King Of Hearts: A Reassessment

Coming three years after Mystery Girl and four years after his death, the posthumous Roy Orbison record King of Hearts is often summarily dismissed as a shameless cash in exercise by people he trusted to protect his good name.  I, though, have always believed that view to be rather inaccurate. Mainly because it fails to take into account the 40-plus minutes of great music.

Mystery Girl was an astounding record, true. Yet, King of Hearts, a collection of outtakes that didn’t make it onto that record (plus some other assorted odds and sods) is almost as good as anything the late Orbison recorded. Critics take issue with the fact that almost all the cuts off King of Hearts were tidied up without the great man’s approval, but here’s the thing: the songs -- all 10 of them -- are nothing short of special.

I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow review but I will highlight here my two favourite tracks off that record, which I’ve always believed, warrant the price of admission:

First up is the Will Jennings/JD Souther/Orbison-penned We’ll Take The Night, which buoyed by the best Clarence Clemons sax lines this side of Springsteen’s Jungleland, nods to Orbison’s classic past while serving up decidedly ’90s pop catchiness.  The lyrics aren’t especially inspired, true (“Come on, baby, and we’ll take the night/While the stars are willing and the moon is right”) but that bridge, with its minor chord movement and soaring vocal, is mouth-watering! And yes, the vibe is a little country lite, but remember, this was a production style that was two years away from being employed with great effect on The Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over.

King of Hearts’ other show-stopper, and my personal favourite, is After The Love Has Gone. And no, it’s not an Earth, Wind & Fire cover. After The Love pairs that awesome Orbison vocal with sympathetic music and a plaintive piano that is guaranteed to open the waterworks on a real bad day. Or in the aftermath of a broken relationship. Take your pick. The handclaps and rather too loud backing vocals do, I accept, make the track sound a tad dated in 2012, but if you excuse that, the song is simply irresistible.

So yes, King of Hearts. Not as great as Mystery Girl (because really, not many records in the entire history of the world are!) but still pretty awesome.

Now, if only more people cared about good music we wouldn’t need to deal with shit like LMFAO.