OUT's "The Gayest Summer Hits of the Last 30 Years"

It's what you obviously play when you obviously go to the beach.

Vote for faves, obvs.

Also, looking over the list again, I can only conclude that 1991 and 2002 were the least gay summers of the last 30 years if those are the gayest things they could find.

1991 should've been "Gypsy Woman." Peaked #8 in July.

This Used To Be My Playground or Lean On

Just checked. 2002 was a lost cause.

"Show Me Love" and "We Can't Stop."

unfortunately i did actually hear (a remixed form of) "cheap thrills" in a (chicago) gay club that summer. it was the one current-mainstream song that was spun that night which i found to be a v odd choice.

this list could have been immeasurably improved by cross-referencing with billboard's dance club chart which is basically the unofficial gay chart. like, "it's not right but it's okay": a good selection. "a thousand miles": not a particularly good selection.

A different thing hits #1 every week on those charts tho. These all hit #1 during the summer of 2002:

"They-Say Vision" Res
"Soak Up the Sun" Sheryl Crow
"Days Go By" Dirty Vegas
"Hella Good" No Doubt
"Point of View" DB Boulevard
"One Day in Your Life" Anastacia
"Lazy" X-Press 2
"Blame" Sono
"Love at First Sight" Kylie Minogue
"The Need to Be Naked" Amber
"The Sound of Goodbye" Perpetuous Dreamer
"That Sound" Rosabel
"Shifter" Timo Maas featuring MC Chickaboo
"Treat Me Right" Kim English
"A Different Kind of Love Song" Cher

"Lenny Kravitz is the best of this lot" is a sentence I never thought I would type but here we are

that is true. i would say that the chart doesn't really say much if you just look at what peak songs are attaining (since so many do reach #1), but is still a decent barometer of what gay clubgoers were listening to. besides lots of the gay-beloved staples would be topping that chart well before they peaked on the hot 100 ("it's not right but it's okay" being a perfect example -- i think it topped the dance charts months before even entering the hot 100?).

"it ain't over 'til it's over" is *the* most perplexing selection, i have no idea what it is doing there

Yep, as I said, Crystal Waters makes way more sense for that year.

just looking at singles that charted both hot 100 (in the summertime) and dance in 2002, i would say angie stone's "wish i didn't miss you" and kylie's "love at first sight" would have been better choices than vanessa carlton. hell even paulina rubio "don't say goodbye" would have been gayer/better.

ugh listening to "wish i didn't miss you" rn and now getting mad it's not on this bad list

Gah, the 1991 #1 dance charters:

"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" Crystal Waters
"Good Beat" Deee-Lite
"(I Wanna Give You) Devotion" Nomad
"Got a Love for You" Jomanda
"Let the Beat Hit 'Em" Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
"3 a.m. Eternal" The KLF
"Deep in My Heart" Clubhouse
"This Beat Is Hot" B.G., the Prince of Rap
"Such a Good Feeling" Brothers in Rhythm
"Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." C+C Music Factory presents Freedom Williams and Zelma Davis
"The Whistle Song" Frankie Knuckles
"Makin' Happy" Crystal Waters

"gypsy woman" is the most unforgivable omission especially since it was ousted by fucking lenny kravitz. this listicle doesn't even offer justifications for its choices so i can't find out if there's secretly some decent justification for his being there!

anyway fuck it, i'm voting for donna lewis

donna lewis is probably no gayer a choice than vanessa carlton tbh but i would maintain that it awakened some baby gays like me at the time

"I wanna take a ride on your disco stick"

trying to think of gay associations I have with these songs, all I can come up with is:

--first heard "Call Me Maybe" at a Miss New Mexico Pride event
--hearing "Lovegame" all the time made me hate gay clubs when I first started going to them
--my husband loves "Doesn't Really Matter", rare musical common ground for us
--older patrons at queer library I work at were praising the gruesome "Stay With Me" and thanked me when I provided the name of the singer -- forgive me!

guess it's Janet for me.

"Stay With Me" is as bad as it gets on this list. I wish Lenny Kravitz put out a summer hit in 2014.

Robin S. is the clear choice here.

One of these:

George Michael – “I Want Your Sex” (No. 6, 1987)
Robin S. – “Show Me Love” (No. 9, 1993)
TLC – “Waterfalls” (No. 1, 1995)
Brandy & Monica – “The Boy Is Mine” (No. 1, 1998)
Janet Jackson– “Doesn’t Really Matter” (No. 4, 2000)
Missy Elliott ft. Ciara & Fat Man Scoop – “Lose Control”

Ooops -- I meant "Monkey."

I don't think I have any directly gay associations with any of these songs, aside from being dismayed by the lax standards of who gets to claim gay icon status re: Katy and Miley.

"i love you always forever" by donna lewis is the greatest song ever made in the history of recorded music, therefore i voted for "i love you always forever" by donna lewis

also wtf out magazine re: the last 3 songs

gay imo

https://media.giphy.com/media/cnRWtyeYufppC/giphy.gif

I'm a big fan of that Donna Lewis song

the single release of I Love You Always Forever came with a "Philly remix" which basically makes the song into an even more lush disco strut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVDVd9ViDQE

i love that thank you

I tolerate now. In 1996 I would have started a nuclear war with North Korea to avoid hearing it on the radio.

alfred between this revelation and the whitney thread I'm beginning to wonder if you even enjoy pleasure

Pleasure can deceive.

alfred between this revelation and the whitney thread I'm beginning to wonder if you even enjoy pleasure

― boxedjoy, Friday, June 9, 2017 8:08 PM

DON'T YOU WANNA DANCE?

Hahaha I suppose I'm gay because I love almost every one of these songs.

Even then I wish this list was more focused in LGBT artists. Gay clubs love Top 40 radio so if all it takes to make it into this list is to be a summer hit then Billboard can make almost this exact same list if you take their yearly "summer anthems".

But then we might end with more songs like "stay with me" which doesn't qualify as summer song unless you live in one of those countries where you get 3 months of sun and you feel suicidal most of the time.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I think "Show Me Love" is maybe the objective answer but Donna and Vanessa both speak to my deepest inner most soul.

Tim...

do you love the monkey or do you love them?

An extremely offensive list. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Justice.

I missed this poll

enjoying that Donna Lewis song is sort of like enjoying the Delilah radio show