| Memphis | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Roy Orbison |
| Cover: | Memphis - Roy Orbison.jpg |
| Caption: | Cover art by Drew Struzan |
| Released: | November 1972 |
| Recorded: | March 15 – April 14, 1972 |
| Genre: | Rockabilly |
| Length: | 37:27 |
| Label: | MGM (SE 4867) |
| Producer: | Roy Orbison, Joe Melson |
| Prev Title: | Roy Orbison Sings |
| Prev Year: | 1972 |
| Next Title: | Milestones |
| Next Year: | 1973 |
Memphis is the seventeenth album recorded by Roy Orbison, and his tenth for MGM Records. The album was released in November 1972.
The album was released on compact disc by Diablo Records on October 25, 2004, as one of three albums combined on one CD with Roy Orbison Sings and Milestones being the other two.[1] Memphis was included in a box set entitled The MGM Years 1965-1973 - Roy Orbison, which contains 12 of his MGM studio albums, 1 compilation, and was released on December 4, 2015.[2]
The album took three weeks to make in March and April 1972. The album had one single, "Memphis, Tennessee", which reached No. 84 in the US.[3] Also included was a new, re-recorded version of Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You", which previously appeared on his 1960 album Lonely and Blue.[4] This was Orbison's final album that was released for London Records as Decca let Orbison out of their contract on June 30, 1972.
Bruce Eder of AllMusic said that the album "moves on to more familiar sentimental country-pop territory of the kind that Glen Campbell had been charting with and filling his albums with for a few years -- and after that comes a hot, beat-driven, chorus-laden, big-sounding number. nderstated interpretation of Don Gibson's "I Can't Stop Loving You" that shows how less can be more with a voice like Orbison's, and then there's the pop/rock country "Run the Engines Up High," which incorporates some heavy, rock-style fuzz guitar, and a version of "I Fought the Law," complete with phased drums."[5]
Billboard described the album as "one of [Orbison] best efforts in years"[6]