Roy Orbison: "Oh, Pretty Woman"

September 28, 1964 (1 week)

The hugely popular 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman is now best-remembered as the launch pad for Julia Roberts' superstardom but it was a significant motion picture for a number of other reasons. It fully established the nineties as the decade of the rom-com, it seemed like one of the first home video releases that people could actually afford to purchase (my sister bought it with a Christmas gift certificate so we watched it on a semi-regular basis) and it would have been the first time large audiences became familiar with an actor called Jason Alexander, who also happened to be getting started on a then-little know sit-com known as Seinfeld. Honestly, do any of Francis Ford Coppola's films have this kind of legacy?

Being a big hit movie of the day, Pretty Woman also had a must have soundtrack release. In addition to the album being a multi-million selling hit, three charting singles came off the back of it. The biggest hit was Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love", which — spoilers — will be coming up in this space in due course but Go West's memorable if not stunningly brilliant "The King of Wishful Thinking" did almost as well. And the third? The forgettable "Wild Women Do" by Natalie Cole.

But none of them could hold a candle to Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman". At a time when re-releasing hits off of current movies was commonplace, it is surprising that it didn't enjoy a Top 40 second wind the way the likes of "Stand by Me", "What a Wonderful World" and "Unchained Melody" did. (Even in Britain, where they're normally such suckers for classic pop songs in films, it wasn't given a proper reissue) It had only been around eighteen months since Orbison's passing so that was still fresh. People loved "You Got It" and there's every reason to think that this chestnut from 1964 would have given him another posthumous Top 10 smash.

What's curious about this non-release is that "Oh, Pretty Woman" still managed to take that year's Grammy award for 'Best Male Pop Vocal Performance'. Officially, it was awarded to a live version from a 1987 concert which was released two years later as Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night but who was talking about it in the middle of 1990? Renewed interest in The Big O's signature number was down to the Julia Roberts movie and little else.

Listening to it as an adolescent, I found Orbison's memorable call of "Mercy" and his growl to be so off putting as to practically cause me to hurl. (Similarly, my wife can't listen to The Beatles' "Girl" due to the way John Lennon suggestively sucks in air) As an adult who has harboured lustful thoughts at times, I will admit that these touches make it that much better. For the bulk of its three minutes, Orbison is content to be gentlemanly as he sings of this pretty woman of his but then, fleetingly, his true feelings come out. He isn't just respectful of her, he doesn't simply adore her, he isn't just going to write trite verse about her, he desires nothing more than to take her to bed. We've all been there.

It's loads of fun but just because it outshines Natalie Cole, Go West and Roxette doesn't mean that "Oh, Pretty Woman" is an absolute top drawer single. The trouble with a lot of Roy Orbison's work at his peak is that he was stuck in the limbo of Nashville's conservative production values. Compare this to the stuff he recorded near the end of his life (when, it's worth noting, he was well past his prime) and it's his later work which sounds far better. Jeff Lynne produced Roy Orbison like he was a rock 'n' roll opera singer with all the appropriate bells and whistles. Sure, restraint can be the best way to go with a lot of artists but Orbison wasn't most artists. A great song held back by its surroundings — maybe the Grammy voters really did prefer the the fuller live version all along.

Score: 8