"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was the first single from
Chér with instrumental backing by L.A. session musicians from the
Wrecking Crew.
Record World considered the song a "lively number", while
Billboard described it as "an offbeat rock ballad with a lyric to match". 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.
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". 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 (the narrator mentioning that had "papa" found out what the young man had done he would have shot him), and three months after the man leaves the caravan, the narrator is "
in trouble". 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. ==Live performances==