Album: Roy Orbison, The Monument Singles Collection: 1960-64 (Monument Legacy)

It's long been conventional to regard the gap between the fading of rock'n'roll's 1950s thunderclap and the first landing of the British Invasion in 1964 as a sort of taste vacuum in pop.

Which is cobblers. The evidence? Motown, Chuck Berry, the Everlys and the Big O: the first stirrings of the gothic in rock, not to mention the first incidence of unadulterated grace. This set teams all the A-sides with their Bs and, in one edition, brings you a live DVD from 1965. Sigh.