„Devil Woman” is a 1976 hit single for Cliff Richard culled from his album I’m Nearly Famous. „Devil Woman” was written by Terry Britten and Christine Holmes and first recorded by Holmes under the name Kristine.

A #9 UK hit in June 1976, „Devil Woman” became Richard’s first single to reach the Top 20 in the US, reaching #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remains Richard’s highest peaking single. „Devil Woman” is ranked overall as the third biggest-selling Cliff Richard single with over two million copies sold worldwide.

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 latter-mentioned have some notable parallels with Cher’s 1974 hit single „Dark Lady”. Notable musically for its unusual (for a pop song) combination of major and minor sound; it might be properly categorized as being in D blues. It was also one of the earliest U.S. hits to make use of Extended-range bass, reaching one whole tone lower than the conventional instrument, to include D1.

Like many story songs, the production is quite sparse. It 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, 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.

Devil Woman Lyrics

Artist: Cliff Richard

I’ve had nothing but bad luck
Since the day I saw the cat at my door
So I came here to you, sweet lady
Answering your mystical call
Crystal ball on the table
Showing the future, the past
Same cat with them evil eyes
And I knew it was a spell she’d cast.

*Chorus
She’s just a devil woman
With evil on her mind
Beware the devil woman
She’s gonna get you
She’s just a devil woman
With evil on her mind
Beware the devil woman
She’s gonna get you from behind.

Give me the ring on your finger
Let me see the lines of your hand
I can see me a tall dark stranger
Giving you what you hadn’t planned
I drank the potion she offered me
I found myself on the floor
Then I looked in those big green eyes
And I wondered what I came there for.

(Repeat chorus)

Stay awake
Look out
If you’re out on a moonlit night
Be careful of the neighbourhood strays
Of a lady with long black hair
Tryin’ to win you with her feminine ways
Crystal ball on the table
Showing the future, the past
Same cat with them evil eyes
You’d better get out of there fast
She’s just a devil woman
With evil on her mind
Beware the devil woman
She’s gonna get you.