B-side "Still I'm Sad" Genre Psychedelic rock Label Columbia | Format 7-inch single Length 2:24 | |
Released 1 October 1965 (1965-10-01) | ||
"Evil Hearted You" is a 1965 song by English rock group the Yardbirds. It was written by Graham Gouldman, who also wrote the group's two prior singles, "For Your Love" and "Heart Full of Soul". Music critic Cub Koda describes the song as a "minor-key pop classic" and guitarist Jeff Beck's solo as "equal parts classical and James Bond soundtrack".
In a review for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger called the song "one of the gloomiest hit singles in all of 1960s British rock" and adds:
[It] throws in all of Gouldman's mid-'60s bag of tricks: multiple abrupt tempo changes, a haunting Middle Eastern-influenced melody extremely heavy on the minor chords, a lyric abjectly pining for a woman's love, and adroit integration of several contrasting sections.
The Yardbirds recorded the song at Advision Studios, London, on 23 August 1965. When it was released 1 October 1965 in the UK, "Evil Heated You", along with the second side, "Still I'm Sad" became a double A-side hit. The Record Retailer singles chart counted both sides and reported it reached reached number three. The NME singles chart reported the two songs separately – "Evil Hearted You" at number ten and "Still I'm Sad" at number nine. There was no single release in the US, but the song was included on Having a Rave Up, which was released 15 November 1965.
The song was later recorded by the Human Beinz and the Pixies, who sang the lyrics in Spanish. Their version appears as a B-Side on "Planet of Sound" (1991) and also on the Complete 'B' Sides album (2001).