Artist:Roy Orbison
Song:Oh, Pretty Woman
Album:The Real...Roy Orbison
The 1964 single Oh, Pretty Wonan was one of two #1 hits in the 60s for singer Roy Orbison. He had other hits but Running Scared and Oh, Pretty Woman are about even according to Music VF which assigns point value to hit singles. He was born Apr. 23, 1936 in Vernon, TX. His family moved to Fort Worth in 1942 so his father could find work in the aircraft industry. They returned to Vernon after a polio scare. Orbison's dad bought him a guitar on his sixth birthday. And that was it. From there, Orbison wanted to be a musician. He was a big fan of country music guitar legend Lefty Frizzell. All the Orbison children had poor eyesight. So he had to wear thick glasses. And his hair was white so he dyed his hair black. He went to high school in Wink, TX. I assume his dad worked in the oil fields. Orbison was in the band Wink Westerners. They played local dances. After they were paid $400 for a gig, Orbison thought he could make a living in music. But he studied geology at North Texas State just in case. He was encouraged that classmate Pat Boone got a record deal. The Wink Westerners got their own TV show in Midland, TX. When Johnny Cash toured the area in 1955 and appeared on a TV show with Wink Westerners, Cash suggested Orbison approach Sun Records owner Sam Phillips but Phillips told him to get lost. Then they got another TV show, changed their name to The Teen Kings and recorded the song Ooby Dooby on a local label. When a record store owner played it over the phone for Phillips, he offered The Teen Kings a contract. Ooby Dooby reached #59 on the Billboard Hot 100 and The Teen Kings toured. The music was rockabilly and Orbison started writing songs. The band split up over money but Orbison continued to record at Sun. Phillips and Sun producer Jack Clement liked Orbison's guitar playing but they never thought he would make it as a singer. Orbison left Sun and worked as a songwriter for Acuff-Rose Publishing in 1959. He kept trying to record and get with a label without successful. Finally Wesley Rose of Acuff-Rose introduced Orbison to producer and Monument Records owner and producer Fred Foster. And that's when things really picked up for Orbison. His first big hit was the 1960 single Only the Lonely followed by his first #1 hit Running Scared in 1961. Orbison had a total of nine top ten hits from 1961-64. The biggest and final of these hits was Oh, Pretty Woman which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964. The song came from a comment that Orbison's songwriting partner Bill Dees made to Orbison's wife Claudette. She said she was going out and Orbison asked her if she had enough money. Dees said "a pretty woman never needs any money". After that, the song wrote itself. Monument released Oh, Pretty Woman as a single and it was added to albums afterwards. You can get it on this 3CD budget comp from Sony in The Netherlands. Orbison left Monument for MGM in 1965. He just didn't have the same success there. Then Claudette died in a 1966 car wreck. Then his house burned down in 1968. Orbison was on tour in England at the time. Orbison's music career appeared to be over until Don McLean's 1980 cover of Crying topped the charts. This led to several collaborations. But the big one was when Electric Light Orchestra leader Jeff Lynne put the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys together. And that got Orbison back in the spotlight. It was short lived because Orbison died from a heart attack on Dec. 4, 1988 at age 52. Virgin Records released Orbison's final album Mystery Girl in 1989. The single You Got It reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Orbison wrote the song with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne and Lynne produced. Then Pretty Woman was used in the hit 1990 film Pretty Woman. So Orbison went out on a high note. Here's Roy Orbison performing Pretty Woman with his band in 1965. BTW, that's Bill Dees on piano and backup vocals.
No comments:
Post a Comment