B-side "Love on Shine On" Format 7" single Length 3:35 | Released 23 April 1976 Genre Pop rock | |
Recorded 8 & 9 September 1975, Abbey Road Studios, London | ||
"Devil Woman" is a 1976 hit single for Cliff Richard from his album I'm Nearly Famous.
Contents
Background
"Devil Woman" was written by Terry Britten and Christine Holmes (singer of the Family Dogg) and also recorded by Holmes under the name "Kristine".
A No. 9 UK hit in June 1976, "Devil Woman" became Richard's first single to reach the Top 20 in the US, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, which was Richard's highest peaking single. "Devil Woman" is the third biggest-selling Cliff Richard single with over two million copies sold worldwide. It was certified Gold by the RIAA in the US and the CRIA in Canada.
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 song 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, bass guitar, 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.