Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" is a song by American singer and actress Cher from her 1971 seventh studio album Chér (eventually reissued under the title Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves). Kapp Records, a division of MCA Records, released it as the album's lead single on September 1, 1971. The song was written by Bob Stone, and produced by Snuff Garrett. Since Sonny Bono's first attempts at reviving Cher's recording career had been unsuccessful, the record company recruited Garrett as her producer and he chose Stone to write a song specifically for Cher, in order to cater to an adult audience.

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves"
Picture sleeve for some 7-inch vinyl releases, including Germany, Italy and Japan.
Single by Cher
from the album Chér
B-side
ReleasedSeptember 1, 1971
Recorded1971
StudioLarrabee Sound (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length2:36
Label
Songwriter(s)Bob Stone
Producer(s)Snuff Garrett
Cher singles chronology
"For What It's Worth"
(1969)		 "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves"
(1971)		 "The Way of Love"
(1972)

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" is an upbeat pop and folk rock story-song that features instrumentation from a carnival calliope and a piano with strings in the background. Cher sings from the point of view of a 16-year-old Romani girl, who was "born in the wagon of a traveling show" and describes her life. It contains themes of teenage pregnancy and implications of prostitution. The song received positive reviews by music critics, and earned Cher a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance category.

Commercially, it became Cher's first solo number-one single on the record charts in Canada and United States, the first single by a solo artist to rank number one on the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time as on the Canadian Singles Chart. It also reached the top five in Australia, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of one million copies across the United States. At the time of its release, "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was the biggest-selling single in the history of MCA.

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" has been performed on several episodes of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971-74) and Cher (1975-76) and also on six of Cher's world tours. The song has been recorded by a number of artists, including Vikki Carr, Vicki Lawrence and Nirvana and has appeared in or been referenced in some TV shows such as The Simpsons, The X-Files and Charmed. Along with the parent album, "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" has been considered a turning point in Cher's career, with critics starting to acknowledge her as an artist and crediting the song for restoring her popularity, which had diminished at the end of the previous decade.

Song information

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was the first single from Chér with instrumental backing by L.A session musicians from the Wrecking Crew.[1] The album was subsequently renamed and re-released as Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves after the success of the single. The song was written by songwriter Bob Stone as a story-song called "Gypsys, Tramps and White Trash". Producer Snuff Garrett advised that the title be changed and Stone then changed it to "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves".

Released four years after her last top ten hit "You Better Sit Down Kids", this song was a comeback single for Cher— it was her first single in four years to chart higher than the eighty-fourth most popular —not only returning her to the top 10 of the charts but also giving her two weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1971. It knocked off "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart which had spent the previous month at #1. The single also reached #1 in Canada and #4 in the United Kingdom. It was the first single by a solo artist to rank number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart at the same time as on the Canadian Singles Chart. As of November 2011, Billboard reported the digital sales of "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" to be 212,000 in the US.[2]

The song describes the life of a girl, the song's narrator, who was "born in the wagon of a traveling show" with her mother, an exotic dancer, and father, a patent medicine salesman posing as a preacher. Though the family endures jeers of being "gypsies, tramps and thieves" from townsmen, the men of the town would always come out at night to "lay their money down", implying that they both fell for their scams and solicited sexual favors from the women of the group, including the narrator. One day, the family takes in a 21-year-old man who travels with them from "just south of Mobile" to Memphis. One night during the trip, the man implicitly has intercourse with the 16-year-old narrator without her father knowing, and three months after the man disappears in Memphis, the narrator is "in trouble" (pregnant). The narrator's daughter is born later, with the family continuing to dance, sell nostrums and preach to support themselves.

The title of this song has also been shown with the alternative spelling "Gypsies", this being a correct spelling of this word. The song was described by Rob Tennanbaum in Billboard magazine as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.[3]

Live performances

Cher performed the song on the following concert tours:

Music video

The video for "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was Cher's first music video. The video was a recorded performance of the song on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1971. Throughout the video Cher is singing in front of a house wagon and in front of a fire. A second video was made, but it was very similar to the original. In the second video, clips of dancing female gypsies were shown.

Remix version

In 2002, a special remix medley was created by Dan-O-Rama for a video montage that was used in Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. The medley contains the videos of "All I Really Want to Do", "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", "Half-Breed", and "Dark Lady".

Charts and certifications

References
  1. Hartman, Kent (2012). The Wrecking Crew. St. Martin’s Griffin. pp. 261–263. ISBN 978-1-250-03046-7.
  2. "Ask Billboard: Cher Information, Yes?". Billboard. November 5, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
  3. Tennanbaum, Rob (May 19, 2017). "Cher's 'Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves': Why It's One of the 20th Century's Greatest Songs". Billboard. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  4. Billboard. January 8, 1972. p. 27. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  5. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  6. "The Hits of Cher: The Danish Hits of Cher". Cherhits.blogspot.dk. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  7. Steffen Hung. "Cher - Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves". Dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  8. "flavour of new zealand - search listener". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  9. "Palmarès de la chanson anglophone et allophone au Québec" (in French). BAnQ. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  10. "Cher | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Theofficialcharts.com. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  11. "Cash Box Top 100 10/30/71". Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved May 23, 2020.
  12. Australian-charts.com
  13. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  14. "UK Singles (Official Charts Company) 1971 - Year End". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  15. "1971". Longbored Surfer. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  16. "Billboard Year-End Charts 1971" (PDF).
  17. Australian-charts.com
  18. "British single certifications – Cher – Gypsies Tramps & Thieves". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  19. "American single certifications – Cher – Gypsys". Recording Industry Association of America.
  20. "Ask Billboard: Cher Information, Yes?". Billboard. November 5, 2011. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
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