Gypsy Woman (Crystal Waters song)

"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (also released as "Gypsy Woman (La da dee la da da)") is a song by American singer Crystal Waters from her debut album, Surprise (1991). Written by Neal Conway, Waters and Nathaniel S. Hardy Jr., the song was released on April 3, 1991 as the lead single from Surprise. The song is famous for its "la da dee, la dee da" refrain and its often-sampled keyboard riff. The song is also widely regarded as one of the biggest classics of house music and has been remixed several times.

This article is about the song by Crystal Waters. For the song by The Impressions, see Gypsy Woman (The Impressions song). For the song by Don Williams, see I Recall a Gypsy Woman.
"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)"
Single by Crystal Waters
from the album Surprise
A-side"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) Radio Mix" (US)
B-side
  • "Tell Me" (US)
  • "Good Lovin'" (UK)
ReleasedApril 3, 1991
Recorded1990
Genre
Length
  • 3:48 (Radio Mix)
  • 7:31 (Basement Boy(s) "Strip To The Bone" Mix)
LabelMercury
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)The Basement Boys
Crystal Waters singles chronology
"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)"
(1991)		 "Makin' Happy"
(1991)
Music video
"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" on YouTube

"Gypsy Woman" was a commercial success upon release, topping the charts in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland and reaching number one on the Eurochart Hot 100, as well as US and Canadian dance charts. It reached the Top 10 in at least eight countries, including Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States, and peaked at number 11 in Australia and France.

In 2020, Slant Magazine ranked the song number 10 in their list of The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time.[1]

Background and release

Crystal Waters grew up in a very musical family. Her great aunt, Ethel Waters, was a famous singer and actor in the 1940s. Waters' father was a jazz musician and her uncle was the lead saxophonist with MFSB. At age eleven, she began writing poetry and was inducted into the Poetry Society of America when she was 14, the youngest person ever to receive that honor.

After studying business and computer science at university, she worked for the Washington, D.C. government, in the computer division, issuing arrest warrants. A workmate's cousin owned a recording studio and Waters found out that it was looking for backup singers. She went to the studio, got the job and became a writer and backup singer. At a conference in Washington, D.C., she met the house-music production team Basement Boys. They wanted her to write some house songs for them while keeping her jazz influences.[2] The first two songs she wrote were "Makin' Happy" and "Gypsy Woman".[3]

"Gypsy Woman" was written by Waters with Neal Conway and Nathaniel S. Hardy, Jr. and was originally written for the American singer Ultra Naté, but when Waters recorded a demo herself, the production company drew up a recording contract for her on the spot and never passed the song to its intended vocalist. The song is about a homeless woman who wears make-up and thinks of herself as beautiful despite busking on a street corner. The song includes the chorus of "La da dee, la da da" and a much-sampled organ refrain. It was released as the first single from her 1991 debut album, Surprise.

Waters began working on the song after receiving beats from her producers she was supposed to write lyrics over. It was the song's heavy bass line that inspired her to riff "la da dee la da da" overtop of the rhythm, but she had trouble coming up with lyrics to match those short syllables. "I said to myself there must be someone singing it, and I thought of this woman ... she used to stand downtown on the corners, and she was dressed in all black," she told the Glitterbox Radio Show in 2017.[2]

In a 2016 interview, Waters expanded on the story behind the lyrics for the song:

When it comes to the song itself, the lyrics came straight out of reality. It's about a woman who stood in front of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on Connecticut Avenue. My sister worked in the hotel and I'd walk past this woman around once a week, and she looked fine. She didn't look like she was homeless. She always had a full face of makeup and black clothes and she'd be singing these gospel songs. I used think, "Well, why don't you go and get a job instead of asking me for money?" Then there was an article on her in the paper! It said she'd just lost her job in retail, and she said that she thought if she was going to ask people for money then she should at least look presentable. And that changed my idea of homelessness. It could happen to anyone. Before that, I just had the hook down. Then I read that and the lyrics came to me. Like she was singing it.[3]

Even though the sound was a huge dance hit, Crystal Waters wanted people to listen to the lyrics about homelessness. She actually was upset that they weren't listening to the lyrics. At her prompting, the record company put a label with the addition of "She's Homeless" on the cover.[4]

A year after its release, a new version turned up on the Red Hot Organization's Red Hot + Dance AIDS fundraiser disc (1992, distributed by Sony Music), gaining its remixer, Joey Negro, his first real American exposure.

Critical reception

The song received favorable reviews from most music critics. AllMusic editor Alex Henderson wrote that the song "made it clear that house music could be as socially aware as rap". He described it as a "wildly infectious treasure" and noted further that it has a "poignant and moving reflection on a homeless woman's struggle that makes its point without preaching."[5] David Taylor-Wilson from Bay Area Reporter commented that it "will undoubtedly go down as the quintessential song of the summer."[6] Larry Flick from Billboard noted that "inspired deep house dish has already begun to explode at club level, thanks to Waters' unique vocal and a hypnotic hook and groove crafted by hot production team the Basement Boys. Expect extensive radio action [in] several formats momentarily."[7] Matt Stopera and Brian Galindo from BuzzFeed said, "Problematic title. Great song. A classic."[8] Complex noted that it is "such a mixture of vibes", adding it as "funky".[9] Marisa Fox from Entertainment Weekly commented, "La-da-dee/la-dee-da." You just can't escape this summer's runaway hit song, the jazz-house hybrid "Gypsy Woman" by Crystal Waters. She hums in an airy, scat-like fashion about a woman "who's just like you and me but she's homeless…and she stands there singing for money."[10]

Dave Sholin from the Gavin Report commented, "Exciting and totally fresh, this track broke out of the New York club scene and found its way onto HOT 97. APD/MD Kevin McCabe reports out of the fifty 12-inches he researches each week, it debuted at #3! Kevin says response is across-the-board with teens requesting it, as well as women 30+ who call in Middays, asking for the song that goes, "Dah dah dee dah dah dah." It charts at #16, getting eight plays a day. Also debuted at #29 on KMEL and POWER 106 with adds at WTIC/FM, WIOQ/FM, and Z100 New York. "Do I love it? YEAH!"[11] Lennox Herald wrote that "Gypsy Woman" is "a detailed account of the day-to-day life of a homeless woman in Washington, DC".[12] Music & Media noted that "this single took exactly three weeks to hit no. 1 in the UK – a hit out of the blue. The "La Da Dee La Da Da" bit of this dance track is especially and undeniably catchy. Mainland Europe is next."[13] Reading Evening Post called it "infectious".[14] Scott Poulson-Bryant from Spin wrote that "with its nursery-rhymish hook and accessible cultural concern, this hypnotically danceable track has insinuated itself into the pop consciousness with an almost dreamy forcefulness".[15] Sunday World described the song as "instantly catchy".[16]

Chart performance

It peaked at number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at number two on the UK Singles Chart, and went to number-one on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. "Gypsy Woman" also earned Waters three American Music Award nominations. In Europe, it also reached number-one in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland, as well as on the Eurochart Hot 100. Like in the UK, the single also peaked within the Top 10 in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden. "Gypsy Woman" was awarded with a silver record in the UK, for 200,000 singles sold and a gold record in the US, after 500,000 units were sold.

When the song was coming down in the chart rankings, it appeared on the benefit album Red Hot + Dance in a new incarnation mixed by Joey Negro, who took the song into a new musical direction.

Retitled "Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee)", the song was the highest-debuting single for a new act in the UK Singles Chart at that time – its debut at number three was later eclipsed by Gabrielle's "Dreams" entering at number two, then by Whigfield's "Saturday Night" debuting at number one.

Music video
A screenshot from the "Gypsy Woman" music video. It shows the "la da dee, la dee da" refrain written on an umbrella that is spinning around, making the words spin with it.

The music video for "Gypsy Woman" was directed by American film director, writer, and producer Mark Pellington.[17] It features Waters performing in front of a white background. The video starts with a completely white screen, and Waters appears in one corner shortly after. In most of the video, she wears a black suit, but some scenes also show her wearing a white suit. She has several silver earrings with crosses and ankh crosses. Occasionally a "gypsy woman" performs as the story is being told in the song. She wears a theater mask and gold gloves. The woman's eyes can't be seen. At the beginning, she holds a handheld mirror while putting on lipstick. Later she dances under a street light. Three male dancers perform in blue, green and red shirts. Throughout the video, there are shots of rotating playhouses, falling banknotes, mannequin hands hanging in threads, and spinning umbrellas, some with the chorus written on them, making the words spin with them. Towards the end, the "gypsy woman" lies on a park bench. Waters continues singing the chorus and makes the sign of the cross. A short glimpse of a burning dollhouse appears, and as Waters sings the last stanzas, the screen goes completely white again. The video was uploaded to YouTube in October 2009. In August 2020, it has got almost 40,000,000 views.[18]

Impact and legacy

Slant Magazine ranked the song 10th in its 100 Greatest Dance Songs list in 2006, adding:

Crystal Waters’s thick-ankled house anthem takes the baton of social consciousness from the likes of Machine. And just as “There But for the Grace of God Go I” makes its pungent point clear through its musical prickliness, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)” sets its portrait of a crusty, haphazardly made-up bag lady dementedly begging on street corners to the Basement Boys’s unforgivingly brutish thump. As Crystal’s first-person protagonist stands there, singing for money, her lah-dah-dee’s are nearly buried in the brackish clatter, subtly expressing the heartbreaking fact that the plight of the homeless often falls on completely deaf (sometimes ringing) ears. Waters’s astringent message was delivered to a club clientele that had become too pathologically petrified of breaking a sweat, canting a weave, or otherwise allowing themselves to get ugly to actually set foot on any dance floor not shaped like a fashion runway.[19]

In 2011, The Guardian mentioned the song on their 'A history of modern music: Dance'.[20]

Accolades
Year Publisher Country Accolade Rank
1991 Spex Germany "Die besten Alben und Songs des Jahres 1991" 2
1991 The Face United Kingdom "Recordings Of The Year: Singles" 15
1999 Spex Germany "Die besten Singles aller Zeiten" *
1999 The Village Voice United States "Top Singles Of The 90's" 43
2005 Bruce Pollock United States "The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944-2000" *
2005 Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany "1020 Songs 1955-2005"[21] *
2006 Slant Magazine United States "100 Greatest Dance Songs" 48
2010 Groove Germany "Die 100 wichtigsten Tracks der letzten 20 Jahre" *
2011 MTV Dance United Kingdom "The 100 Biggest 90's Dance Anthems of All Time"[22] 27
2011 The Guardian United Kingdom "A history of modern music: Dance" *
2012 Porcys Poland "100 Singli 1990-1999"[23] 20
2013 Complex United States "15 Songs That Gave Dance Music a Good Name"[24] *
2013 Vibe United States "Before EDM: 30 Dance Tracks From The '90s That Changed The Game"[25] 14
2015 Robert Dimery United States "1,001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, and 10,001 You Must Download (2015 Update)" 1002
2017 BuzzFeed United States "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s"[26] 13
2018 Mixmag United Kingdom "The 30 best vocal house anthems ever"[27] *
2020 Slant Magazine United States "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time"[28] 10
Pause & Play United States "Songs Inducted into a Time Capsule, One Track at Each Week"[29] *

(*) indicates the list is unordered.

Track listings

CD single

  1. "Gypsy Woman" (strip to the bone edit) — 3:42
  2. "Gypsy Woman" (hump instrumental mix) — 4:53

Slimcase international CD maxi

  1. "Gypsy Woman" (strip to the bone edit) — 3:53
  2. "Gypsy Woman" (basement boy strip to the bone mix) — 7:31
  3. "Gypsy Woman" (hump instrumental mix) — 4:50

CD maxi single

  1. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Strip To The Bone Radio Edit) – 3:42
  2. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Basement Boy "Strip To The Bone" Mix) – 7:26
  3. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Red Bone Club Mix) – 7:08
  4. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Hump Instrumental Mix) – 4:53
  5. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" ("Give It Up" Vocal Mix) – 8:07
  6. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Give It Up Bonus Beats) – 2:43
  7. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Original Demo Mix) – 7:00
  8. "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (Acapella) – 2:37

Charts and certifications

See also

References
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  2. Glitterbox Ibiza (2017-06-14), Glitterbox Radio Show 011: w/ Crystal Waters, retrieved 2017-08-29
  3. "The Story of Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)"". thump.vice.com.
  4. "Crystal Waters - Stockton welcomes a true music legend and "International Dance Diva"!". caravannews.com.
  5. "Crystal Waters – Surprise". AllMusic. Retrieved February 16, 2020.
  6. Taylor-Wilson, David (August 15, 1991). "The Beat". Bay Area Reporter. p. 39. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
  7. "Billboard: NEW & NOTEWORTHY" (PDF). Billboard. April 20, 1991. p. 72. Retrieved January 25, 2018.
  8. Stopera, Matt; Galindo, Brian (March 11, 2017). "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s". BuzzFeed. Retrieved March 31, 2020.
  9. Nappy (July 12, 2013). "15 Songs That Gave Dance Music a Good Name". Complex. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  10. "Surprise". Entertainment Weekly. July 12, 1992. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  11. Sholin, Dave (April 19, 1991). "Gavin Picks > Singles" (PDF). Gavin Report. No. 1852. p. 56. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  12. "Crystal clear Waters". Lennox Herald. June 17, 1994. page 30. Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  13. "Music & Media: New Releases" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved November 23, 2017.
  14. "CRYSTAL WATERS Storyteller". Reading Evening Post. May 13, 1994. page 48. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  15. "flash: a catchy tune". Spin. August 1, 1991. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
  16. "freetime". Sunday World. March 30, 2003. page 142. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  17. "Mark Pellington director videography". mvdbase.com. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  18. "Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) [Official Video]". YouTube. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  19. "100 Greatest Dance Songs". Slant Magazine. June 15, 2020. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
  20. "A history of modern music: Dance". The Guardian. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  21. "Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)". acclaimedmusic. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  22. MTV Dance Tuesday 27.12.2011
  23. "100 Singli 1990-1999". Porcys (in Polish). 20 August 2012. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  24. Nappy (12 July 2013). "15 Songs That Gave Dance Music a Good Name". Complex. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  25. "Before EDM: 30 Dance Tracks From The '90s That Changed The Game". Vibe. 8 October 2018.
  26. Stopera, Matt; Galindo, Brian (11 March 2017). "The 101 Greatest Dance Songs of the '90s". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  27. "The 30 best vocal house anthems ever". Mixmag. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
  28. "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
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  33. "Top RPM Singles: Issue 1582." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  34. "Top RPM Dance/Urban: Issue 1566." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  35. "Top 10 Denmark" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8 no. 33. August 17, 1991. p. 18. Retrieved August 18, 2019.
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  37. "Top 10 Finland" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8 no. 25. June 22, 1991. p. 38. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
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  45. "Top 10 Portugal" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 8 no. 38. September 21, 1991. p. 42. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  46. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
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  53. "Crystal Waters Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
  54. "Jahreshitparade Singles 1991" (in German). Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  55. "Jaaroverzichten 1991" (in Dutch). Ultratop. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  56. "RPM Dance Tracks of 1991". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  57. "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles 1991" (PDF). Billboard. December 21, 1991. p. 21. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
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  62. "1991 Top 100 Singles". Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 11 January 1992. p. 20.
  63. "British single certifications – Crystal Waters – Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee)". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved July 22, 2019. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Gypsy Woman (La Da Dee) in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  64. "American single certifications – Crystal Waters – Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved July 22, 2019. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH. 
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