“Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” (Cher)

Today’s classic song that mentions Memphis in the lyrics of the day is “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” by Cher. The lyric in question is in the second verse and it goes like this:

Picked up a boy just south of Mobile
Gave him a ride, filled him with a hot meal
I was sixteen, he was twenty-one
Rode with us to Memphis
And papa woulda shot him if he knew what he’d done

“Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” is about a girl “born in the wagon of a traveling show” to a family of “gypsies, tramps and thieves.” One day the family picks up a young man who takes the fancy of the young girl, gets her pregnant, and then takes off (in Memphis), leaving the girl to give birth to her daughter, also “in the wagon of a travelin’ show,” just as the singer was 16 years earlier.

Cher was initially reluctant to record the song and reportedly still isn’t a big fan of it today. “It was a song I recorded in, like, an hour,” she once said. She noted that producer Snuff Garrett hated to do more than two or three takes of a song. “With Snuffy, you had to crank out an album in a weekend.” Cher apparently didn’t like that.

Cher’s fans, however, thought different. Released in September of 1971, “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” was Cher’s first solo #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified Gold for selling a million copies, was MCA Records’ best-selling single up to that time, and earned Cher a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal. (She lost to Carole King for her landmark Tapestry album.)

Along with her weekly appearances on her hit CBS-TV variety show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, this song launched a big comeback for Cher as a solo singer. Over the next few years she had a string of big hits, including “The Way of Love” (#7 in 1972), “Half-Breed” (#1 in 1973), and “Dark Lady” (#1 in 1974). That’s not counting her later hits in the ’80s and ’90s, including “If I Could Turn Back Time” (#3 in 1989) and “I Believe” (#1 in 1998). She’s had an incredible career, spanning early days working as a background singer in the Phil Spector Wall of Sound factory, pop hits in the ’60s with then husband Sonny Bono, and a number of starring roles in hit films. She’s still out there today, just being Cher, at age 77.

As a bonus, here’s Cher performing “Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves” on The Sunny & Cher Comedy Hour. Think of it as a proto-music video and enjoy.