"Oh, Pretty Woman" is a song, released in 1964, which was a
worldwide success for Roy Orbison. Recorded on the Monument
Records label in Nashville, Tennessee, it was written by Roy
Orbison and Bill Dees. The song spent three weeks at number one
on the Hot 100. The best-known guitar performance was by Wayne
Moss later of Barefoot Jerry. Although the official recording
appeared in 1964, the Beatles recalled Orbison's having written
and performed the song during a mid-1963 tour of the UK which
included both acts.
Orbison posthumously won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Male
Pop Vocal Performance for his live recording of the song 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 Stonemagazine ranked it #222 on their list of
the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
The lyrics tells 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 was okay for cash, his co-writer Bill Dees
interjected "A pretty woman never needs any money."
In 1989, the controversial rap group 2 Live Crew recorded a
parody of the Orbison song, using the alternate title "Pretty
Woman" for their album
Clean As They Wanna Be. The 2 Live Crew sampled the
distinctive bassline from the Orbison song, but the romantic
lyrics were replaced by talk about a hairy woman and her
bald-headed friend and their appeal to the singer, as well as
denunciation of a "two-timing woman."
Orbison's publisher, Acuff-Rose Music sued 2 Live Crew on
the basis that the fair use doctrine did not permit reuse of
their copyrighted material for profit. The case,
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.went all the way to
the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided in 2
Live Crew's favor, greatly expanding the doctrine of fair use
and extending its protections to parodies created for profit.
It is considered a seminal fair use decision.
The song has been covered by a number of artists: