Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night is a 1988 television special on Cinemax featuring Roy Orbison with the TCB Band and guest stars like Bruce Springsteen and k.d. lang. It was filmed in black and white at the Cocoanut Grove night club in the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, on September 30, 1987, about 14 months before Orbison’s death. The concert aired on January 3, 1988, and was later released on home video and as a live album.
The show includes many of Orbison’s hits. Three songs were filmed but not shown in the original broadcast because of time limits: Blue Bayou, Claudette, and Blue Angel.
The backing band was the TCB Band, with Glen Hardin on piano, James Burton on lead guitar, Jerry Scheff on bass, and Ronnie Tutt on drums. Male backup vocalists included Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, JD Souther, and Steven Soles; female backup vocalists were k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, and Bonnie Raitt.
In the audience were many fans and famous admirers, including David Lynch, Billy Idol, Patrick Swayze, Billy Bob Thornton, Sandra Bernhard, and Kris Kristofferson.
The morning after the broadcast, an earthquake struck the Whittier area of Los Angeles, causing chandeliers to collapse in the ballroom. The master film and videotape for the broadcast were not damaged.
A bootleg CD titled A Black and White Night, Roy Orbison in Concert with the Billion Dollar Band circulated before the official release. Virgin Records released the concert officially in 1989 as A Black & White Night Live. After Orbison’s death, his family provided the video to public television stations for fundraisers.
The concert has been issued on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray. The soundtrack appeared on CD, SACD, 12" vinyl, and DVD-Audio. The DVD includes the songs Blue Bayou and Claudette; the HD DVD and Blu-ray also feature Blue Angel as a bonus.
A 30th Anniversary edition, Roy Orbison Black & White Night 30, was released on February 24, 2017. It is re-edited with new footage, corrected song order, and extra material, available as a CD/DVD or CD/Blu-ray. The audio options include Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and LPCM 2.0, with no English SDH subtitles.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 02:12 (CET).