Witchy Woman

"Witchy Woman" is a song written by Don Henley and Bernie Leadon, and recorded by the American rock band Eagles. Released as the second single from the band's debut album Eagles, it reached #9 on the Billboard Pop singles chart^[1] and is the only single from the album to feature Henley on lead vocals.

The song was both used and referred to in an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. In the same episode, the song "Desperado" is also used. In the tenth episode of Dharma and Greg, Abbey, Dharma's mother, mentions that she dated Henley and is almost certain she is Witchy Woman.

Background and writing

"Witchy Woman" was conceived while Don Henley was living in an old house near the Hollywood Bowl. Bernie Leadon came to his house one day to play him a strange minor-key guitar riff he was working on that according to Henley, "...sounded like a Hollywood movie version of Indian music-you know, the kind of stuff they play when the Indians ride up on the ridge while the wagon train passes below." The two then recorded a demo of the song on cassette for Henley to write lyrics for. Shortly after, he came down with a terrible case of the flu.^[2]

I had a very high fever and became semi-delirious at times-and that's when I wrote most of the lyrics. Every time the fever subsided I would continue to read a new book I'd gotten on the life of Zelda Fitzgerald, and I think that figured into the mix somehow.

—Don Henley

Henley also attributed the lyrics to amorphous images of girls he had met at the Whisky a Go Go and The Troubadour.

References