Memories*; Time to Cry*; Only Alive

Tracks and album art are available here in a .zip archive.