A Love So Beautiful - Roy Orbison With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (LP & Download)

It arrived this morning!!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely wonderful, we are both in our seventies and have loved Roy Orbison's music for as long as I can remember. To be accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra brings another dimension to it. All of our favourite songs(mine is I Drove All Night) Crying, Pretty Woman,It's Over etc.Two very happy people here

I love Roy Orbison and am a bit of a hard to please music nut. I had low expectations for this album because, let's be honest the original Orbison recordings at Monument (or with Jeff Lynne) are unsurpassable - they were recorded when the stars were aligned and history was made. I will always go back to those originals rather than anything reworked.However, I did find this album to be very on enjoyable on the whole. The song that I think has been done the best and might come close to bettering the original is Love Hurts which was mostly overlooked back in the 60s but really stands out to me on this album. Blue Angel is also very tastefully done. In general, the dumby dums of the backing vocalists on Only The Lonely, Blue Angel etc are all taken from (or at least sound very similar to) Roy's 80s rerecordings while generally they have taken his voice from the 60s Monument tracks with Dream Baby the notable exception.As you might guess, the Royal Philharmonic is most suited to Roy's big ballads which make up the majority of the album and this is the area that allows them to really excel - probably why the album is particularly ballad heavy (even for a Roy Orbison album) which I think is a good thing here. Overall I think the Philharmonic struggle to know how to fit in or what to do on rock 'n' roll songs (especially rock songs like I Drove All Night). My least favourites on the album are You Got It and I Drove All Night - they've lost the big sound that Jeff Lynne gave them and hence sound flat and dull making me long for the originals (think it's mainly the drums that cause this very dry and thin sound on those two tracks).

I have been a fan of Roy Orbison for many years. Amongst singers of the pop, country and western, ballad and rock and roll genres of music he has no equal - and is never likely to as Roy had a voice that was unique (even when opera singers are included in the comparisons). I believe that I have a least one version of every song (and several of his many outstanding recordings) that Roy ever committed to a recording. Therefore, for the style of recording under review, explicitly harmonising Roy's songs with a recognised orchestra of world standing, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, it was of special interest to observe which of Roy's songs were chosen.Despite the expectation that there may be further recordings of this type in the future, that is, Roy Orbison songs with a newly-recorded backing of a full symphony orchestra and, therefore, careful selection of songs to be accompanied, I was a little disappointed with some of the selections on this CD. I could not detect any appreciable difference from previous recordings in, for example, Dream Baby, Blue Angel, Uptown and Mean Women Blues, It is true that the clarity of thee recordings was improved, but the songs as such offered little extra.On the other hand, the inclusion of an orchestral introduction was most effective in Crying, In Dreams, It's Over, Running Scared, A Love So Beautiful and Pretty Paper, and complemented the generally improved sonic appeal of the whole selection of songs. This would suggest that the more romantic or balladic the song the more likely it will be will that fuller orchestral accompaniment would further value the recordings of Roy Orbison.I look forward to what an RPO arrangement and backing would sound like in songs like Evergreen, Walk On, Southbound Jericho Parkway, Crawling Back, Too Soon To Know, Beautiful Dreamer and So Young - just to name a few that come to mind. These new arrangements of Roy Orbison songs enable the fan to further appreciate what a remarkable composer and singer Roy was. To value such recordings with renewed arrangements focused with an outstanding orchestral backing is a worthy testament to his musical memory.I look forward to further recordings of this nature.

"You Aways Said That I'd Be Back Again..." and here is Roy Orbison with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Roy Orbison's great clear vocals from yesteryear. It's sound great with the arrangements of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the Big O's classics . Hope to see a volume 2 someday.Roy Orbison and Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra Hologram Tour is a great idea. Hope to see a DVD/Blu-Ray soon of the tour.

What can be said about BIG O that hasn’t been said already. This is a fantastic album, if you like Roy Orbison you will not be disappointed. My only criticism is the digipac I dislike them and prefer a plastic jewel case. Looking forward to the vinyl version out in December.

Not too sure if this would be a cd that I would enjoy due to the mixed reviews that had been left. But I really do like it some tracks more so than others again that tends to be the way sometimes! I'm Hurting is a new track to me so its a favourite as to are Blue Angel; Mean Woman Blues; Uptown. Never sure on A Love So Beautiful but I really love this version of the song.I do enjoy Oh Pretty Woman & You Got It not sure on I Drove All Night. The whole album is growing on me

Fantastic what a joy to listen to love hearing the well loved songs in this way! As for just giving it one star and saying should have been left as it was is not very helpful this cd is pure joy from start to finish!

All the tracks are remastered brilliantly. This enhances Orbison's singing should this be possible. His voice is clear and rich.The RPH backs with subtly and empathy. Talented bass guitar playing on many of the tracks adds perfection.