Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" is a song recorded 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	"He'll Never Know" "The Way of Love"
Released	September 1, 1971[1]
Recorded	1971
Studio	Larrabee Sound (Los Angeles)
Genre	Pop folk rock
Length	2:36
Label	Kapp MCA
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 the 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" was 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, Charmed and The Umbrella Academy (TV series). Along with the parent album, "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was 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.^[2] The album was subsequently renamed and re-released as Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves after the success of the single.

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 #84 —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 five weeks 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.^{[3][irrelevant citation]}

Story

The song describes the life of a 16-year old girl, the song's narrator, who was "born in the wagon of a traveling show" with her "mama", an exotic dancer, and "papa", a patent medicine salesman posing as a preacher. Though the family endures hearing jeers of "gypsies, tramps and thieves" from the people of the town, the narrator would add that, "every night all the men would come around and lay their money down", implying that the men of the town easily fell for their scams, mainly the solicited sexual favors from the women in the caravan, 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 and the narrator secretly have sex, and three months after the man leaves the caravan, the narrator is "in trouble", mentioning that had "papa" found out what the young man had done he would have shot him. After the narrator's daughter is born, she herself subsequently takes up the storytelling for the next generation (referring to "her mama" and "Grampa"), with the family continuing to support themselves through dancing, selling nostrums and preaching.

The title of this song has also been shown with the alternative, albeit correct spelling of the word "Gypsies". The song was described by Rob Tennanbaum in Billboard magazine as one of the greatest songs of the 20th century.^[4]

Live performances

Cher performed the song on the following concert tours:

• Do You Believe? tour (performed as part of the Hits Medley)
• Living Proof: The Farewell Tour (performed as part of the Hits Medley)
• Cher at the Colosseum
• Dressed to Kill Tour
• Classic Cher
• Here We Go Again Tour (only during the Oceanian leg of the tour)

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. A promotional video aired on BBC's Top of the Pops in 1971, which features a group of Roma travelling through the countryside. The video follows certain lyrics from the song, ie; "dance for the money they'd throw".^[5]

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

Weekly charts Chart (1971–1972) Peak position Australian (Go-Set) Singles Chart[6] 4 Belgian Singles Chart 27 Canadian RPM Top Singles[7] 1 Danish Singles Chart[8] 8 Dutch Mega Top 50 Singles Chart [9] 23 German Singles Chart 25 Irish Singles Chart 3 Japanese Singles Chart 17 Malaysian Singles Chart[6] 2 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[10] 25 Netherlands (Single Top 100)[11] 23 New Zealand Singles Chart 2 New Zealand (Listener)[12] 2 Quebec (ADISQ)[13] 7 Singapore Singles Chart[6] 2 UK Singles Chart[14] 4 US Billboard Hot 100 1 US Billboard Easy Listening[15] 6 US Cash Box Top 100[16] 1

Year-end charts Country (1971) Position Australian Singles Chart[17] 67 Canadian RPM Top Singles[18] 4 UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[19] 52 US Billboard Hot 100[20] 39 US Billboard Top Easy Listening Singles[21] 46 Country (1972) Position Australian Singles Chart[22] 58 Certifications Region Certification Certified units/sales United Kingdom (BPI)[23] Silver 200,000‡ United States (RIAA)[24] Gold 1,000,000^ United States Digital — 212,000[25] ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

In Popular culture

The song makes an appearance in The Simpsons episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish" where it is sung by an anesthesiologist named Richie Sakai, a character of one of the shows producers Richard Sakai. It was also used in season 4 of the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy, as well as in a scene of the season 1 finale of HBO's Six Feet Under.