Oh, Pretty Woman
| "Oh, Pretty Woman" | ||||||||
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| Single by Roy Orbison | ||||||||
| B-side | "Yo te Amo María" | |||||||
| Released | August 1964 | |||||||
| Format | 7" vinyl | |||||||
| Recorded | 1964 | |||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||
| Length | 2:55 | |||||||
| Label | Monument 45-851 | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Roy Orbison, Bill Dees | |||||||
| Producer(s) | Fred Foster | |||||||
| Roy Orbison singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Oh, Pretty Woman" is a song recorded by Roy Orbison, written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in August 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 26, 1964 - the second single by Orbison to top the US charts. It was also Orbison's third single to top the UK Singles Chart (for a total of three weeks). The record ultimately sold seven million copies and marked the high point in Orbison's career. Within months of its release, in October 1964, the single was certified gold by the RIAA. At the year's end, Billboard ranked it the number four song of 1964.
The lyrics tell the story of a man who sees a pretty woman walking by. He yearns for her and wonders if, as beautiful as she is, she might be lonely like he is. At the last minute, she turns back and joins him. The title was inspired by Orbison's wife, Claudette, interrupting a conversation to announce she was going out. When Orbison asked if she had enough cash, his co-writer Bill Dees interjected, "A pretty woman never needs any money." Orbison's recording of the song, which used four guitars, was produced by Fred Foster.
Orbison posthumously won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his live recording of "Pretty Woman" on his HBO television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. In 1999, the song was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #224 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." On May 14, 2008, The Library of Congress selected the song for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
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