History HaveAGayOldTime / Music

* One version of "I Feel Pretty" from Theater/WestSideStory goes, "I feel pretty, and witty, and gay!" Given musical theater's large gay fanbase, remarks have been made. The alternate lyric doesn't exist because of this trope, though, but because the action was moved from day to night, changing the rhyme scene/

* The Platters' "The Great Pretender" is "happy and gay like a clown". This song was also covered by [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]], of all people.

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in one of ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's Christmas specials, where one of the puppets sings the line, suddenly realizes what he has said, and [[HehHehYouSaidX giggles about it]].

* Music/JohnDenver's 1972 song "Rocky Mountain High" is about how how happy Denver felt after moving to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. In 1985, the song was censored by the FCC for promoting drug use, forcing Denver to have to testify before Congress that he was talking about a different "high". Ever since the voters of Colorado approved marijuana for medicinal, industrial and recreational usage (in 2000, 2012, and 2014), the song's title has taken on a different meaning to weed consumers.

** Similarly, Creedence Clearwater Revival used to call themselves the Golliwogs before they became famous, they just thought it sounded British without knowing it was an offensive term for Black people.

* Nowadays, it's hard enough during Christmas to find time to ''Deck The Hall[s]'' with boughs of holly; some of us will never manage, "Don we now our gay apparel." More recently, the hole's been dug deeper with, "{{Troll}} the ancient yuletide carol."

* There is a 15th century French song called "Baises moy," which means "kiss me" in Middle French. A similar Modern French expression has a much more obscene meaning.

* An indirect example could be the classic jazz/folk tune "I'm Just Wild About Harry" (a Broadway tune that was memorably covered by the groundbreaking but largely forgotten jazz musician [[Film/TheJazzSinger Al Jolson]]). At the time, the song was just seen as a comically-exaggerated but sentimental gesture of friendship. Today, the following lyrics would suggest something a little more... sensual (at least when sung by a male, though Creator/JudyGarland recorded her own version):

* Jumpin' Gene Simmons' (not to be confused with {{Music/KISS}}'s [[NamesTheSame Gene Simmons]]) 1964 novelty hit "Haunted House" includes the line, "I had a hunk o' meat in my hand".

* Non-spicy but still confusing and unusually recent example: Music/ToriAmos's song "Pretty Good Year" features the line "And Greg, he writes letters and burns his [=CDs=]." Perfectly clear? But the song was released in 1994, when [=CD=] recording devices cost upwards of $1000; "burning [=CDs=]" at home wouldn't become commonplace until the 2000s. She meant that he literally set fire to his [=CDs=] for whatever reason, only to have the image become unexpectedly much less bizarre just a few years later.

* Non-spicy but still confusing and unusually recent example: Creator/ToriAmos's song "Pretty Good Year" features the line "And Greg, he writes letters and burns his CDs." Perfectly clear? But the song was released in 1994, when CD recording devices cost upwards of $1000; "burning CDs" at home wouldn't become commonplace until the 2000s. She meant that he literally set fire to his CDs for whatever reason.

* In contrast to Saigon Kick, industrial metal band {{Music/Ministry}} ''was'' able to get away with titling an album ''The Land of Rape and Honey''. At the time, it was the official motto of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada and referred to its agricultural production of rapeseed and honey[[note]]and somehow Tisdale never got around to changing the motto to something less awkward until ''2016!''[[/note]]. The band chose the album title after seeing the slogan on a souvenir mug.

* [[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Spinal Tap's]] "Cups And Cakes" uses "gay" in the sense of "happy" (what a gay time it will be"). The song was released in 1984, but in the world of the mockumentary it's from, it's supposed to be a song from in the 60's. There was probably some deliberate humor in placing that word in a campy, [[TastesLikeDiabetes overly cutesy]] song by what was otherwise meant to be a heavy metal/ hard rock band.

** There's also "the businessmen slowly get stoned," which is being used to mean "drunk" rather than under the influence of other drugs.

* John Kirkpatrick's "Ashes to Ashes" has the line: "You might be gay, you might be grieving".[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3rj1xV30Zs]]

** Do You Hear What I Hear is a mild example, as for modern ears, it sounds [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HearingVoices a bit schizophrenic.]]

-->[[EveryoneIsGay So everyone was gay!]]

* In Music/EricBogle's "Silly Slang Song", the singer complains about how once innocent terms like "gay", "fairy", "fruit" or "queen" changed meanings.

** The 1931 British novelty song "Ali Baba's Camel" says that the title character was "out for what we all want: lots of LSD!" When the Bonzo Dog Band covered it in 1969, they left the line in, obviously knowing the audience would find the newer double meaning amusing. And to tie it in even more with the trope name, the song was written [[UnfortunateName by Noel Gay.]]

* In holiday standard “Home for the Holidays”, “Gee, the traffic is terrific”. Obviously this doesn’t mean good; it means actually likely to terrify you. Ironically at least one cover sings the line excitedly, as if the modern meaning of “terrific” applies.

* "Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)" was a very popular 1920s song about the newspaper comic character Barney Google (whose strip is now dominated by his cousin Comics/SnuffySmith). It includes he line "[his wife] sued Barney for divorce, now he’s sleeping with his horse!" Of course, "sleeping" is to be interpreted ''literally''.