Album: Raising Sand (2007)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Rich Woman" won a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and the album it came from, Raising Sand, won the award for Album of the Year. At the awards ceremony in 2009, Robert Plant said: "This song is such a spooky song. It's the heart of the American underworld of Rhythm and Blues and shimmy, and we're very proud of the job that (producer) T-Bone Burnett did to make it so good."

    Plant and Krauss performed the song at the awards ceremony along with the Raising Sand debut single, "Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On)."
  • "Rich Woman" is about a wealthy lady who lavishes her man with diamonds and Cadillacs. It's sung from the perspective of the pampered man.
  • This was originally recorded by the Louisiana R&B act Li'L Millet and His Creoles in 1955. He wrote the song with Dorothy LaBostrie, who also co-wrote Little Richard's hit "Tutti Frutti." Plant explained to Rolling Stone in 2010, "The original version of 'Rich Woman' is hysterically good. That song is part of my epidermis. I had it on my jukebox for 25 years."
  • Millet's single was released in November 1955, with "Hopeless Love" as the B-side. It was successful enough to prompt follow-up recordings in 1956, but they didn't have much impact. In 1956 Millet landed some cowriting credits when he wrote "All Around The World" with Robert Blackwell. Little Richard included the song as B-side to his single, "The Girl Can't Help It." Millet went on to work as a bus driver and passed away in 1997.
  • Canned Heat covered the song on their self-titled debut album in 1967; Boz Scaggs used it as the opening track on his 2015 album, A Fool To Care; The Fabulous Thunderbirds covered the song on their 1979 debut album, Girls Go Wild.
  • Green Book, 2019 Oscar winner for Best Film, plays the original Li'l Millet and His Creoles version of the song over the closing credits.
  • The Plant/Krauss version plays during the cafeteria scene in the 2009 film Mad Money, starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes.

Comments: 1

  • Rahul from Chennai, Indiaupbeat and energetic.... good song.... this album jus takes my breath away.... ppl u should listen to please read the letter.... it's undoubtedly d best song frm d album....
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