Best Albums !: Roy Orbison. Mystery Girl (1989)

Mystery Girl is the last record album made by Roy Orbison, posthumously released on the Virgin label in 1989. The album reached #5 on the Billboard 200.

All the tracks were recorded in late 1988 and it was finalized for release in the weeks following his death through the collaborative efforts of several artists who were all friends and admirers. The album was named after the chorus from the track "She's a Mystery to Me", written for Orbison by U2's Bono and The Edge.

In the documentary In Dreams: The Roy Orbison Story, Bono tells how he woke up for a concert's sound check, following a late night listening to the soundtrack to David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and had the tune in his head, figuring it was another Orbison song ("In Dreams" was the only Orbison song on that album). During the sound check he performed it for the other members of U2, who agreed that the track sounded like an Orbison song. A short while later, Orbison met the band backstage at one of their concerts and subsequently asked Bono if he would like to write a song with/for him.

The album was released posthumously in 1989 and would join another Orbison album on the Billboard charts. Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 was recorded in mid 1988 as part of the supergroup, Traveling Wilburys. The dual success meant that Roy Orbison joined Elvis Presley as the only singers to ever simultaneously have two Top 5 albums on the Billboard Charts posthumously.