18 05 07 330 W, 2 I - + 7 - 8 The Gay History of Pop
Remember all the palaver about ‘gender bending’ in the 1980s? Not only were pop stars from Boy George to Tasty Tim slapping on the makeup by the bucketload but we even had some overly gay stars such as Tom Robinson and Holly Johnson and gay-themed songs ranging from Bronski Beat’s Small-town Boy to just about everything ever recorded by The Petshop Boys. Anyone would think the ‘80s discovered gayness.
Ah no, not at all. There were quite a few overtly gay songs in the ‘70s, a few as far back as the ‘60s. Heck, if you count Al Jolson’s recording of “I’m Just Wild About Harry”, you could go right back to the roaring ‘20s...
Anyway, without getting too obscure about this, I decided to take a quick ramble through the YouTube archives to try to find some of the seminal songs which, often years before ‘gay’ was OK, laid down the groundwork for the somewhat more gay-friendly pop charts of the 1980s. To get this series started, here are two recommendations from the 1970s...
If you only know the Rubettes from their high-pitched, up-tempo teenybop numbers such as Sugar Baby Love and Juke Box Jive, treat yourself to an altogether different side of the group with their truly wonderful, country-style ballad, Under One Roof - a startlingly gay-themed song from 1976. Besides which, the singer’s rather tasty... 
Watch Under One Roof
One of my very favourite ‘70s groups was Fox. Even to this day, lead-singer Noosha Fox’s vocals send tingles racing up and down my spine. Fox had hits with Only You Can, Imagine Me, Imagine You and S-S-S-Single Bed. But maybe the best of all was Noosha Fox’s ‘solo’ minor hit (only 31 in the charts) - 1977’s gloriously gay Georgina Bailey.
Watch Georgina Bailey
Ah, what great songs! I’ll be back with more recommendations shortly...
