Devil Woman

It was written by Terry Britten. He was English singer-songwriter who wrote songs for people like Tina Turner, Olivia Newton John, and even Michael Jackson. Some of his other songs include ?What’s Love Got to Do with It?, and ?We Don’t Need Another Hero? from the movie ?Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome?. Terry played the guitar on Cliff Richard’s recording of Devil Woman. The song was recorded at the famous Abbey Road, a frequent recording studio used by the Beatles.

The song tells a story. A man seems to be cursed after meeting a strange stray cat with evil eyes. He becomes concerned and eventually seeks the help of a medium, a gypsy woman, to remove the curse. But he’s stunned when he learns that the curse didn’t come from the cat. It was the gypsy woman placed a curse on him to lure him into her clutches.

Many songs like Devil Woman that have a story to tell are sparsely produced. In other words they are very simple songs. They have a minimum of instruments and generally simple tunes. Devil Woman is no different. The instruments used to record the song include a guitar, an electric piano, drums and percussion. And of course the singer.

For a pop song Devil Woman has unique combination of major and minor chords. It’s one of the earliest hit songs in the United States to encompass more than an octave of the musical range.

Other groups have covered, or performed, the song. The Accused is one of them. The band was founded in 1981 in Washington. Its style is what they called splatter rock. Many of the sounds in their music are made to mimic the sounds from the horror movies that they loved. These include shrieking lyrics, and chainsaw like guitar riffs.

In 2005 Cradle of Faith covered Devil Woman. This was an extreme metal band from England. Their songs were in the style of the band had said any kind of metal. Given their reputation and style of music this song was perfect for them.

No matter who plays it, Devil Woman is a devilish song.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!