“OH, PRETTY WOMAN” TURNS 50
Join us as we celebrate Roy Orbison’s smash hit, “Oh, Pretty Woman” reaching #1 on the Billboard Chart 50 years ago this September 26th!
Since its release in August of 1964, the record breaking, award winning, and iconic song has inspired a film of the same title, a perfume line, and countless genre spanning covers from artists including Al Green, Van Halen, and Bruce Springsteen to name a few. Written by Roy Orbison & Bill Dees and recorded August 1, 1964 as Monument Single #851 at Fred Foster Sound Studios in Nashville, by September 12, 1964 “Oh, Pretty Woman” was in the Top 10 and climbing.
“My brothers and I thought it would be fitting to call attention to what ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ was able to achieve 50 years ago. The song endures to the present and we certainly acknowledge it as one of the keystone elements in our dad’s brilliant career. It’s just about the purest expression of his art and we’re happy that it’s been the source of so much joy for so many for so long and we’re delighted to share in the celebration of its Golden Anniversary.”
-Alex Orbison
Song Details:
Written by Roy Orbison & Bill Dees
Recorded August 1, 1964 as Monument Single #851 at Fred Foster Sound Studios in Nashville
The B-side was “Yo Te Amo Maria”
Previous single- “It’s Over” peaked at #9
Personnel:
Roy Orbison- vocals, 12-string acoustic epiphone
Jerry Kennedy, Wayne Moss, & Billy Sanford- guitars
Floyd Cramer- piano
Boots Randolph & Charlie McCoy- saxophones
Buddy Harman & Paul Garrison- drums
Chart Positions 1964:
Billboard-
Aug 22 #101
Aug 29 #51
Sept 5 #27
Sept 12 #10
Sept 19 #4
Sept 26 #1
Oct 3 #1
Oct 10 #1
#1 UK #1 Single October 8/10, 1964 (2 weeks)
#1 UK #1 Single November 12/14, 1964 (1 week)
Fun Facts:
- “OH, PRETTY WOMAN” was a massive #1, breaking all previous sales & radio play records worldwide. The song was initially controversial, viewed as too sexual for public radio. The opening guitar riff was thought to be lascivious, the drums too aggressive. Censors especially didn’t like the line “come with me baby” and Roy had to change it for the Ed Sullivan show and other television appearances like musicians (Rolling Stones, The Doors) would have to change their lyrics for TV in the future.
- Still considered by many to be the top Rock and Roll song of all time.
- It directly influenced many great rock riffs like The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and The Beatles’ “Daytripper”, both from 1965. It introduced the rock guitar riff used as a compositional element in song structure.
Video Links:
Audio Links:
“Oh, Pretty Woman” from The Monument Singles Collection
“Oh, Pretty Woman” Live at the Reseda Country Club 1981
Full Press Release:
ROY ORBISON’S “OH, PRETTY WOMAN” CHART LAUNCH BEGAN 50 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
BRITISH INVASION WAS DISRUPTED BY MASSIVE SMASH ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC
“Oh, Pretty Woman” ad in Billboard issue of August 22, 1964; the record had entered the chart at #10 1that week.
Roy Orbison began making his mark on the music world in 1956 at Sun Records, which boasted a roster of unparalleled talent that also included Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash. However, it was during his years on Monument Records in the early-to-mid ’60s when Orbison’s commercial success reached stratospheric levels, the apex of which was “Oh, Pretty Woman,” a song co-written by Orbison and Bill Dees. The blockbuster hit, first appeared at #101 on Billboard’s “Bubbling Under” chart in the issue dated August 22, 1964. It would go on to spend three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with sales of 7 million copies. It also topped the British charts for three weeks, an unprecedented achievement for any American to have this kind of chart-topping power simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic in the Beatles-dominated year of 1964.
This week, Roy’s Boys LLC, the Nashville-based company formed by the sons of the late Roy Orbison, begins a countdown/celebration of the 50th Anniversary of “Oh Pretty Woman” and its rapid rise to #1. Alex Orbison commented, “My brothers and I thought it would be fitting to call attention to what ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ was able to achieve 50 years ago. The song endures to the present and we certainly acknowledge it as one of the keystone elements in our dad’s brilliant career. It’s just about the purest expression of his art and we’re happy that it’s been the source of so much joy for so many for so long and we’re delighted to share in the celebration of its Golden Anniversary.”
“Oh, Pretty Woman” kept close chart company with hits by The Beatles, Animals, Dave Clark Five, Dusty Springfield, Gerry & The Pacemakers and Manfred Mann, reflecting the tremendous impact of the British Invasion as well as with domestic drama-infused smashes from The Shangra-Las, Gene Pitney, Drifters and The Four Seasons, representing the NY-based Brill Building school of pop rock. There were also Nashville-spawned, and decidedly non-country, hits like “Bread & Butter” by The Newbeats and Ronny & The Daytonas’ ode to Pontiac-powered performance, “Little GTO.” Also burning up the charts at the time were The Supremes and Martha & The Vandellas, the apotheosis of Motown’s girl group juggernaut while The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and Dean Martin all had significant chart presence at the time.
To be sure, releases by Roy Orbison had found their way into these realms over the course of the previous five years, starting in 1959 with “Only The Lonely” getting as far as #2. 1960 saw “Blue Angel hit #9, followed by Orbison’s very first #1 — “Running Scared.” The next year “Crying” went to #2 and “Dream Baby” to #4. “In Dreams,” released in 1962, made it to #7 and the next year “Mean Woman Blues” hit #5, followed by the less than prophetic “It’s Over” getting to #9. When Orbison went into the studio early in August of 1964 and recorded “Oh, Pretty Woman” with Fred Foster producing, he was undaunted by the British Invasion. In fact, he had embraced it by reversing the trend by “invading” Britain for a 21-day tour in 1963, sharing the stage with locals The Beatles and Gerry & The Pacemakers, his special guests. His life-long friendship with George Harrison, with whom he collaborated 35 years later as part of The Traveling Wilburys, along with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne, dates from that tour.
Roy Orbison with The Beatles and Gerry & The Pacemakers on tour in 1963
“Oh, Pretty Woman” was written by Roy Orbison and his songwriting partner Bill Dees who had co-wrtten “It’s Over,” a #1 record in the UK earlier in 1964. Legend has it that Claudette, Orbison’s wife — and inspiration for the Everly Brothers “Claudette” that Orbison had composed — told her husband that she was going shopping and when Roy asked if she needed money, Dees attempted to compliment her by quipping, “A pretty woman doesn’t need any money.” The song was written almost immediately thereafter and the recording session was soon booked. Orbison played the famous “Oh, Pretty Woman” guitar riff on his 12 string Epiphone guitar while singing in the vocal booth, all captured live in one take with no overdubs. Dee’s was in the booth with him and his voice is heard in a vocal harmony that works quite perfectly against Roy’s main melody line. Other musicians on the session that day included Jerry Kennedy, Wayne Moss, Billy Sanford, Floyd Cramer, Boots Randolph, Charlie McCoy, Buddy Harman and Paul Garrison — a who’s who of Nashville elite session players of the era.
The signature guitar riff that Orbison came up with and played that day was honored, just this year by the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum at a ceremony in Nashville with the posthumous presentation of its Iconic Riff Award to Orbison and a performance of the song by Orbison admirer Chris Isaak. This was not the first kudo for “Oh, Pretty Woman.” The recording is both in the Grammy Hall of Fame as well as on the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. Roy Orbison is, of course, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, having been inducted by Bruce Springsteen, as well as an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “Oh, Pretty Woman” has been recorded by a richly diverse group of artists including Al Green, John Mellencamp, Johnny Rivers, Bon Jovi, Green Day and Van Halen whose 1982 version was the group’s biggest singles success during the first five years of their recording career. The song inspired the title of and is heard on the soundtrack from Pretty Woman, the blockbuster film starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, considered the most commercially successful romantic comedy of all time based on number of tickets sold.
“Oh, Pretty Woman,” a staple of Roy Orbison’s live performances, is also featured as an encore in the Black & White Night DVD, released by Roy’s Boys through Sony’s Legacy Recordings. The concert, filmed in September of 1987, features an all-star line up that includes outspoken Roy admirers Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, JD Souther and Tom Waits, among others, joining Orbison on the show’s closer, “Oh, Pretty Woman.” The time-honored tune was, in fact, the last song Roy Orbison ever recorded. On December 4, 1988, just two days before his sudden passing, he performed at a Cleveland-area venue, at a concert that was taped and released as The Last Concert – 25th Anniversary Edition through Legacy Recordings.
Late last year “Oh, Pretty Woman” became the title track of a Roy Orbison album for the first time. It’s one of four LPs that comprise The Monument Boxset, released by Roy’s Boys via Legacy. The set is comprised of the three classic Roy Orbison Monument studio albums — Lonely and Blue, Crying and In Dreams as well as Oh! Pretty Woman, which did not exist in immediate wake of the song’s breakthrough, but came more than 49 years later. Roy Orbison was signed to MGM Records after the success of “Oh, Pretty Woman” and Monument never saw fit to release an album built around that track but chose, rather, to ‘mine the hits’ with a Greatest Hits album instead. The Oh! Pretty Woman LP included tenure in the The Monument Boxset consisting of tracks reflective of the period and determined, by the team at Roy’s Boys, to be the songs that would have comprised that fourth Monument album.
