Gypsy Woman (Crystal Waters song)

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 MSFB. At age eleven she began writing poetry and took her writing seriously enough to be inducted into the American Poetry Society when she was 14, the youngest person ever to receive that honor.

After studying business and computer science at the university, she worked for the DC government, in the computer division, issuing arrest warrants. A workmate's cousin owned a recording studio and Waters found out that they needed backing singers. She went down, got the job and became a writer and backup singer. At a conference in Washington DC she met the house-music production team Basement Boys. They wanted her to write some House songs for them. The first two songs she wrote were "Makin' Happy" and "Gypsy Woman."

"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 is a gypsy. She still 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.

In an 2016 interview Waters told how she came up with 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, DC, 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 to hook down. Then I read that and the lyrics came to me. Like she was singing it."

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.

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.

Impact and legacy

Slant Magazine ranked the song 48th in its 100 greatest dance songs list, 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” sets its portrait of a crusty, haphazardly made-up bag lady begging dementedly on street corners to the Basement Boys's unforgivingly brutish, mongoloid thump. As Crystal's first-person protagonist stands there, singing for money, her lah-dah-dees 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."

Chart performances

It peaked at number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at number two in the UK Singles Chart, and it went to number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. "Gypsy Woman" also earned Waters three American Music Award nominations.

When the song was descending the charts, 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 three was later eclipsed by Gabrielle's "Dreams" entering at two, and then by Whigfield's "Saturday Night" debuting at number one.

Music video

The music video for "Gypsy Woman" was directed by Mark Pellington. It features Waters dressed in a black suit, singing against a white background.

In the media

In 1991, the song was spoofed in the sketch "My Songs Are Mindless" performed by Kim Wayans on In Living Color, where series regular Wayans portrayed Waters referencing TV shows. Wayans skewered the song's simple rhythm and melody by singing "Hey look, there's Fred and the Flintstones/I got a song now, that's a song now/Yabba dabba doo, yabba dabba doo/Yabba dabba doo, yabba dabba doo...." The clip from the comedy show would sometimes show up mixed into Waters' own version at gay clubs with video screens.

The song is played in a fashion show at the end of the King of the Hill episode "Husky Bobby".

A cover version of "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" is featured in the video game Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party on the Wii.

Cover versions, samples and remixes

The song's elements were used as the basis for 2 Eivissa's 1997 single "Oh La La La," which itself became an international hit.

In 1998 producers Joey Malzone and Greg Padula issued a white label remix of the track. It was so well received, Mercury added it to the Best of Crystal Waters compilation CD.

Drum & bass producer DJ Ron sampled and remixed in the track called "La Da Dee" on the La Da Dee single in 2003.

The song was sampled by Styles P in 2004 on the song "Favorite Drug" from his album Time is Money, and later by T.I. on his 2006 single "Why You Wanna." At the end of the song "Bums" by Mr. Hyde and Necro, there is a quick sample of Waters saying, "homeless... She's homeless."

In 2006, it was remixed by Sami Dee and Freddy Jones and re-released as "Gypsy Woman 2006 (La-Da-Dee)" on the record label Absolute Sound France. The 12-inch (30 cm) vinyl included two remixes, as well as the a cappella vocal. The Big Room Anthem remix was featured on the 2007 Ministry of Sound annual.

In 2007, Montefiori Cocktail released an instrumental version of "Gypsy Woman".

In summer 2008, Sam Sparro recorded a cover of the song in London with his touring band. He had been performing the song in his live show during his UK/European tour since the spring. He released the song as a B-Side to his single "Pocket".

In January 2009, UK DJ Timmy Vegas released the song "Another Dimension" with Bad Lay-Dee which contains the organ sample of "Gypsy Woman", as well as a sample from Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic". The latter sample is routed through a vocoder-like instrument, which is also driven by chords of the "Gypsy Woman" organ sample.

In February 2011, Japanese singer YU-A released a cover of "Gypsy Woman" on her album 2 Girls.

"Walking" by Mary Mary on their album Something Big contains a sample of "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" by Crystal Waters.

"Crystal Caverns 1991", the first single from the album Galaxy Garden by British electronic musician Lone, samples the song.

Alexandra Burke sampled the song in her album track "Oh La La" taken from her second album Heartbreak On Hold.

MK1, a hip-hop duo, did this song, along with "Pass Out" by Tinie Tempah on week three of the ninth series of The X Factor.

Alicia Keys used big portions of "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" and renamed the track "Brand New Me (Part 2)" and released the track in January 2013.

Swedish DJ Ted Nilsson's latest single "Homeless" feature the vocals of "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)". The song also features British DJs Cjay Swayne and Errol Reid. The song was released on Spinnin' Records's Spinnin' Deep imprint. Two versions of the song were recorded: the "Day" mix and the "Nite" mix and were both released on July 22, 2013.

In 2014, Vassy, Crazibiza, and Dave Aude teamed up to release a single called "Hustlin'," which samples the song and chorus. Its accompanying music video features Vassy and Waters (who received co-writing credits), which pays homage to the "Gypsy Woman" music video. The single reached number one on Billboard's Dance Club Songs Chart in December 2014.

Track listings

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

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

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