| Strange Kind of Woman | |
| Cover: | Strange Kind of Woman.jpg |
| Border: | yes |
| Caption: | Cover of the 1971 Swedish single |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Deep Purple |
| B-Side: | I'm Alone |
| Released: | 12 February 1971[1] |
| Recorded: | September 1970 |
| Length: | 3:49 |
| Label: | Harvest Records (UK) Warner Bros. Records (US) |
| Producer: | Deep Purple |
| Prev Title: | Black Night |
| Prev Year: | 1970 |
| Next Title: | Fireball |
| Next Year: | 1971 |
"Strange Kind of Woman" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple that was originally released as a follow-up single after "Black Night" in early 1971. The song also became a hit, peaking at No. 8 on the UK chart and Germany, and No. 1 in Denmark. The 1996 remix by Roger Glover later appeared on the re-release of the band's 1971 album Fireball, while the original version can be found on various Deep Purple compilations. Although not part of the Fireball recording sessions, "Strange Kind of Woman" was included on the US and Canadian editions of the album, in lieu of the track "Demon's Eye" on the UK edition.
The B-side song, "I'm Alone", was later released on The Deep Purple Singles A's and B's as well as on the 25th anniversary reissue of Fireball.
The song was originally called "Prostitute". Vocalist Ian Gillan introduced the song on Deep Purple in Concert: "It was about a friend of ours who got mixed up with a very evil woman and it was a sad story. They got married in the end. And a few days after they got married, the lady died." In Wordographys section Gillan gives a slightly different version of the song's history:
When Deep Purple performed the song live, Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore would play a guitar-vocal duel in the middle. This would always end with an extremely long, high-pitched scream from Gillan before the band returned to playing the original song. An example can be heard on the live album, Made in Japan, recorded in 1972.
| Chart (1971) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[2] | 14 | |
| Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia) | 27 | |
| Denmark (IFPI) | 1 | |
| UK Singles (OCC) | 8 | |
| West Germany (Official German Charts) | 8 |