"Mystery Girl" - Orbison, Roy

Remastered Album

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Full Track Listing:

  • You Got It
  • In The Real World
  • (All I Can Do Is) Dream You
  • A Love So Beautiful
  • California Blue
  • She’s A Mystery To Me
  • The Comedians
  • The Only One
  • Windsurfer
  • Careless Heart
  • The Way Is Love
  • She’s A Mystery To Me (Demo)
  • The Only One (Demo)
  • California Blue (Demo)
  • You Are My Love

Background Information

This was a remastered edition of Roy Orbison’s “Mystery Girl” album which was celebrating it’s 25th anniversary in 2014. The album was originally released in 1989. Bono had started writing the song, “She’s a Mystery to Me” for Orbison in 1987. Bono had discovered Orbison’s “In Dreams” while watching the film Blue Velvet. One night while having difficulty sleeping in London he put a tape on with that song included, and he describes always waking up on that song.

“So the next day I woke up and I started this song, ‘She’s a Mystery to Me.’ I became a bore and talked about Roy Orbison all day. I played the song — or what I’d started of the song — to the others in the band and they liked that. Or maybe they liked the fact that it stopped me talking about Roy Orbison. (laughs) I was just going on and on about him. Anyway, after the concert in Wembley Arena I came back and I was sitting down in the dressing-room, working on this song and basically trying to order everybody into buying ever Roy Orbison record ever made, when there was a knock on the door.” At the door was Orbison. The song was started on June 2, 1987 as U2 played Wembley Arena, and Roy Orbison met them backstage on that evening. Orbison agreed to meet with U2 again later in the year, and that gave Bono time, with assistance from the Edge, to complete the song “She’s a Mystery to Me”. It was recorded with Bono once again present in late 1988.

“She’s a Mystery To Me” was written by Bono and the Edge, and featured Bono on guitar, as well as crediting him with production. The chorus of “She’s a Mystery to Me” lead to the name of the album. The song here on the first disc is the version that would be released on the album and as a single. This remastered edition also contains a second disc which contains a second version of Orbison performing “She’s a Mystery to Me”. This is a rough demo of the song, and you can hear Bono offering suggestions as the producer of the track, and also singing along. The deluxe package also included a DVD which featured a number of videos, including two different videos for the song “She’s a Mystery to Me”.

U2 have performed “She’s a Mystery to Me” in concert. The first performance of the song was at the December 30, 1989 concert in Dublin on the LoveTown tour. It was played one other time on that tour. During Zoo TV, and PopMart it was played one time on each tour. The band have also played it in full at promotional appearances in 2000 and in 2004. The performance at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn NY on November 22, 2004 was released as a b-side to “All Because of You”. That performance is the first released performance of U2 performing the song. U2 have never released their own studio version of the song but it is known that one was recorded in Sun Studios in 1987 when other songs from “Rattle and Hum” were recorded.

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