A Bachelor Gay by Various

Album: The Maid of the Mountains (1917)

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When he introduced this song on his regular BBC Radio programme The Music Goes Round in February 2015, Desmond Carrington stressed that when it was written, the word gay did not have the same connotations it did nearly a century later.

"A Bachelor Gay" was composed by James W. Tate in 1916, and written by F. Clifford Harris and Valentine; the sheet music was published by Francis, Day & Hunter of London in 1917. Tate may have been a happy man but he was neither gay nor a bachelor. Twice married he died suddenly in 1922 aged only 46. The Valentine alluded to here was Archibald Thomas Pechey, a regular collaborator of Tate.
"A Bachelor Gay" was one of his popular baritone songs; it was used in the musical The Maid Of The Mountains and was also recorded by Stanley Holloway; the Holloway recording was released as a single on the Pye label in November 1960 as the B-side of "The Lily Of Laguna." >>>
Suggestion credit:
Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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