Song Anatomy ● 'Oh, Pretty Woman' - Van Halen
VAN HALEN / David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony / Warner Bros. 1980 / IVOX MEDIA collection
Song Anatomy ● 'Oh, Pretty Woman' - Van Halen
The Song● Oh, Pretty Woman
Writer● Roy Orbison
Producers● Ted Templeman
Recorded● Late 1981 in Los Angeles, California
Released● Spring 1982
Players●
:: David Lee Roth — vocals
:: Edward Van Halen -- guitar, vocals
:: Michael Anthony -- bass, vocals
:: Alex Van Halen -- drums
Album● Diver Down (Warner Bros., 1982)
Diver Down ● Van Halen
Diver Down is the fifth studio album by Van Halen, released on April 19, 1982. It spent 65 weeks on the album chart in the United States and had, by 1998, sold four million copies in the United States. Five of the twelve songs on the album are covers, the most popular being the cover of "(Oh) Pretty Woman", a Roy Orbison song.
The song "Oh, Pretty Woman" was written and originally recorded by Roy Orbison, who had a Number One hit with it in 1964. Van Halen's version of the song peaked at Number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1982.
Van Halen recorded the song as a stand-alone (non-album) single, before a planned hiatus. However, its sudden success brought much pressure from Warner Bros to quickly produce an entire LP, the result being their 1982 LP Diver Down. "Oh, Pretty Woman" was preceded by a 1-minute, 40-second intro, entitled "Intruder", which featured David Lee Roth playing a very simple riff on a small plastic, Electroharmonix keyboard.
"Oh, Pretty Woman" was not the first time Van Halen had a hit with a cover song--the group's first single, in fact, was a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," which hit Number 36. "Oh, Pretty Woman" also wasn't the only cover on the Diver Down album, which also included the Kinks' "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" and Martha & the Vandellas' "Dancing In The Street."
Diver Down, the group's first release after Edward Van Halen married actress Valerie Bertinelli, was Van Halen's fifth consecutive million-selling album and has sold more than four million copies total. The album was the group's highest-charting album to date as well, peaking at Number Three on the Billboard 200, and hit Number 36 on the U.K. chart.
During the tour to support Diver Down, Van Halen was paid one million dollars to play the U.S. Festival for a crowd of 300,000 people in 1983.
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