Question: Which American singer-songwriter known as "the Caruso of Rock", recorded on the Monument Records label and had hits such as "Pretty One," and "Uptown"?
Context: Greatest Hits, Vol.  1 is a collection of ten previously released singles by Ray Stevens, released in 1987.  Of the selections of songs, three were recorded for the record label of Monument Records ("Gitarzan," "Along Came Jones," and "Ahab the Arab,"), four for Barnaby Records ("Everything Is Beautiful," "Turn Your Radio On," "The Streak," "Misty"), one for RCA Records ("Shriner's Convention"), and two for MCA Records.  The version of "Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with cheering and applauding of an audience.  The version of "Ahab the Arab" on this compilation is not the original recording but a re-recording that Stevens made for his album "Gitarzan" during his career with Monument. Shot Full of Love is the fifth studio album by country music artist Billy Ray Cyrus.  It features the single "Busy Man", which peaked at number 3 in early 1999, becoming Cyrus's first Top Ten country hit since "Somebody New" in 1993.  The album's title song is a cover of a song originally recorded by Juice Newton in 1981, in 1983 by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and a number 73-peaking single in 1990 for Jennifer McCarter and The McCarters.  This was also his last studio album for the Mercury Records label.  After that album's release, Billy Ray Cyrus left Mercury Records for Monument Records in 1999. Greatest Hits is a collection of ten previously released singles by Ray Stevens, released in 1983 by RCA Records.  This collection contains three singles that were released by Monument Records, four by Barnaby Records, and two by RCA.  One of the selections is not an original recording; "Ahab the Arab" is a re-recording of Stevens' 1962 hit for Mercury Records that was included on his album "Gitarzan", which was released by Monument in 1969.  Additionally, there are two selections featured on this collection that are album versions; "Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with cheering and applauding with an audience; "Freddie Feelgood" is the version that contains audience noises and was first featured on the album "Gitarzan". "Pretty Paper" is a song written by country music singer-songwriter Willie Nelson in 1963.  After being signed to Monument Records, Nelson played the song for producer Fred Foster.  Foster pitched the song to Roy Orbison, who turned it into a hit.  Nelson recorded his own version of the song in November 1964. The Very Best of Ray Stevens is a collection of 12 previously released singles that were hits for novelty/country artist, Ray Stevens; it was released in December 1975 by Barnaby Records.  While this collection has more emphasis on Stevens' hits for Barnaby, it also contains three from the label of Monument Records ("Unwind," "Mr. Businessman," and "Gitarzan") and two from Mercury Records (Stevens' first label).  The version of "Mr. Businessman" is the single release. " Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with an audience cheering and applauding. " Ahab the Arab" is the original recording that was released by Mercury (Stevens had re-recorded the song for his album "Gitarzan" in 1969). Willis David Hoover was born in Jackson County, Missouri and raised in Lamoni, Iowa and Shenandoah, Iowa.  After starting out as a coffee house folk singer as a teenager, Hoover moved to Nashville in the 1960s and became a songwriter.  His songs were recorded by Tina Turner, Eddy Arnold and country music outlaws Tompall Glaser and Waylon Jennings.  He won an ASCAP Award for music written for the motion picture, "...tick...tick...tick..." After losing or forgetting his first and middle names, Hoover became a recording artist for Monument Records, Epic Records, and Elektra Records in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  His recordings for Elektra were released in 2003 by Kinky Friedman's Sphincter Records label. Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter known for his distinctive, impassioned voice, complex song structures, and dark emotional ballads.  The combination led many critics to describe his music as operatic, nicknaming him "the Caruso of Rock" and "the Big O." Between 1960 and 1964, 22 of his songs placed on the "Billboard" Top 40, including "Only the Lonely" (1960), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964). Early Orbison is an album recorded by Roy Orbison on the Monument Records label at their studios in Hendersonville, Tennessee and released in 1964.  Essentially a compilation of songs from his first two Monument albums, it is most noteworthy for containing "Pretty One", the "B" side of Orbison's second Monument single, "Uptown".  Many Orbison fans believe "Pretty One" would have been his first major hit had it been promoted as an "A" side.  The second song of interest on this album is "Come Back to Me My Love" which Fred Foster, owner of Monument Records and producer of all of Orbison's earliest hits, says was the song which inspired production of the hit arrangement that later became "Only the Lonely". Ray Stevens' Greatest Hits is a collection of songs that Ray Stevens previously recorded for Barnaby and Monument Records from 1968 to 1971.  This marks the first album appearance of Stevens' novelty hit single "Bridget the Midget (The Queen of the Blues)."  This collection contains two more singles from Barnaby while the rest are recordings for Monument (five singles and three album tracks). " Gitarzan" is the album version that begins with noises of an audience.  "Harry the Hairy Ape" and "Ahab the Arab" are not the original recordings but re-recordings that were made for Monument.  "Mr. Businessman" is the album version. Monument Records was an American record label in Washington, D.C. named for the Washington Monument, founded in 1958 by Fred Foster and Buddy Deane (a prominent Baltimore disc jockey at WTTG).  Buddy Deane soon left the company, and in the early 60's bought KOTN in Pine Bluff, Arkansas where he retired until his death.  Foster relocated to the Nashville suburb of Hendersonville, Tennessee.  Monument's releases include a variety of genres, including rock and roll, country, jazz, and rhythm and blues.
Answer: Roy Orbison