SSION – “Big As I Can Dream” (Roy Orbison Cover)

SSION – “Big As I Can Dream” (Roy Orbison Cover)

In 1962, the little-remembered songwriter Kris Jensen released a gorgeously shimmery pop single called “Big As I Can Dream,” about building a live out of hope. The most famous version of the song comes from Roy Orbison, who included a particularly devastating cover of it on his 1965 album There Is Only One Roy Orbison. And today, we get a new version of it, from a less expected place.

SSION is Cody Critcheloe, the Kansas City DIY veteran and visionary music-video director who’s been bringing his own idiosyncratic, glamorous, deeply queer vision of pop music to American DIY venues for a couple of decades. He’s coming back sometime this year with O, his first album in seven years, and we’ve already posted his stunning video for first single “Comeback.” And today, he’s shared his version of “Big As I Can Dream,” which will be on the new album.

The SSION version of “Big As I Can Dream” is a faithful one, an early-’60s pop hymn done with a loving vulnerability. There are some far-out synth groans in the SSION version, but they’re there to serve the song, not to derail it. And Critcheloe’s take on the song is as rich in sentiment as any of them. Check it out below.

O is coming sometime this year on Dero Arcade.

more from New Music