Songfacts®:

• Crow was a Blues-Rock group from Minneapolis originally known as South 40. After changing their name and landing a record deal in 1969, they released three albums before breaking up in 1972. Their first album, Crow Music, contained their only hit: "Evil Woman Don't Play Your Games With Me." With the lyrics, "You want me to claim this child you bore, but I know that it was he, not me," we learn that this is a very evil woman indeed.
  
  Crow bass player Larry Wiegand told us: "It was not a fictional story but had the same inspiration as Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." Both tell the story of a guy who was accused of being the father of a gal's baby. He claims he isn't the father. 'Evil woman, don't play those games with me' is his response to her accusations. Not an uncommon story for young folks - then or now. All the Crow songs were about what young folks had to deal with at one time or another. I like to think each song is a snapshot of what was happening to us at the time."
  
  Regarding how the song came together, Larry says, "My brother Dick (the band's guitarist) and I were working on that song's chord progression, and Dave Wagner, our lead singer, was in the next room listening. He started writing down lyrics and we put them together."
• This was the second single for the group, following "Time To Make A Turn," which tanked. "Evil Woman" first got airplay in Seattle and became popular around the country. It was never especially popular the band's home state of Minnesota.
• A cover of this song was Black Sabbath's first single. It was released only in the UK and didn't chart, and was included on their self-titled 1970 album, but left off North American releases.
  
  Also in 1970, Ike and Tina Turner recorded the song for their album Come Together, with the title changed to "Evil Man" since Tina was singing it.
• Crow's record label, Dunwich, had them add horns to this track even though the band didn't have a horn section. Larry Wiegand explained, "We didn't know they were going to add the horns. Dunwich did what they thought was right about getting a successful record out. I find it funny about what's been said on the internet about us not liking the horns. Those guys did a great job of playing the charts. Our only problem was that we didn't have a horn section when we toured, so we couldn't reproduce the sound when we performed live."
• Drummer Dennis Craswell was previously a member of another one hit wonder band, The Castaways. Their 1965 single "Liar Liar" peaked at #12 on the Hot 100 in 1965.