I was channel surfing one evening and landed on a PBS special of the Roy Orbison concert, Black and White Night. I wouldn't say I was a huge Orbison fan up to that point, but the PBS special changed that in one sitting.

I now have the DVD in my collection, and again, I believe it's a must have. Consider that not only did he perform, but he had the following people as BACKUP and special guests:

Jackson Browne, T-Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, J. Steven Soles, J.D. Souther, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Jennifer Warnes, Alex Acuna, James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, Jerry Scheff.

The concert took place at the Ambassador Hotel's Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles, and was taped entirely in black & white on September 30, 1987, approximately a year before his death. Other celebrity admirers of Orbison were in the audience, including Billy Idol, Sandra Bernhard and Kris Kristofferson. The backing band was the TCB Band, which accompanied Elvis Presley from 1969 until his death in 1977.

The video performance has been used by PBS stations to assist in fund raising. and has proved to be the single most successful fund raiser in PBS history. The audio from this special was made into an album by Virgin Records in 1989, titled "A Black & White Night Live".

To pick a single segment to post here was almost impossible. So I decided to post two. Twice as impossible, so all I'll say is that there's not a bad cut on this production. And the production itself is very well done. Combine that with the sultry croonings of Orbison and the teaming up with today's celebreties on various songs, and you've got an amazing musical experience.

Enjoy!