When Cher was last featured on Throwback Weekends, it was for her #1 hit ‘Half-Breed,’ which topped the charts in October of 1973. The video for that song found her dressed in a bikini and a Native American headdres.
Given that history, I was a little nervous when I saw that her next release, which reached #1 the week of March 23, 1974, was titled ‘Dark Lady.’ Fortunately, though the no-longer-acceptable word “gypsy” does appear a few times in the song, it’s nowhere near as bad as I feared.
The song, written by Johnny Durrill, tells the tale of a woman who visits a fortune teller and learns that her husband is cheating. She later deduces that the other woman is the fortune teller herself, and gets deadly revenge.
This was the third of four #1 hits for Cher, and her last one until 1998’s ‘Believe.’
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
Meet Me In Montauk 
While I remember “Half Breed” from my childhood, I don’t recall hearing this song. Can’t say I care for it all that much.