Smoke Gets In Your Eyes/ No Matter What You Are

This is simply one of the most moving love songs in the history of rock'n'soul. If you wonder what kind of sound inspired Roy Orbison's oeuvre, just listen to this classic track. I was so impressed with its elegant, slowly building momentum driven by lead singer Tony Williams' ethereal vocal that I pulled out my copy of Dave Marsh's em:The Heart of Rock & Soul to see what he had written about it. Here's a bit of his short essay:\r\n

\r\nSet in a pool of echo, with an arrangement that uses ornate piano chords, swirling strings, and eventually even a touch of tympani... [Williams] rises to his final, tympani-buttressed high note, ... [imparting] a genuine feeling of tragedy. This is what the gospel-steeped stylists of R&B brought to pop songs that none of their emotionally restrained predecessors (white or black) could ever dream of matching.

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Note: This promo copy has gorgeous audio, but the label is marred by ringwear (on the B side) and the leavings of a sticker (on the A side).