The Pretty Woman Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is perhaps the quintessential 90′s romance comedy soundtrack with
Natalie Cole puts things in place with the freespirit anthem Wild Women Do. One of the best things about this track is, if you have seen the film, you can easily picture the sequence where Edward (Richard Gere) and Vivian (Julia Roberts) are shopping on Rodeo Dr. for clothing in Beverly Hills.
One of the best things is that this particular soundtrack seems to play in a subconscious manner, the thoughts of the characters in relation to the scene. One of the best examples of this is the opening scene where Edward and his girlfriend (who is unseen) breakup while they are in Los Angeles and Manhattan, respectively. Edward, with very little remorse, takes his lawyer (played by Seinfeld‘s Jason Alexander) Stuckey’s Lotus Espirit and drives down Hollywood Blvd where he meets Vivian, a hooker, for the first time. This is well-played along with King of Wishful Thinking by Go West.
The soundtrack gains its sultriness with No Explanation by Peter Cetera. With his signature adult-contemporary sound, he adds a bit of a softer side to the album for the men. This softer side for the women is repeated with Lauren Wood’s Fallen.
Unfortunately there are a few weak spots: Robert Palmer’s Life In Detail and Tangled by Jane Wiedlin. They somehow do not seem to fit with the rest of the album. They both sound extremely over-produced.