From '' The New Breed Wants You! ''
Label: Frantic Records ‎– FRN 4343 CD
Format: CD, Compilation, Enhanced

The song was recorded in 1965-1967

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"Oh, Pretty Woman" is a song, released in August 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 Billboard Hot 100.
It was also Orbison's third single to top the UK Singles Chart chart (for a total of three weeks). The previous Orbison singles to reach No.1 in the UK were "Only the Lonely" in 1960 and "It's Over" earlier in 1964.

There were three guitar players on the session, Billy Sanford, Jerry Kennedy and Wayne Moss.
Billy Sanford, who later played session for everybody from Elvis to Don Williams (and took to the road with Don in the 1990s) did the kick-off. Williams introduced him as a kid who had just arrived Nashville, with a borrowed guitar, who heard Orbison was minus a guitar player, who went over and got the gig.
Other musicians on the record included Floyd Cramer on piano, Bob Moore on an upright bass, Boots Randolph and Charlie McCoy on sax, and Buddy Harman and Paul Garrison on drums. Orbison also played a 12 string epiphone.

The record sold seven million copies and marked the high point in Orbison's career.
Within months of its release, in October 1964, the single was awarded a gold record by RIAA.
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 Stone magazine ranked it #222 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," and in 2012, Texas Music magazine ranked the song No. 7 on its list of "The Top 50 Classic Texas Songs."

Cover versions and parodies

Johnny Rivers in 1964
Al Green in 1972
Victor Wood
Andy Kim in 1976
John Mellencamp (as Johnny Cougar) in 1976
Connie Francis in English and German, in 1978
Van Halen in 1982
Holy Sisters of the Gaga Dada in 1986
Bad News in 1987
Sam Hui in 1983 (in Cantonese)
Ricky Van Shelton in 1990
Alvin and the Chipmunks in 1990
Nokie Edwards in 1991
Ray Brown, Jr.
Rockapella
Green Day
Westlife
Sharleen Spiteri
Bon Jovi
On October 29, 2009 Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty sang Oh, Pretty Woman live at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.
Ray Dylan
In November 2013 The Overtones covered the song for their album Saturday Night at the Movies

In other media

The original Orbison song inspired the title for the 1990 feature film, Pretty Woman starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
The film featured the song, licensed from Orbison's publisher Acuff-Rose.
Since the work that the film was based on bore a different title, the producers also licensed the trademark rights to the title.

The song was licensed for the 2003 hit Bollywood film Kal Ho Naa Ho.

The song appears in the film Dumb and Dumber.

The song appears in the French movie La Cité de la Peur.

The song is used as the ending song, covered by Kaela Kimura, in the Japanese television drama Attention Please.

The Van Halen version of the song was used in the mall scene in the 1985 John Hughes film Weird Science.
This has been replaced in UK broadcasts and the initial home video release in the US with the Weird Science theme music by Oingo Boingo, presumably due to music clearance issues.
When Weird Science was re-released on DVD in 2006, it was restored.

The song was used in the Chris Martin episode of Extras.

The song is used in the Belgian film De Helaasheid der Dingen (The Misfortunates).
In the movie the Strobbe family believes its fortunes are tied to that of Roy Orbison, leading them to follow his 1988 comeback concert with great enthusiasm.

The song is used in Tamil film Goa, when Vaibhav meets Sneha for the first time.

This song is featured in the Futurama season 3 episode "The Cyber House Rules".

The song is playable in the videogame Band Hero.
It was also released as downloadable content for the videogame Rock Band.

The song is heard on The Chipmunks' record Rockin' Through the Decades and the episode, "Sploosh" (which was a spoof of the film Splash).

The song is used in the episode Frank's Pretty Woman in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

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