Kentucky Woman

Infobox Single
Name = Kentucky Woman


Artist = Deep Purple
from Album = The Book of Taliesyn
B-side = "Wring That Neck"
Released = December, 1968
Format = 7"
Recorded = August, 1968
Genre = Hard rock
Length = 4:44
Label = Harvest Records (UK) Tetragrammaton (US)
Writer = Neil Diamond
Producer = Derek Lawrence
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = "Hush"
(1968)
This single = "Kentucky Woman"
(1968)
Next single = "River Deep Mountain High"
(1969)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = The Book of Taliesyn
Type = Studio
prev_track = "Wring That Neck"
prev_no = 2
this_track = "Kentucky Woman"
track_no = 3
next_track = "Exposition"/"We Can Work It Out"
next_no = 4
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Kentucky Woman (single) US cover
Type = Single


Lower caption =

"Kentucky Woman" is a 1967 song written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond. It is also well-known for a 1968 recording by Deep Purple.

Diamond recorded "Kentucky Woman" as his last hit single for Bang Records. Released in October 1967, it reached number 22 on the U.S. pop singles chart. Diamond still frequently performs it in his shows.

Deep Purple cover

Recorded by Deep Purple with a vastly different instrumental feel, if not vocal line, it was their second single release in 1968. Although it did not go as high in the charts as "Hush" in the U.K. or the U.S. (making number 38 in the latter), it did reach top 20 chart status in Australia; this was Deep Purple's first major hit in that country. At the time, it was considered one of the first heavy metal songs to emerge on the radio scene. The song also reached number 21 on the Canadian RPM charts.

The single version is an edit of the album version, and is four minutes and four seconds in length. A remastered version appears on the 30th anniversary album "The very best of Deep Purple" EMI records and runs for four minutes and forty five seconds.

Deep Purple played "Kentucky Woman" live on tour in 1968 and 1969, even after Ian Gillan joined the band in the summer of 1969. It has has never been on Deep Purple's set list since.

Other covers

Waylon Jennings also released a version on his 1968 album "Only the Greatest".