Billboard ranked the record as the No. 4 song of 1964."Pretty Woman" 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 Elvis and Don Williams and many others, played the intro guitar. 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."
Wikipedia
Pretty Woman
Pretty woman, walking down the street
Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet
Pretty woman, I don't believe you, you're not the truth
No one could look as good as you, mercy
Pretty woman, won't you pardon me?
Pretty woman, I couldn't help but see
Pretty woman, you look lovely as can be
Are you lonely just like me?
Pretty woman, stop awhile
Pretty woman, talk awhile
Pretty woman, give your smile to me
Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah
Pretty woman, look my way
Pretty woman, say you'll stay with me
'Cause I need you, I'll treat you right
Come to me, baby, be mine tonight
Pretty woman, don't walk on by
Pretty woman, don't make me cry
Pretty woman, don't walk away, hey, okay
If that's the way it must be, okay
I guess I'll go on home, it's late
There'll be tomorrow night, but wait
What do I see?
Is she walking back to me
Yeah, she's walking back to me
Oh, oh, pretty woman
Pretty woman, don't walk on by
Pretty woman, don't make me cry
Pretty woman, don't walk away, hey, okay
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