Roy Orbison would have turned 75 on April 23. For the occasion, Sony Legacy has collected all the singles he recorded for Monument Records, the label he called home during his most productive period — the years when he recorded "Only the Lonely," "Crying" and "Oh, Pretty Woman." Between 1960 and '64, Orbison dominated the charts. For a while, he withstood even the British Invasion, scoring huge hits in the U.K.
Though he never again reached the heights he did in the early '60s, Orbison influenced some of the most popular artists that followed him, from Bruce Springsteen to The Beatles. His biggest songs are impeccably crafted and solidly, gracefully written.
Here, we've chosen eight of our favorite Orbison songs — the ones we've listened to hundreds of times — from tearjerkers to dance-floor numbers.
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