A Black & White Night Live
A Black & White Night Live is a Roy Orbison music album made posthumously by Virgin Records from the HBO television special, Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night, which was filmed in 1987 and broadcast in 1988. According to the authorised Roy Orbison biography, the album was released in October 1989 and included the song "Blue Bayou" which because of time constraints had been deleted from the televised broadcast. However, it did not include the songs "Claudette" and "Blue Angel", which were also cut from the original broadcast for the same reason.
| A Black & White Night Live | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live album by Roy Orbison | ||||
| Released | October 23, 1989 | |||
| Recorded | September 30, 1987 | |||
| Venue | Coconut Grove Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | Rockabilly, country | |||
| Length | 57:32 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | T-Bone Burnett | |||
| Roy Orbison chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
1999 cover art | ||||
The SACD/CD Hybrid Audio Disc includes "Blue Angel" as a bonus track; the SACD/CD Hybrid Disc is contained in a pack with the DVD released by Image Entertainment, USA (ID27700BDVD). "Claudette" was included in later releases of the concert. According to the authorised biography, all tracks are now released on the 30 year anniversary Black & White Night 30.
On piano was Glen D. Hardin, who had played piano for Buddy Holly as well as Elvis Presley. Lead guitarist James Burton, drummer Ronnie Tutt and bassist Jerry Scheff were also from Presley's group. Male background vocals and some guitars were provided by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther and Steven Soles. Female background vocalists were k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Raitt.
Not all the stars were on stage. Glimpses of celebrities in the audience can be seen, including Kris Kristofferson, Patrick Swayze, Billy Idol and Sandra Bernhard.
On February 24, 2017, a 30th anniversary edition, titled Black & White Night 30, was released. The edition has been expanded, re-edited to include new footage and original running order to set list, and remastered. It is available both as a CD/DVD and a CD/Blu-ray set. This release has sold 161,400 copies as of March 2017.