Roy Orbison's career, at once long and much too short, has been well-documented through the years. It began in the mid-'50s with a weekly West Texas TV show with his band the Wink Westerners (also known as the Teen Kings), and some noteworthy rockabilly sides with Sun Records. In the '80s, his membership in the Travelin' Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and longtime friend George Harrison re-established his rock'n'roll peerage. Soon after his death from a heart attack in 1988 at age 52, there was a posthumous top five album for Virgin, "Mystery Girl," and the top 10 single "You Got It." There had been stops at RCA, MGM and other labels, and international touring success when his recordings were in eclipse at home.

But none of that work would've mattered if it weren't for the years Orbison recorded for Nashville's Monument Records. From the tail of 1959 into 1965 were the years that guitar-wielding, sunglasses-wearing Roy Orbison became one of the most influential singers and songwriters in rock history, opened up the possibilities of pop music and became a star, two-and-a-half minutes at a time.

"Roy Orbison: The Monument Singles Collection," due April 26, is the centerpiece of a yearlong celebration of the 75th anniversary of Orbison's birth on April 23.

"Monument is the foundation," says his widow, Barbara Orbison, who has been the guiding force of his music and memory since his death. Barbara Orbison is president of Orbison Enterprises, Orbison Records, Roy Orbison Music, Barbara Orbison Music, Still Working Music Group and Pretty Woman Perfume. And though she has lined up a bumper crop of projects and charity events to celebrate Orbison's diamond anniversary year, she says, "Monument was the core."

It was Monument Records, run by Fred Foster in Nashville, that showcased not just the dramatic voice but the songwriting of Orbison and his partners, first Joe Melson, then Bill Dees. (Monument started in 1958 in the Washington, D.C.-area; Foster's initial partner was Baltimore DJ and local TV personality Buddy Deane-John Waters' inspiration for the Corny Collins character in the movie and stage show "Hairspray.")

The three-disc package, released by Sony Music's Legacy Recordings division, consists of two audio CDs, the A sides in sequence (disc one) and B sides (disc two) of each of his Monument 45 rpm singles, sounding as close to the original singles as possible from the original mono tapes. The third disc is a DVD of nine songs performed by Orbison and his band, the Candymen, for a TV show in Holland in 1965. It is a curious document, Orbison and the Candymen band in front of an audience of formally dressed young people who are either the best-behaved teenagers ever filmed or sulking because they found out they weren't allowed to dance, as they usually did on the program.

But the Monument discs are a feast. The A sides begin with "Uptown," which was recorded in September 1959 and peaked at No. 72 on the Billboard Hot 100, the timeless tale of a poor bellhop's ambition fueled by unrequited love for a rich beauty living in the penthouse. The hit streak begins with the second Monument release: "Only the Lonely (Know How I Feel)," which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1960, and was a whole different kind of rock'n'roll. At a time of novelty hits, songs about dance crazes and teen-idol tossaways, "Only the Lonely" was intense, passionate, operatic and beautifully sung by Orbison with the harmonies and chorus by co-writer Melson and the Anita Kerr Singers. Backing them was an all-star team of Nashville session players, including guitarists Hank Garland and Harold Bradley, Floyd Cramer on piano, Buddy Harman on drums and Bob Moore, Monument's musical director/orchestra leader, on bass.

That sumptuous sound characterized such standards as "Blue Angel," "Running Scared" and "Crying." Between 1960 and 1963, Orbison was in the top 40 of the Hot 100 for 119 weeks; in 1964, the year of the British Invasion, Orbison logged another 23 weeks in the top 40, including three weeks at No. 1 with his uptempo signature tune, "Oh, Pretty Woman."

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