At the Rock House

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1961 studio album by Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison at the Rock House is the first album by Roy Orbison on the Sun Records label, released in 1961 at a time when Orbison had already moved to the Monument label.[1] Sun Records owner Sam Phillips had a collection of songs Orbison had recorded at Sun during 1956–1958. Phillips capitalized on the national recognition Orbison had achieved at Monument through three major hit singles in 1960 and 1961 that had gone to the top of the Billboard charts.

Most of the songs on Roy Orbison at the Rock House were written by Orbison but the songwriting credits were assigned to Sam Phillips, and are in Sun`s traditional rockabilly style. Notable exceptions are compositions by other Sun artists Harold Jenkins (better known as Conway Twitty) and Johnny Cash. "Rock House" is credited to Orbison and Jenkins.[2] the album was released as The Exciting Sounds Of Roy Orbison for its release in the UK in 1964,[3] and it spent its two weeks on the album chart there at number 17[3] before being retitled as Roy Orbison - The Original Sound in The USA in 1969.

For this release, all tracks except "Devil Doll" have been overdubbed with background vocals or additional instruments.

Reception

Bruce Eder of AllMusic said that the album "is downright bracing and exciting, though it`s easy to see why it never succeeded at the time -- numbers like "You`re Gonna Cry" and "Problem Child" were a little too intense and ambitious as rock & roll, with too many changes and involved lyrics, to hold that audience en masse."[4]

Billboard enjoyed Orbison`s "exciting rocking dramatic style".[6]

Track listing

This album was only released in US.

All tracks are written by Roy Orbison, assigned to Sam Phillips, except where indicated

Personnel

The Teen Kings

• Roy Orbison – lead vocals, lead guitar
• James Morrow – electric mandolin
• Jack Kennelley – double bass
• Johnny Wilson – acoustic guitar
• Billy Pat Ellis – drums

Additional musicians

• The Four Roses – backing vocals
• uncredited – guitar, bass, piano, drums; overdubbed guitars, bass, piano, drums, backing vocals