At the Rock House

• Artist: Roy Orbison
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1961
• Genre: Rock

Review

Although it was technically Roy Orbison's first album, At the Rock House wasn't really an LP effort on his part so much as a cash-in effort by Sun Records in the wake of Orbison's later success on Monument Records with "Uptown," "Only the Lonely," etc. And understandably, the sound is very retro for 1960-1961, comprised as the record is primarily of the rock & roll and hardcore rockabilly numbers that he cut for Sun in 1956 (with his original group the Teen Kings) and 1957, including the Johnny Cash-authored "You're My Baby," the Orbison/Harold Jenkins collaboration "Rock House," and Sam Phillips' "Mean Little Mama" and "Problem Child." Not everything is quite as briskly paced as those two numbers, but even the ballads, such as "Sweet and Easy to Love" and "Devil Doll," and the melodic "This Kind of Love" and "It's Too Late," have an edge to them -- they stand midway between the rock & roll that was happening in 1956 and the more lush and dramatic sound that Orbison would perfect at Monument Records from 1959 onward. All of the material is fascinating as a sort of alternate-universe version of where Orbison might've headed musically, and most of it 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. It was some of the best and most intense rock & roll you could buy in 1961 this side of Elvis Presley, however, and heard today the album is a fascinating curio from what's usually thought of as a fallow period in rock & roll history. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
This Kind of Love	Sam Phillips	Roy Orbison
Devil Doll	Sam Phillips, Roy Orbison	Roy Orbison
You're My Baby (Lyrics)	Johnny Cash	Roy Orbison
Trying to Get to You	Charlie Singleton, Rose Marie McCoy	Roy Orbison
It's Too Late (Lyrics)	Chuck Willis	Roy Orbison
Rock House	Sam Phillips, Harold Jenkins	Roy Orbison
You're Gonna Cry	Sam Phillips	Roy Orbison
I Never Knew	Sam Phillips	Roy Orbison
Sweet and Easy to Love	Sam Phillips, Roy Orbison	Roy Orbison
Mean Little Mama	Sam Phillips	Roy Orbison
Ooby Dooby (Lyrics)	Roy Orbison, Dick Penner, Wade Moore	Roy Orbison
Problem Child	Sam Phillips	Roy Orbison

Credits

Roy Orbison (Guitar), Roy Orbison (Vocals)

jail house rock