Oh, Pretty Woman | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| N.C |
| E7 (riff) | E7 (riff) | E7 (riff) |
||: E9 (riff) :|| x4
Chorus 1
| A | F#m |
Pretty woman, walkin’ down the street.
| A | F#m |
Pretty woman, the kind I like to meet.
|6/4 D |4/4 E | E |
Pretty woman, I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth.
| E | E |
No one could look as good as you.
||: E9 (riff) :|| x4
Mercy.
Chorus 2
| A | F#m |
Pretty woman, won’t you pardon me.
| A | F#m |
Pretty woman, I couldn’t help but see.
|6/4 D |4/4 E | E |
Pretty woman, that you look lovely as can be.
| E | E |
Are you lonely just like me?
||: E9 (riff) :|| x4
Rrrowrr…
Verse 1
| Dm | G | C | Am |
Pretty woman stop awhile. Pretty woman, talk a while.
| Dm | G | C | C |
Pretty woman, give your smile to me.
| Dm | G | C | Am |
Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty woman look my way.
| Dm | G | C | A |
Pretty woman, say you’ll stay with me.
Bridge
| F#m | Dm | E |
‘Cause I need you, I’ll treat you right.
| A | F#m | Dm |
Come with me baby, be mine tonight.
||: E9 (riff) :|| x4
Chorus 3
| A | F#m |
Pretty woman, don’t walk on by.
| A | F#m |
Pretty woman, don’t make me cry.
|6/4 D |4/4 E | E | E |
Pretty woman, don’t walk away, hey.
| E | E | E | E |
OK. If that’s the way it must be, OK.
| E | E | E | E |
I guess I’ll go on home, it’s late, there’ll be tomorrow night,
Outro
| N.C | N.C | E7 (riff) | E7 (riff) | E7 (riff) |
but wait, what do I see? Is she walkin’ back to me?
||: E9 (riff) :|| x8
Yeah, she’s walkin’ back to me. Oh, oh.
| E9 (riff) | A |
Pretty woman.
Pretty Woman Chords: Learn the progressions
Roy Orbison‘s Oh, Pretty Woman is built around a series of modal interchanges.
During the intro, because the riff is in E, we could potentially argue that it’s chord V, but really, it’s a blues riff in the key of E.
When the chorus starts we are in the key of A (this is why we could be fooled to say E is chord V). It moves I – VI on repeat, then IV – V with a 6/4 bar, like this:
||: A (I) | F#m (VI) :|| 6/4 D (IV) |4/4 E (V) | E |
The verse is in the key of C/Am. This means we’ve had a modal interchange where A has gone from Ionian to Aeolian, which looks like this:
||: Dm (II) | G (V) | C (I) | Am (VI) |
| Dm | G | C |
| 1. C :|| 2. A (VIx) |
Members get to dive deeper into Oh Pretty Woman’s chords and receive some TAB as well, here’s a link to the complete lesson: Oh, Pretty Woman – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Oh, Pretty Woman is Roy Orbison’s signature song!
Oh, Pretty Woman is synonymous with Roy Orbison. Released in 1964, it was a worldwide hit, reaching #1 in 10 countries, and selling over 2 million copies.
Interestingly, the mono version (single) had different lyrics to the stereo version that you got on the album which sold a further 7 million copies.
The song was revived in 1990 as it was featured in the Richard Gere/Julia Roberts classic movie, Pretty Woman.
Before then, Van Halen covered and released it as a single in 1982 complete with an insane music video (you simply must check the playlist above!).
The last time I saw it out of context was during Tyson Fury’s crossover fight with Francis Ngannou. Tyson walked on to Oh, Pretty Woman, a very strange choice perhaps but when a tune is this great, nobody cares, it just always works.
If you have a band that plays tunes from the ’60s, you simply must try fitting this classic in, trust me, it will work.
Oh, Pretty Woman Chords | Related Pages
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
- Brown Eyed Girl chords by Van Morrison
- End Of The Line chords by The Traveling Wilburys
- The Joker chords by the Steve Miller Band
- Stuck In The Middle With You chords by Stealers Wheel
- Suspicious Minds chords by Elvis
Roy Orbison tunes
Roy Orbison signed to Sam Phillips’s label Sun Records the same year Elvis moved on to get better radio play.
His best tunes include Only The Lonely, In Dreams, Oh, Pretty Woman, You Got It, and End Of The Line.
Roy Orbison on the web
Rock n Roll & Early Pop
As popular music was starting to take shape, the earliest styles that came out of Jazz and Blues were Rock n Roll & Early Pop.
Learn tunes by The Beatles, Elvis, The Monkees, Chuck Berry, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones.
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Oh, Pretty Woman chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not practising scales, and studying theory in isolation.
