Gypsy Woman became an important springboard for the future success of Curtis Mayfield as a songwriter and for the Impressions as a performing act. The Impressions had scored a huge hit when Jerry Butler was the lead singer in 1958 with, For Your Precious Love. However, Butler left the goup to go solo and the Impressions were dropped from the Vee-Jay label as a result. Mayfield played guitar behind Jerry Butler's solo act and continued to write songs for Butler, while the Impressions lay dormant. In 1961, Mayfield scraped enough money together to resuscitate the Impressions and get them into the recording studio. The result was Gypsy Woman, which peaked at #2 on the Cash Box chart, week ending 12/9/61. The song served to reestablish the Impressions as a performing act as a five member group. In addition to Mayfield, Fred Cash, Sam Gooden, the Impressions also included Richard and Arthur Brooks at this time. By the spring of 1962, the Brooks brothers had left the group over dissagreements about the Impressions musical direction, and the remaining trio took off on a legendary course from that point forward.
