I Got Rhythm
1930
Fred Rich & His Orchestra
Sung by Paul Small
About a man
Solo Vocalist
WHAT IS AN OOPSIE GAYSIE?
Listen closely to early jazz and popular music recordings from the 1920s and 1930s and you will find something quite fascinating:
Male vocalists crooning about longing for the handsome man of their dreams, women openly harmonised about romancing the prettiest gal in town... and that’s just the beginning.
From seemingly oblivious ‘cross vocal’ tunes to cheekily gender subversive serenades, hundreds of these songs were recorded. Most were likely not intended to be artifacts of queer expression, yet each one can tell us more about gender, desire, and performance in the USA and UK almost a century ago.
Ready to hear the queer sounds of the past?