Johnny, Are You Queer?

Song by Josie Cotton from her 1982 album Convertible Music and featured in the movie Valley Girl. Josie wants a straight answer from her boyfriend, who inexplicably will not put out for her. When she sees him dancing with his friends, she can't help wondering where she stands. Whether Johnny is indeed queer or not is never answered, but I personally suspect that he is.

There's some debate over whether "Johnny" should be spelled with one 'n' or two, but most sites I've seen, including the Bomp Records site (the label Josie was on before she went major), spell it with two.

This song is also present on the Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's compilation released in 1994 which contains several previously unreleased tracks from The Go-Gos shady underground punk past.

'Johnny Are You Queer' is a live recording marked as 'Live at The Mabuhay, San Francisco, 8/79'. Hmmmmm! *puzzled look*. The liner notes don't provide any clues as to whose song it is, so I'll wager it was Josie's, not Belinda's.

Back when this song was a hit there was a small uproar when some radio stations (KROQ among them, I think) played the 45 RPM single at the 33 1/3 RPM LP speed.

This change brought Josie's voice down a few octaves, so she sounded like a guy, making the song into something entirely other.