| Hank Williams the Roy Orbison Way | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Roy Orbison |
| Cover: | Hank Williams the Roy Orbison Way.jpg |
| Released: | August 1970 |
| Genre: | Country |
| Length: | 30:22 |
| Label: | MGM |
| Producer: | Don Gant |
| Prev Title: | The Great Songs of Roy Orbison |
| Prev Year: | 1970 |
| Next Title: | The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison |
| Next Year: | 1972 |
Hank Williams: The Roy Orbison Way is the fourteenth album recorded by Roy Orbison, and his eighth with MGM Records, released in August 1970. It is a tribute album to the songs of honky tonk singer Hank Williams, whom Orbison listed among his influences. The album was a critical failure and it sold poorly—Fred Foster said it was "an exercise in futility." The exclusively North America release remained relatively unknown to Orbison fans until it was repackaged on Compact Disc in 2009 along with the popular 1967 Don Gibson tribute album Roy Orbison Sings Don Gibson.[1] The album was also included in the 2015 box set The MGM Years 1965–1973 – Roy Orbison.[2]
Critics found fault with arranger Jim Hall putting too much of a pop rock tone on the album, obscuring the country roots of the songs with a string section, rock-style instrumentation, and a choir of backing vocalists. Orbison's familiar "soaring tenor" vocal style also reduced the connection to Hank Williams. Very few listeners were interested in this kind of mixture in 1970. In a retrospective review, singer-songwriter John Kruth wrote that the album's "kitschy aesthetic was decades ahead of its time and would have made a splash in the late '80s with hipsters who revered Les Baxter's exotic soundtracks and Juan Esquivel's retro bachelor pad music."
William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that the production "works best when Orbison is addressing a lesser-known Williams song like '(Last Night) I Heard You Crying in Your Sleep' or 'A Mansion on the Hill', so that the tune seems more his own."
Billboard magazine described the album as "exciting" and noted that Orbison brought "his distinctive vocal style" to bear on the Williams songs.[3]
Cashbox wrote that Orbison "knows just the right amount of pathos to give his voice on such cuts as "(Last Night) I Heard You Crying In Your Sleep".[4]
All tracks composed by Hank Williams, except where indicated.