The final album Roy Orbison recorded in his lifetime, Mystery Girl, completed a month before his death in 1988 at 52, was a collage of songs written by Orbison with contributions by Dianne Warren and Albert Hammond, along with Elvis Costello (“The Comedians”), U2‘s Bono and The Edge (“She’s a Mystery to Me”), and more.
His Traveling Wilburys bandmate Jeff Lynne also co-produced and co-wrote three tracks with Orbison for Mystery Girl, including his posthumous hit, “You Got It,” which went to No. 9. Written over Christmas in 1987, along with Tom Petty, “You Got It” was recorded in April of ’88 at Heartbreaker Mike Campbell’s garage studio in Los Angeles. George Harrison also contributed backing vocals and played acoustic guitar on the track, along with Heartbreakers collaborator Phil Jones on drums and Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band member and longtime musical director Michael Utley covering the string arrangement.
Mystery Girl was Orbison’s first solo album of new material in a decade (since Laminar Flow, 1979), and for Lynne, it was “bittersweet” experience. “This is a bittersweet thing because he was such a big hero to me,” said Lynne of working with Orbison on his final album. “I used to listen to him for hours and hours as a kid.”
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Lynne continued, “For years before this, he’d just been going through the motions of recording and not working with people who were empathetic with him or who had put enough care and love into the music. I reminded him of who he was and how great he was, and that’s why I got a great performance out of him.”
Orbison also co-wrote a batch of songs with Lynne and Petty during their Traveling Wilburys days —”Dirty World,” “Rattled,” “Last Night,” “Heading for the Light,” “Margarita,” “End of the Line,” “Poor House,” “New Blue Moon,” and more—along with two other solo tracks released after his death.
[RELATED: The Final Song Roy Orbison Wrote Was a “Gift From God”]
“A Love So Beautiful”
Written by Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne
Written on a Casio keyboard and guitar, “A Love So Beautiful” is a cinematic, lonely song, redolent of Orbison’s Blue Velvet serenade “In Dreams.” The ballad tells of a love that was so beautiful it drifted away.
The summer sun looked down on our love long ago
But in my heart, I feel the same old afterglow
A love so beautiful
In every way
A love so beautiful
We let it slip away
We were too young to understand, to ever know
That lovers drift apart, and that’s the way love goes
A love so beautiful
A love so sweet
A love so beautiful
A love for you and me
And when I think of you
I fall in love again
“California Blue”
Written by Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, and Tom Petty
Released as the second single from Mystery Girl, “California Blue” is another wistful ballad in remembrance of sunnier days and a longing love. Petty, Campbell, and Lynne also play and sing on the track, along with King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace.
Workin’ all day
And the sun don’t shine
Trying to get by
And I’m just killing time
I feel the rain
Fall the whole night through
Far away from you
California blue
California blue
Dreaming all alone
Nothing else to do
California blue
Every day I pray
I’ll be on my way
Saving love for you
California blue
“Heartbreak Radio”
Written by Troy Seals and Frankie Miller; Produced by Jeff Lynne
A departure from the lonesome ballads, “Heartbreak Radio” was a harder rock song about an unrequited love, released in 1992 on the posthumous Orbison compilation King of Hearts, and produced by Lynne.
Hometown sweetheart
Hung around in the dark
Only make a move or two
I was just a young fool
Never been to night school, Didn’t know enough to be cool
So she found another lover, They went undercover
The way she stole my heart was a crime
In order to keep the peace callin’ out the police
Find her’fore I lose my mind
The woman i love done gone and Left me, no
She’s got a bad big record on the Heartbreak radio
A complete investigation, What’s her destination
Did she leave a trace at all?
Book on her suspicion.Just look at my condition
She left me here to take the fall
The album also features co-producers Robbie Robertson, Don Was, and T Bone Burnett, among others and another Lynne production, Orbison’s rendition of “I Drove All Night.” Originally written for Orbison by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, Cyndi Lauper first recorded it for her 1989 album A Night to Remember.
“It was just dreadful when I heard he had died,” recalled Lynne of the day Orbson’s death on December 6, 1988. “I got a call at like six in the morning, and all I heard was ‘Mr. Orbison has died,’ and then they hung up,” Lynne added. “I still have no idea who called me. I had to get up and listen to the radio to see if it was bullshit or real. It turned out to be real, unfortunately. ‘You Got It’ had just come out when he died of a heart attack at his mother’s house. He was a beautiful guy, as well as the best singer I’ve ever heard.”
Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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