Cher

Released: February 1, 1974

Songwriter: John Durrill

Producer: Snuff Garrett

[Verse 1]
The fortune queen of New Orleans
Was brushing her cat in her black limousine
On the back seat were scratches from
The marks of men, her fortune she had won
I couldn't see through the tinted glass;
She said, "Home, James" and he hit the gas
I followed her to some darkened room
She took my money, she said, "I'll be with you soon"

[Chorus]
Dark lady laughed and danced
And lit the candles one by one;
Danced to her gypsy music
'Till her brew was done...
Dark lady played black magic
'Till the clock struck on the twelve
She told me more about me
Than I knew myself...

[Verse 2]
She dealt two cards, a queen and a three
And mumbled some words that were so strange to me
And then she turned up a two-eyed jack
My eyes saw red but the card still stayed black
She said, "The man you love is secretly true
To someone else who is very close to you!
My advice is that you leave this place
Never come back, and forget you ever saw my face!"

[Chorus]
Dark lady laughed and danced
And lit the candles one by one;
Danced to her gypsy music
Till her brew was done...
Dark lady played black magic
Till the clock struck on the twelve
She told me more about me
Than I knew myself...

[Verse 3]
So I ran home and crawled in my bed
I couldn't sleep because of all the things she said
Then I remembered her strange perfume
And how I smelled it once in my own room
So I snuck back and caught her with my man;
Laughing and kissing til they saw the gun in my hand...
The next thing I knew they were dead on the floor--
Dark Lady would never turn a card up anymore!

[Chorus fades out]
Dark lady laughed and danced
And lit the candles one by one;
Danced to her gypsy music
Til her brew was done...
Dark lady played black magic
Till the clock struck on the twelve
She told me more about me
Than I knew myself...

Cher is an American singer, songwriter, actress, model, fashion designer, television host, comedian, dancer, businesswoman, philanthropist, author, film producer, director, and record producer.

Cher gained popularity in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock husband–wife duo Sonny & Cher after their first hit, “I Got You Babe”. She began her solo career simultaneously, releasing in 1966 her first million-seller song, “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”. After the duo had lost its young audience owing to their monogamous, anti-drug lifestyle during the period of the sexual revolution and the rise of the drug culture, she returned to stardom in the 1970s as a television personality with her shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and Cher. She became a fashion trendsetter by wearing elaborate outfits on her television shows. While working on television, she established herself as a solo artist with the number-one singles “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves”, “Half-Breed”, and “Dark Lady”. After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher’s much-publicized personal life led to a decline in her career, although she launched a minor comeback in 1979 with the disco-oriented album Take Me Home and earned $300,000 a week for her 1980–1982 residency show in Las Vegas.

In the early 1980s, Cher made her Broadway debut, and then starred in the film Silkwood. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1983. In the ensuing years, she starred in films such as Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck. She made her directorial debut in the 1996 film If These Walls Could Talk. At the same time, she established herself as a rock singer by releasing platinum albums such as Heart of Stone (1989) and top-ten singles such as “I Found Someone” and “If I Could Turn Back Time”. She reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the song “Believe”, which features the pioneering use of Auto-Tune, also known as the “Cher effect”. Her 2002–2005 Living The Farewell Tour ended up as the highest-grossing music tour by a female artist then. In 2008, she signed a $60 million per-year deal to headline the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for three years. After seven years of absence, she returned to film in the 2010 musical Burlesque. Cher’s first studio album in 12 years, Closer to the Truth, became her highest-charting solo album in the U.S. to date.

more tracks from the album

Dark Lady

From the albums

Dark Lady (1974)
Greatest Hits: 1965–1992 (1992)
20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: Best of Cher (2000)
The Way of Love: The Cher Collection (2000)
The Very Best of Cher (French Edition) (2003)

Cher popular songs

Dark LadyCher

Cher

Dark Lady