“Dark Lady” (Cher)

Today’s classic song of the day is from the first female artist to score three #1 hits on the Billboard chart. That lady is Cher and the song is “Dark Lady.”

“Dark Lady” was written by Johnny Durrill, the keyboard player for the Ventures. He wrote this one and played it for producer Snuff Garrrett, who promptly handed it off to Cher to record. The single was released in December of 1973 and, early the next year, went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #3 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It was also a top twenty hit in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Rhodesia, South Africa, and Sweden. (It only hit #36 in the UK, for some reason.)

The song is about a woman who engages the services of a fortune teller, the “Dark Lady” of the title, who turns out to be having an affair with the woman’s husband. As often happens in these songs, the woman finds out and shoots dead both her husband and the fortune teller. As the lyrics put it, “Dark lady would never turn a card up anymore.” That showed her.

Cher’s previous two solo number ones were 1971’s “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” and 1973’s “Half Breed.” (Plus another #1 with then-husband Sonny Bono with 1965’s “I Got You Babe.”) She’d go on to have another number one in 1998 with “Believe”—and a #3 in 1989 with “If I Could Turn Back Time.” Cher is still out there recording and performing today, at 78 years of age.

So here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, Cher performing “Dark Lady” on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1973. I always loved her outfits.