“Mystery Girl” by Roy Orbison

It’s the recent 35th anniversary of Roy Orbison’s tender, incredible swan song.

A month after completing Mystery Girl, his 22nd studio album, Roy Orbison passed away at age 52. Though he never got to see it come to fruition, this exceptional record would put an exclamation point on his improbable comeback story, one that began in 1986, when “In Dreams” scored a memorable sequence in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. That exposure led to his involvement with the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup that featured Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and the man who’d write and produce several pivotal tracks for this album, ELO’s Jeff Lynne. Colored by his tragic passing, Mystery Girl eventually helped Orbison become the first deceased musician since Elvis Presley to have two albums enter the Top 5 on the US chart.

What I love most about this record is how it perfectly captures its star’s essence while subtly updating the arrangements with crisper, more modern-sounding production. As a result, these songs sound luxurious and spacious, giving Orbison’s voice the room it needs to reach chill-inducing heights. Ballads like “A Love So Beautiful,” with its spacy synth intro, and “She’s a Mystery to Me” rank among his best work, the latter of which features a writing assist from Bono and the Edge. The closest Orbison comes to recapturing his early-60s sonics might be “Careless Heart,” an impeccable piece of songwriting from stalwarts Diane Warren and Albert Hammond.

Of course, there’s also the trascendent opener, “You Got It,” a toe-tapper so disarming, so big-hearted, it has to be one of the most likeable songs of the 80s. It, and Mystery Girl as a whole, continues to serve as a fitting farewell to one of rock’s most enduring icons.