No one does it better than Roy Orbison and this is his best ever during his 1987 PBS-TV special called "A Black and White Night". He died shortly after taping this gig. Bruce Springsteen and James Burton just rip it up on this version of "Ooby Dooby" with Roy.

I love Roy Orbison. My favourite song is "In Dreams" sounds so surreal.

Hey SINC... music we both like! I love Roy Orbison. Love so many of his songs. That's an awesome performance!!!


I may be biased, but I'm also quite partial to Mystery Girl, which was written by Bono for Roy. Love the lyrics and love his signing. He's got such a cool voice. Goes from very masculine and soulful to an almost androgynous high end that just sounds nice.

Night falls I'm cast beneath her spell
Daylight comes our heaven turned to hell
Am I left to burn and burn eternally
She's a mystery to me
She's a mystery girl
She's a mystery girl

+ YouTube Video

Glad we can all forget differences and enjoy talent. Roy was one of a kind. Anything he does is just great.

If you don't own "A Black and White Night", you're missing some truly great stuff. My copy is near worn out from playing it, but I now have it safely on my Apple TV!

I'm a HUGE fan of Roy Orbison, so I have to go all "Comic Book Guy" on you and correct the record:

A Black & White Night was recorded on January 3rd, 1987 (in a single take, btw), but he actually died 11 months later, on 6-Dec-88. In between those two dates, he joined and recorded the first Travelling Wilburys record; wrote recorded his own solo album Mystery Girl, and played many concerts both in the US and abroad, gathering awards and accolades everywhere he went (and probably working himself too hard). His last concert (which was recorded, btw and is now available on iTunes) was given just two days prior to his death. On the actual day, he flew model airplanes with his sons, had dinner with his mother, and died in his sleep of a heart attack. He was due to fly out to London the next day to participate in two videos for the Travelling Wilburys.

I remember very specifically the wonderful tribute concert that was put together in his honour shortly thereafter: KD Lang *blew the roof off the place* with her solo cover of "Crying," which of course went on to become one of her signature tunes (and she'd even done a duet of it with Roy for his re-recorded greatest hits compilation In Dreams).

Sorry, didn't mean to go on like that, but he's a big favourite of mine -- few other singers can raise the hair on the back of my neck like Roy could.

PS. I couldn't pick an absolute favourite Roy song, but what's remarkable is that his final album is also very good stuff. I particularly like "She's a Mystery" and "The Comedians" (co-written with Bono and Elvis Costello, respectively).

I love every song on Mystery Girl. That was my first Roy Orbison Album. My mom had his oldies stuff on Tape and it wasn't until after I moved out I bought my own.

Here is a snip from a documentary I saw a few years back.

Bono : Roy Orbison : Mystery Girl Video

Hmm, I got the year right, 1987, so I guess 11 months isn't shortly after then. Seems awfully short to me.

Then Chas_m, how do you respond to this on WIKI

I would say errors abound; I made a mistake in saying the show was recorded on 3-Jan-87 when in fact it was as you say recorded on 30-September-87. It *aired* on the 3rd of January, but in 1988.

However, the wikipedia entry remains incorrect as well; 30-September-87 and 6-December-88 isn't "approximately a year," it's 14 months.

My overall point -- that Roy didn't die "shortly after B&W Night" -- stands.