Search - Boys Town Gang :: Boystown Gang - Greatest Hits

Probably the first exclusively gay dance album made!

Get What We Give | Georgia | 02/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Boystown Gang was an odd little group. They only cranked out a few songs and most all of them were remakes/remixes of other performers songs. For example, they remade for the disco era, Ashford and Simpson's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and did it quite well (and it is oddly not on this album).Cynthia Manley was the lead singer and had this exceedingly mournful wailing voice that worked extremely well. In the spoken portions of "Cruising the Streets" you can hear her Tanya Roberts-like raspy voice in all its sexy splendor.The Boystown Gang as a musical group by and for the gay population. It is doubtful that anyone outside of a gay bar ever heard one of their songs, unless it was a result of some queen playing it for them. The beats are very typical of the early 1980's gay bar sound - heavy percussion, with an emphasis on the drums, tambourine, and (yes, believe it or not) the police whistle.While all the other songs on this album are certainly hot and heavy dance numbers, the most unique song and the real reason you'll probably buy this album is "Cruising the Street". When I first heard this song, it was completely unheard of to hear blatant references to sex or any king of foul language in a song. After I heard this song, I ran out to my local gay-disco-bar-record-supplier and hunted down a copy."Cruising the Street is exceedingly repetitious in its chorus, but it is Manley's wailing vocals that make it appealing - that, and oh, yeah.....the bridge of the song. In the bridge of the song there is a very long dialogue between various characters who are each trying to get some "strange" out in the street, all the while the drum beat plays.I only ever heard this song played in its entirity twice in a bar (quite frankly it's a long song) and that is because the dialogue portion would really kill the movement on the dance floor as people strained to hear what was being said and laughed at the same.This is definitely one for the collection, if nothing else for novelty's sake."