Before we get into the meat and potatoes on this one, I just gotta say…it’s pretty amazing about how many awesome gems you can find on the ole internets these days. Weirdly enough…the idea for this post came about after one of those random “a-ha” listening in the car moments recently. I happened to be giving ZEKE’s ‘Death Alley’ a healthy road rip one day in the truck (track #8 on that record, if you’re familiar, is called “Evil Woman”). Well…it happened to be about 8 songs worth of enough ZEKE on that day, and then I hit the eject button…only to find (you guessed it) ELO’s “Evil Woman” playing on the radio station (weird beard, right?). So then my nerd bird brain started spinning roundabout and I’m thinking…hmmm, I wonder how many more “Evil Women” are out there floating about amongst rock history?
Well…from CANNED HEAT to CROW, and SABBATH and SIDEBURNS, there should be plenty of different “Evil Women” out there for just about everyone. Here’s our top ten favorites [hopefully] in a chronological order:
1.) SPOOKY TOOTH – “Evil Woman”
It turns out [we think] that Mr. “Rhinestone Cowboy” himself, Larry Weiss actually wrote the original ‘Evil Woman.’ And somewhere around 1968, it landed on an album by SPOOKY TOOTH (their second – entitled ‘Spooky Two’). Spooky Tooth? What in the name?!? Ah well…we’re not here to debate about band names and such. The song kicks ass. Click HERE to learn more about Larry and his works.
2.) CANNED HEAT – “Evil Woman”
Circa 1968, CANNED HEAT released their second album, Boogie with Canned Heat. “Evil Woman” (Weiss) is the first song from that record.
This was about as far back as I could recall having my ears first blessed by the “Evil Woman.”
Click HERE for some HEAT.
3.) CROW – “Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)”
Even though SABBATH often gets first guess at the trivia table, it was this band who “warned” first. In 1969, a blues-rock band by the name of CROW (formed in 1967 in Minneapolis, MN) wrote this one on the album Crow Music. Click HERE for some CROW, and some neat history bits from Music Mike (We just love those killer one-word band names. You know…like CROW, CACTUS, CLUTCH…rawwwk!).
4.) THE TROGGS – “Evil Woman”
THE TROGGS then “employed” Larry again circa 1969.
Yep – this was the same band that gave us ‘Wild Thing’ (dah dah, dah dah duh dah dah…).
Click HERE for the TROGG-ed out rendition.
5.) YESTERDAY’S CHILDREN – “Evil Woman”
And then a band by the name of YESTERDAY’S CHILDREN did another rendition as well (also circa 1969).
This was another new discovery on this one. And a welcomed one at that. I had never before heard of this band, but this might be my favorite “Woman” yet. Click HERE for this one.
6.) BLACK SABBATH – “Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me)”
Personally, I like the horns in CROW’s original a tad better here. But then again, SABBATH does a mighty fine job just as well. Interestingly, even though this was Sabbath’s first single, it was excluded from the debut album in the U.S. (replaced by “Wicked World” instead). The song was then officially released in the U.S. in 2002, on ‘Symptom of the Universe…‘ Click HERE.
7.) ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA – “Evil Woman”
And then in 1975, on their fifth album ‘Face the Music’, ELO came out with their own [immensely popular] “Evil Woman”.
Classic rock at its finest.
Click HERE for some ELO magic.
8.) ZEKE – “Evil Woman”
Appropriately enough at #8 (this is what started this whole crazy “evil” adventure to begin with), raging crazy road rockers, ZEKE, did their own rendition of an ‘Evil Woman’ back on 2001′s Death Alley.
Click HERE if you need a little evil “pick-me-up.”
9.) THE FLAMING SIDEBURNS – “Evil Woman”
THE FLAMING SIDEBURNS covered Spooky/Larry again back in 2008 on their album Back to the Grave.Or is it a cover of THE TROGGS covering CANNED HEAT? Hell who knows at this point.
Click HERE for this totally rad rendition (this was the same band that did ‘Street Survivor’). Good shite.
10.) JOHN MAYALL & PETER GREEN – “Evil Woman Blues”
Not sure of the exact recording/release date on this one, but it’s been said that it can be found on the ‘Raw Blues’ album circa 1967. This one might just be the baddest of all of ‘em. Click HERE for this one. It’s entirely off the road map.
And there you have it. The ten baddest ‘Evil Women’ of all time. 
Surely there have been many others originated, covered, and adapted over the years by many a great artist. But hell…then we’d be here all nightmare long.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Nice review, I recently broke up with an “evil woman” and made a compilation about those evil creatures to exorcise my anger I guess , but I only knew Spooky Tooth’s and Canned heat’s versions of Larry Weiss’ song. Then I thought Sabbath’s Evil woman was an original one so I am very surprised to discover it isn’t, and of course ELO’s one was on my list. The one I included but you missed here is the Doobie Brother’s original Evil Woman from their exellent third album “The Captain and Me” (1973). Great job anyway.