Writer James Gavin shared a fascinating secret when he made a flying visit to QUEERGURU recently. It was about the discovery of a music album made over 50 years that was full of songs by an unknown man singing of his love for another man.
The disc, titled Love Is a Drag in 1962, featured a sincere crooner interpreting American standards previously recorded only by women, like My Man, The Man I Love and Mad About The Boy. For decades it was listed in various cult publications aimed at collectors but it never credited the singer or even the original release date.
Then in 2004 JD Doyle a record archivist and a collector of records relevant to LGBT history started playing cuts from the album on a monthly Public Radio segment he hosted in Houston titled Queer Music Heritage. Eight years later out of the blue the album’s producer, Murray Garrett, emailed him after discovering that Doyle had written about the music on his website
It took James Gavin another 5 years before he shared all this news about what was evidently was Liberace’s very favorite music album.
Here it is in full and we think this unique piece of queer history is so worth sharing
PS James Gavin biography GEORGE MICHAEL: A LIFE is to be published by Abrams in 2022.
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