Devil Woman

For other uses, see Devil Woman (disambiguation).

"Devil Woman"
Single by Cliff Richard
from the album I'm Nearly Famous
B-side	"Love On Shine On" - Cliff Richard
Released	23 April 1976
Format	7" single
Recorded	September 8, 9 1975, Abbey Road, London
Genre	Rock
Length	3:35
Label	EMI 2448
Writer(s)	Britten/Holmes
Producer	Bruce Welch
Cliff Richard singles chronology
"Miss You Nights" (1975) "Devil Woman" (1976) "I Can't Ask For Anymore Than You" (1976)

"Devil Woman" is a 1976 hit single for Cliff Richard culled from his album I'm Nearly Famous.

Background

"Devil Woman" was written by Terry Britten and Christine Holmes and first recorded by Holmes under the name Kristine.

A #9 UK hit in June 1976, "Devil Woman" became Richard's first single to reach the Top 20 in the US, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remains Richard's highest peaking single. "Devil Woman" is ranked overall as the third biggest-selling Cliff Richard single with over two million copies sold worldwide.^[1][2]

The song is told from the point of a view of a man jinxed from an encounter with a stray cat with evil eyes, and his discovery that the psychic medium (a Gypsy woman) whose help he sought to break the curse was the one responsible for the curse in the first place. The latter-mentioned have some notable parallels with Cher's 1974 hit single "Dark Lady".

Notable musically for its unusual (for a pop song) combination of major and minor sound; it might be properly categorized as being in D blues. It was also one of the earliest U.S. hits to make use of Extended-range bass, reaching one whole tone lower than the conventional instrument, to include D₁.

Like many story songs, the production is quite sparse. It is heavily guitar-driven, with soft-distortion lines doubling the melody in the chorus and long, high, sustained single notes providing atmosphere over the verses. A Rhodes electric piano, drums and percussion are the only other instruments.

The musicians featured on the Cliff Richard recording are Terry Britten on guitar, Alan Tarney on bass, Clem Cattini on drums, Graham Todd on keyboards, and Tony Rivers, John Perry and A. Harding on backing vocals, with string arrangements by Richard Hewson.

Covers

• Riot covered the song on their 1983 album Born in America.
• The Accüsed covered the song on their 1987 album More Fun Than An Open Casket Funeral.
• Cradle of Filth covered the song on their 2005 special edition release of 2004's 'Nymphetamine' with backing vocals by King Diamond.
• All About Eve recorded the song as a B-side of their 1987 12" single 'Flowers in our hair'. Their version also appears on the rarities compilation Return to Eden, Vol. 1: The Early Recordings.
• Flight of the Conchords did a pastiche of this song and its music video in the second season of their HBO show.
• Hank Marvin covered the song as an instrumental in 1995 on Hank Plays Cliff.
• Demon Drive covered the song for their last album in 2003, ...four play!
• Artisan covered the song on their 1989 EP Through Till Dawn

See also

• Cliff Richard discography

External links

• In-depth Song Analysis at the Cliff Richard Song Database
• YouTube video of the song

References

1. ^ Steve Turner, Cliff Richard, p. 274, http://books.google.com/books?id=He0S6tFOGPUC&pg=PA274 
2. ^ William's Cliff Chart Site - Cliff Richard World Singles