Songoftheday 10/31/17 - She wakes up every morning just to do her hair now because she cares yeah...
from the album Surprise (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9
Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Crystal Waters (yes, her real name), who grew up in New Jersey and Washington DC, the latter where she got the inspiration for her first single, "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)". Telling a story about a woman who lost her job and home but still tries to look presentable to earn money singing, it was written with Neal Conway, part of the Basement Boys who produced the track. It became one of the biggest "house music" singles of all time...
"Gypsy Woman" became Crystal's first and highest-charting pop hit, reaching the top ten in July of 1991. The song also climbed to #25 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the dance remixes on the 12" vinyl, cassette, and CD single helped it top their Dance Club Play list for three weeks. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, and reached the top ten in the UK (#2), Germany (#2), Austria (#3), Ireland (#3), and Sweden (#8).
A second single from Surprise, "Makin' Happy", also topped the dance chart, and was a minor R&B hit and #63, and while it missed the pop Hot 100, it peaked at #58 on Billboard's Pop Airplay tally. It was followed by title track "Surprise", which got to #35 on the Club Play chart.
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Here's the "Strip It To The Bone" remix that topped the dance chart for three weeks...
next up is Crystal appearing live on French TV...
The TV sketch show In Living Color had Kim Wayans viciously spoof the song as "My Songs Are Mindless" later that year...
Another remix from Joey Negro appeared on the Red Hot + Dance AIDS charity collection...
In 1997, German Eurodance act 2 Eivissa interpolated the instrumental from "Gypsy Woman" for their single "Oh La La La", which topped the Italian and Spanish pop chart, went to #13 in the UK, and peaked at #10 on the American Dance Club Play chart...
Rapper T.I. also cribbed the record as a basis for his track "Why You Wanna", which went to #29 on the American pop chart and #5 on the R&B list in 2006...
French DJ Tristan Garner remixes the song in 2009, and it was a minor hit in the Netherlands (#76)...
In 2014, Australian singer Vassy and remixer Dave Aude topped the American dance chart with "Hustlin'", which samples the record. Crystal even appears on the video...
Lastly, here's Crystal at a live appearance from 2016...
Up tomorrow: Metallic metal band has separation anxiety.
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