CHER - DARK LADY

Released: December 1973

Charted:  UK: #36  US: #1 (1 week)

"Dark Lady" is a song recorded by Cher, released as the lead single from her eleventh studio album, “Dark Lady”, in December 1973. It was written by John Robert "Johnny" Durrill and produced by Snuff Garrett. The song reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on March 23, 1974, marking Cher's third solo number one hit in the United States.

"Dark Lady" explores themes of betrayal, jealousy, and revenge. In this narrative song the protagonist visits a fortune teller known as the "dark lady." The fortune teller advises her to leave her boyfriend. Later, the protagonist realizes the fortune teller's perfume was on her lover's bed, suggesting they were together. Distraught, she returns to the fortune teller and finds her lover with her. In a moment of rage, she shoots and kills the dark lady. 

The song has two distinct music video versions. The first is a live performance aired during the third season of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1973. In this version, Cher is dressed in black with a veil on her head. The second video is an animated cartoon created by John David Wilson's animation studio, which narrates the entire story of the song visually.

In 2002, a special remix medley was created by Dan-O-Rama for a video montage used during Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. This medley included videos of several of Cher's hits, including "All I Really Want to Do", "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady". What made the "Dark Lady" segment unique was that it combined both the live-action and animated versions of the song's videos.