Released 1962 Genre R&B Writer(s) Naomi Neville | Format 7" single Label Minit Records | |
A-side "Lipstick Traces (on a Cigarette)" | ||
"Fortune Teller" is a song written by Allen Toussaint under the pseudonym Naomi Neville and first recorded by Benny Spellman (single B-side on Minit Records 644)
It tells the story of a young man who is pleased to learn from a fortune teller that he will find love "When the next one arrives". Next day he returns, angry that nothing has happened, but falls in love with the fortune teller. They get married and are as "happy as we could be", and he gets his "fortune told for free".
Cover versions exist by The Rolling Stones, on their first live album, Got Live If You Want It!, overdubbed with screaming girls (a scream-free version is on the compilation album More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies)), The Hollies, The Stellas CBS records 1965, The Who (on the re-release of Live at Leeds), The Merseybeats, Tony Jackson, The Downliners Sect, The Iguanas, Strawberry Alarm Clock (recording as Thee Sixpence), and many others, including more recently the October 2007 album Raising Sand, performed by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
The song was also a hit in Australia, recorded by The Throb. It was released in February 1966 and charted in the Top 5 in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. Rumour has it that the Australian band were played the Rolling Stones version by their producer before they recorded their version, to get an idea of how it should sound.