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Cross Vocals   

I'm calling Cross-Vocals those songs that are, for example, intended to be sung by a woman but
are instead sung by a man, keeping the pronouns intact. They sound pretty gay now, but are only
gay in hindsight. In the late 20's and early 30's music publishers had a stranglehold on the rights
to their catalogs. Singers could not change a word, period, so it was not uncommon for a man to
seemingly sing a song to a man, or a woman to a woman. The public knew of the restrictions on
singers and did not really pay attention to any gay connotations.

It's a bit challenging to collect these types of songs, as you almost have to already know the song
has same-sex lyrics. You cannot always tell just by the title. Your first move should be to acquire
a CD designed to do exactly that. It was a bit amazing for a label like Columbia to issue an entire
album of this music, but that happened in 1993, and they called it "Can't Help Lovin' That Man."
Another treasure, though almost impossible to find, is the 1996 UK issue "The Man I Love." And
the Vintage Recordings CD "He's So Unusual" is another good choice. On the other CDs pictured
you'd find only three or four tracks of interest on each, but sometimes that's enough.

  

I HIGHLY recommend this CD

and also read the informative Liner Notes

 

This CD is excellent but very Very hard to find

  

Relevant tracks: 1, 2, 7, 12

 

Track 14 alone is worth the price of this CD

Also, at the wonderful site Red Hot Jazz, you can hear entire songs,
but again, you have to know the artists' names

alas, unfortunately that site is gone....

And, while I was working on my June 2004 show I got all psyched up on this kind of
music, so compiled my own 3-CD set. Now, it's just for my own use, but it was a fun project.
It might give you some tips on what songs to track down.