Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves

Biography

Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves is the seventh studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on September 1971 by Kapp Records. For the realization of this album, Cher left her husband Sonny Bono to produce the album, and for the first time she collabored with Snuff Garrett and with Al Capps for the arrangements. The album was released initially with the title Cher in 1971, but later, after the success of the single of the same name was retitled "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves". After its release,...

Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves is the seventh studio album by American singer-actress Cher, released on September 1971 by Kapp Records. For the realization of this album, Cher left her husband Sonny Bono to produce the album, and for the first time she collabored with Snuff Garrett and with Al Capps for the arrangements. The album was released initially with the title Cher in 1971, but later, after the success of the single of the same name was retitled "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves". After its release, Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves faced positive reviews from critics, and RIAA certified it Gold on July 2, 1972. The album was her first and most successful album of the seventies. Album Info After the failures of the previous albums, Cher signed a contract with Kapp-MCA Records in 1971. Kapp and MCA were the labels with which Cher had more success in the seventies and she remains with them until 1974. Johnny Musso of Kapp Records thought that Garrett and Cher would work well together and decided to team them up. This time Garret was introduced to redesign the Cher sound for her first comeback. Cher, was initially released in September, and after re-released under the name of "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" due to the success of the first single. Its success followed the debut of "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" on CBS, which premiered in August 1971, as a summer series. This was also due to the change of look of Cher. Cher dropped her hippie attire and began being dressed by fashion designer Bob Mackie. The opening track of the album is "The Way of Love", a cover song originally by Kathy Kirby. Others covers are "Fire and Rain" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". The rest of the album included adult-contemporary and narrative ballads, a genre diffused at the time.[clarification needed] During the recording session, three other songs were recorded, "Classified 1-A", "Don't Put It On Me" and "Gentle Foe". The first two were added in the UK version of the album, and later released as a single is the US. In 2000, "Classified 1-A" appeared as a bonus track on the album not.com.mercial. "Gentle Foe" was used in 1971 as a soundtrack for the documentary Once Upon a Wheel, but remain unreleased. Cher received positive reviews from music critics. Joe Viglione of Allmusic described the album's songs as "middle-of-the road pop", and called Cher a "good album with some great moments". He write also that "Cher never minded androgynous or neutral gender identity in her songs" and musically "her solo material could soar to heights not possible in a partnership — "The Way of Love" being one example". Rolling Stone said that "Cher does possess one of the distinctive voices in popular music today" and about the album, "Here she gets some lush orchestral frameworks within which to tell her story". In August 1999 the US version of the album was re-released under the name Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves for Universal Records and in the same year, the original album and Cher's next studio album Foxy Lady were reissued on one CD called Cher/Foxy Lady which featured all tracks from both. Chart performance and sales Cher debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one hundred ninety-four in late September. During 1972 sales reached 500.000 copies in North America, and it was certificate gold. The album became one of her greatest successes and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Pop Album". It remained in the American charts for nearly a year. It was also certificated platinum in July 1992 recognizing one million shipment. The album also charted in the Canadian album chart and reached number fourteen. In Europe it charts only in the Norway album chart, but didn't enter in the UK album chart. Singles "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves", the album's first single release, reached number one in the Billboard Hot 100 and number four on the UK singles chart. "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was her first number one in US and the first that enter as a solo artist in the Adult Contemporary chart and reached number one also in Canada and in Japan. The song was performed live in "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour", featuring Cher dresses as a gipsy. The second and last single was the opening track "The Way of Love". It peak #7 in US, #2 in the Adult Contemporary chart and #5 in Canada. The song's melody sounds very similar to the melody of the 1970 hit "It's Impossible" by Perry Como. Both tracks were performed in Cher's tour, since her earlis with Bono. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.