Before we get into the debate about whether we really need another Roy Orbison collection, I'd like to get a few words in about the great singer's final concert.

It took place Dec. 4, 1988 in Akron, Ohio, two days before he died of a heart attack in his mother's Nashville home.

Orbison was at the top of his game. He was probably more popular than at any other time of his 33-year career. He was part of the Traveling Wilburys supergroup with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. His new single, You Got It, was about to hit the charts. And his superb album She's A Mystery To Me was to hit stores in a month. He had songs on three popular movies and only his records were being made by the best producers in the business -- Bono, Lynne, Rick Rubin, T Bone Burnett, Don Was and Brian Eno.

A year before, he'd been inducted into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame, cut a hugely popular duet of Crying with k.d. lang and filmed an hour-long video leading a band that featured Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Warnes, Jackson Browne and Elvis Costello. Everyone had finally caught on. Orbison was the finest voice in rock 'n' roll. Always had been.

So when he took the stage that night in Akron, Orbison was in pretty fine spirits. He played his standard show, finishing up with an extraordinary version of It's Over, before thanking each and every member of his crew, right down to the driver. As usual, the crowd brought him back for five or six encores, finally closing with Pretty Woman.

Luckily, they had a tape running on the soundboard. Mercy.

So when his widow, Barbara and son, Roy Kelton Jr., were looking for a song to close their mammoth four-disc, 107-track box set it only made sense that it would be that live version of It's Over from the last show.

Well, that's what you'd think. Right? But no, it's not. I've got the disc in my hand. It's Over is No. 106. Something called We'll Take The Night is No. 107. It's a decent enough song, but not the type of thing that leaves you dripping on the floor in a puddle of mush. It's Over can have that effect, especially when you know it's the last time the guy sang it. But there it is, second last song. Penultimate.

This deserved an explanation. So when I finally reached Barbara Orbison at her Nashville home (it took four cancelled appointments), I dove right into the topic. She even has an assistant bring her a copy of the show's setlist to settle a dispute about the order of the encores.

"It seems he did end with Pretty Woman that night," she says.

I'm impressed. She has an assistant to fetch setlists.

Then I pose the question about It's Over. Um, Barbara, Why was it placed second to last on Disc 4?

She's a little bit choked here. I get the feeling she may have been listening to It's Over as the phone rang. But her answer to the question is simple, almost sensible.

"You've got to end on a high note," she says after a couple of coughs. "It's Over would have been ending on a sad note."

So now that that's cleared up, let's talk the merits of yet another Roy Orbison collection. A quick look at the Sony/BMG website show this is well-mined territory.

There's The Orbison Way, The Essential Roy Orbison, The Classic Roy, Roy Orbison Super Hits, Roy Orbison Sings Lonely And Blue, Roy Orbison Love Songs, The Very Best of Roy Orbison, There Is Only One Roy Orbison and Roy Orbison Collections. I'm sure there's more.

Now, just in time for Christmas, there's Roy Orbison, The Soul Of Rock And Roll, retailing for somewhere between $60 and $70. You figure this one has got to be the last. It takes most of a day to play all four discs which covers his entire career beginning with his first single, Ooby Dooby, recorded in 1956 with his band The Teen Kings, to the posthumously released, We'll Take The Night. There's an incredible wealth of material here you won't find on other collections, including a dozen live tracks (including It's Over) and rarities never before released .

There's also an 80-page booklet, filled with intimate family pictures and laudatory quotes from all the rocky royalty -- Beatles and Stones, Bono and Bob.

You'll also get a copy of one of the stamps the Orbison family is trying to get the U.S. Post Office to make. They'd be just like the Elvis stamps, except Roy -- a young Roy and an old Roy (there never was a fat Roy).

The new box set even has a set of post cards from Orbison's old Texas school, Wink High, home of the Wildcats. You can mail them to your friends with the new Roy stamp, if it's ever made. Roy's yearbook picture is on the back. He looks pretty geeky and, yes, he's wearing glasses.

Barbara says she had a tough time packaging this box set, going over old personal photo albums and home movies. Orbison was a real family man, she says.

"I have to tell them when they ask me what Roy was doing in the '70s (a period of relatively low recording activity)," Barbara says. "He was at home taking care of his boys."

Barbara's an interesting woman. Through her husband she met a lot of interesting people. She's still close friends with Olivia Harrison, widow of George, the Beatle.

We talk about Roy's glasses -- she never thought they looked funny -- and how the two met. Barbara was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and met Ray at a party in 1967 when she was just 17. She wasn't impressed by the rock star image. Barbara just thought he was a nice guy. They married the next year.

We talk of the tragedy Roy endured, especially during the years before they met. In 1966, Roy lost his first wife, his teenage sweetheart Claudette in a motorcycle accident. Two years later, he lost two of his three sons when the family home in Tennessee burned to the ground. Roy and Barbara went on to have two more sons in the '70s.

"Things like that affect every aspect of your life, even when you put it behind, it's still there," But it makes you strong, you either give up or let it make you bigger and better ... He kept moving forward."

grockingham@thespec.com

905-526-3331

Some CD highlights

* 1956 Guitar Pull Medley: This is Roy having some fun, probably back stage after a show in Galveston, Texas, hammering out some early rock 'n' roll on his guitar with some friends. The medley consists of I Want You I Need You, I Was The One, That's All Right, Mary Lou and You're My Baby. This is the sort of thing a true fan would kill for.

* Demos, 1958-59. Disc One contains six demos from this key period in Orbison's development both as a writer and a singer -- Night Owl, Bad Cat, I Give Up, Love Struck, Baby Don't Stop, Defeated and Love Storm. These tracks are stripped down and beautiful.

* Land Of A Thousand Dances. A live recording from a 1972 show in Australia. Orbison could rock with Elvis, but he also had the soul of Otis.

* Precious. This is a demo recording, just Orbison and his guitar, dating from either 1968 or 1969. How it failed to make it onto an album is a mystery.

* That Lovin' You Feelin' Again. From the 1980 soundtrack to the movie Roadie, a duet with Emmylou Harris.

* Pretty Woman. Live, 1987. From the Black And White Sessions with that fantastic band featuring Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello. It's worth it for the guitar jam.

* It's Over. Live. Dec. 4, 1988, Akron, Ohio. Two days before Orbison's death. Enough said.