Evil Woman by Electric Light Orchestra

Album: Face The Music (1975)

Charted: 10 10

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"Evil Woman" was recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, some time in early to mid 1975. ELO leader Jeff Lynne wrote the song on a piano in the studio on the last days of recording, writing it very quickly. The band had recorded all of the other songs for the Face The Music album, but Lynne didn't think any of them were hit-worthy, so he set out to write one they could release as a single.

One morning, he sent the band out of the studio. They played soccer while he sat at the piano and played the opening piano riff, which became the basis of the song. Later that day, the rest of the band came in and recorded the backing track. The lyrics were written and recorded the next day at Musicland, and the string and female choir parts were recorded (and possibly written) later at De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley, UK.

The song was indeed released as the first single from the album, and it was a hit, reaching #10 in the US and UK. It became a concert favorite and has held up as one of the band's classic songs.
Around the 2:40 mark, there's an odd-sounding synthesizer and string breakdown that comes in during the instrumental break right before the chorus starts up the second time. If you play it backwards, it's revealed to be a section of another song on the Face The Music album called "Nightrider" played backwards (in "Nightrider" that part is around the 3:16 mark). "I was amazed when it slotted in seamlessly," Jeff Lynne wrote in the liner notes to the album's 2006 remaster.

This section is one of the most memorable portions of the song, and in 2005 it was sampled on the Pussycat Dolls hit "Beep."
The line, "There's a hole in my head where the rain comes in," was inspired by the Beatles song "Fixing a Hole." Jeff Lynne was good friends with George Harrison of The Beatles. In the '80s they were both part of the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys.
Who is the evil woman Jeff Lynne is singing about? "It was inspired by a certain woman, but I can't say who," he told Rolling Stone. "She's appeared a few times in my songs."
The chorus is just the title repeated four times, but Jeff Lynne stretches it out for effect ("E-E-Val Woman") and changes the pitch to keep it interesting. The song doesn't need a lot of words in this section because there's so much going on musically.
ELO never had one massive blockbuster hit, but they have a lot of memorable songs that did well on the charts. "Evil Woman" did better than any of their other songs to that point, and helped the band get gigs at bigger venues. Hits that followed for the band include "Livin' Thing" and "Don't Bring Me Down," but their most enduring song proved to be "Mr. Blue Sky."

Comments: 19

La Zalewski from PaJust heard the RADIO EDIT of this song and it is SO HORRIBLE and DRIVES ME CRAZY. The person responsible should be jailed.
Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 25th 1976, the Electric Light Orchestra performed "Evil Woman" on the NBC-TV program 'The Midnight Special'...
Eight months earlier on November 9th, 1975 it entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #87; and on February 8th, 1976 it peaked at #10 (for 2 weeks) and spent 17 weeks on the Top 100...
It reached #2 in France...
Between 1973 and 1986 the group had twenty-five Top 100 records; seven made the Top 10 with "Don't Bring Me Down" being their biggest hit, it peaked at #4 (for 2 weeks) on September 2nd, 1979.
Ryman from Tarragona, AndorraI guess you made a mistake writing about the composers: there is a song with this title and these composers, but it's another song from the band Little Free Rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_vlGNVuSFs.
Matt from Phoenix, AzI agree with BRATT in Algeria about everything except his dismissal of the Bee Gees. It would be wise to revisit the entirety of the band's five decade career and also to listen more closely to their pre-Saturday Night Fever 70s recordings like Jive Talking and Nights On Broadway. These guys were GOOD at what they did. Revisit also the lyrics to Staying Alive to relieve yourself of any doubts that they were also literate.
Bratt Pid from Algiers, AlgeriaELO just like ABBA was very hard criticized during their heydays for making the turn to disco ,they were supposedly pop-rock acts ,studio wizard making the best pop music ever and suddenly in the late eighties they both were forgotten in the media to the joy of rock critics but Abba enjoyed a great revival during the nineties (since 1992) due to a faithful army of fans (I'm one of them !) and the success of Mamma mia ! of course .
but it seems that ELO hasn't fulfill that yet ,the recognition they deserve and the success of true revival,personally i think that Abba was such an anti-conformist music act that this lead to that ,on the other hand even though ELO had its own touch ,they were one of the British Us rock acts ,so they didn't get a special place in the mess (some people dare to compare Abba with boney M and bee gees which is stupid !) and ELO with some seventies prog rock bands ???
i think that ABBA ,ELO and ALAN PARSON PROJECTS are the three all time great bands musically and technically (sound-engineering ) not surpassed since their demise ,there is TOTO in the eighties and nineties who brought such perfection but the three (abba elo and parson) are undethronable!
David from Shepparton, AustraliaEvil woman made Number 790 in "The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time" http://crowbarred.blogspot.com/2006/10/number-970-elo.html
Mike from Portage, MiELO has been one my top all time favorite bands, both musically and lyrically. Speaking of lyrics, its always been a pet peeve of mine when people cluelessly sing them "wrong." I know, I shouldn't really care if they're enjoying themselves, right? Anyways when my kids we little, we were all driving along in the car and this came on the radio...my wife got them both along with herself, to sing "Medieval Woman" along with this song. She LOVES yanking my chain! Now, many years later, its just a great joke I recall every time I hear it!
Howard from Wakefield, United KingdomLook at my comment on 'Can't get it out of my head'. Another plausible Beatles-sounding record.
Patrice from Beverly Hills, CaThis song was in the movie "Donnie Brasco"
Fernando from Queens, NyA great song from a great band!!!
Cynthia from Scranton, PaELO is such an awesome band!! The sad thing is most people in my age group (college) have never even heard of them. All they listen to is either that rap crap or emo garbage!
Pillow from Milwaukee, WiThis song rocks. Hilarous, Scott...your comment made me choke on my soda!
Anthony from Cape May, NjGreat song, very good lyrics, makes you relate to it.. Such a nice sound, you don't hear that sound much ya know?
Paul from Salem, NhI used to work at a grocery store, and it seemed that every time this one woman worked with us, this song would play! We would sing it behind her back and everything, it fit so well!
Scott from Kings Park, NyI wanna know who the evil woman is!! It's too old to be about Hillary Clinton.
Allie from Pine Knob, MiThe beginning is the best. Beastly Piano.
Max I totally agree with you. THIS SONG ROCKS!!!!
i love the guitar!!
Joe from Bellingham, Walove, love, love this song!
Nick from Murrieta, CaI know! Probably the best ELO song, rivaled only by Mr. Blue Sky (in my opinion, of course).
Max from Laconia, NhNo one else writes anything??!! Tards!! this song is beastly! guitar is cool in it.

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