OH, PRETTY WOMAN
“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. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 4 song of 1964. 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. (More from Wikipedia)
The second and last single by the Lonesome Drifter, “Honey, Do You Think of Me” b/w “I’ll be Lonesome When You’re Gone” came out on Ram Records itself. The B side had been written and recorded by Linda Brannon on Ram two years earlier. Carol Williams (who had recorded Ram Records’ first single) provided the second vocal on the Lonesome Drifter’s remake. Linda and Carol would, respectively, shortly marry Jerry Kennedy and Billy Sanford (who played guitar on the Lonesome Drifter recording of “I’ll be Lonesome When You’re Gone”). These two men later left Shreveport to join Roy Orbison’s band; they can be heard doing the masterful guitar work on his mega-hit “Oh, Pretty Woman”.
(May 2011)
