Crow | Angels Bark

It’s Results time for my most recent Battle of the Bands. Using the song Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games with Me), I pitted the original version by Crow against a cover version by Black Sabbath. This was definitely an interesting battle and the votes were coming in with neck and neck results. The first 16 votes yielded 8 to Crow and 8 to Black Sabbath. But then Crow took the lead and pulled out the victory in this battle.

Final Tally:

Crow: 14 votes (including mine)

Black Sabbath: 9 votes

I voted for Crow because of the horns. I love me some brass! I will admit though, it was a difficult decision for me because I really liked Tony Iommi’s guitar in the middle of the Black Sabbath version. So I teetered on the fence for a little while. But the horns in Crow’s version won me over.

So that’s it for this edition of Battle of the Bands. Be sure to come back on June 1st for yet another battle. Thanks to everyone who participated!

It’s time for another Battle of the Bands and today I’m featuring a One Hit Wonder from the 70s. “Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games with Me)” is a song written and recorded by Minneapolis-based band Crow that appeared on their 1969 album Crow Music. It reached #19 on The U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Pop Chart. I’m pitting Crow’s original version against the cover by Black Sabbath. Give a listen to the two contenders and vote which one you like best. I’ll post the results in 6 days!

Contender #1: Crow

Crow is a blues rock band, that was first active from 1967 to 1972. They are best known for this song “Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me),” which was notably covered by Black Sabbath. Crow’s version features some outstanding brass. Ironically, the Crow band members were at first against adding the horns.

Contender #2: Black Sabbath

Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games with Me) was covered in 1970 by Black Sabbath –an English rock band formed in 1968 by guitarist and main songwriter Tony Iommi, bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward and the widely recognized singer Ozzy Osbourne. It was released as their first single (also known simply as “Evil Woman”). The song also appeared on Sabbath’s debut album, Black Sabbath, later that year.

Despite being Sabbath’s first single, “Evil Woman” was excluded from Black Sabbath’s debut album in the United States, being replaced by “Wicked World”. The song was first officially released in the U.S. in 2002, on the compilation Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970-1978. Their version has some fantastic guitar work.

TIME TO VOTE! Which version do you like better and why? And when you’re done voting, please visit these other BOTB participants and check out their cool battles: