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TL;DR:

  • The riff from Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” inspired Devo’s “Whip It.”
  • A member of the band didn’t notice the similarity at first.
  • “Whip It” became Devo’s only top 40 single in the United States.
"Oh, Pretty Woman" singer Roy Orbison in glasses
Roy Orbison | Evening Standard / Stringer

Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” became one of the most famous classic rock songs of the 1960s. Subsequently, it inspired Devo’s “Whip It,” one of the most famous new wave songs from the 1980s. In addition, “Whip It” was inspired by a famous novel.

How a famous novel inspired Devo’s ‘Whip It’

“Whip It” was co-written by Devo’s Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh. During a 2015 interview with Rhino, Casale discussed the literary origins of the song’s lyrics.

“I was reading [Thomas Pynchon’s novel] Gravity’s Rainbow, and I wrote the lyrics in one night after who knows how many pages,” he said. “Because that’s a lot of pages. [Laughs.] But it was because I was just so turned on by Pynchon’s parodies of limericks and the Horatio Alger story and ‘you’re No. 1,’ ‘there’s nobody else like you,’ and ‘you can do it.'” Pynhcon’s limerick parodies inspired the lyrics of “Whip It.”  

Why the song was like a mutated version of Roy Orbison’s ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’

Later, Casale heard the riff Mothersbaugh wrote for the song. “I said, ‘Wow, when did you do that, Mark?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I’ve had that for about three or four months.’ I said, ‘Really?’ 

“He said, ‘Yeah, it’s just ‘Pretty Woman’ cut in half, with two extra beats in between,'” he added. “[Laughs.] And I never would’ve recognized it, but once he said it, I was, like, ‘Oh, yeah!‘ You take out those beats, and you can’t miss it, but putting them in was brilliant. And it was a perfect example of Devo warping and mutating and deconstructing from the existing lexicon of rock and R&B.”

Related

Paul McCartney Said Roy Orbison Wrote ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ on The Beatles’ Bus

How ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ and Devo performed on the pop charts

“Oh, Pretty Woman” topped the Billboard Hot 100, for three weeks. The track lasted on the chart for 15 weeks in total. “Oh, Pretty Woman” appeared on many of Orbison’s compilation albums, such as Orbisongs. That album reached No. 136 on the Billboard 200, remaining on the chart for 11 weeks altogether.

“Whip It” became a more modest hit. It peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining on the chart for 25 weeks. Aside from “Whip It,” Devo never had a top 10 single. The track appeared on the album Freedom of Choice, which hit No. 22 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks.

Notably, “Whip It’ was not the only song to come out in 1980 that was inspired by Orbison. 1980 was the year John Lennon released his hit “(Just Like) Starting Over.” According to a 1980 interview from Rolling Stone, that tune was inspired by Orbison’s style, as well as the music of Elvis Presley.

“Whip It” became Devo’s biggest song and it wouldn’t be the same without one of Orbison’s biggest songs.

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