In the years since, the album has been unearthed as an early gay treasure. It became a cult item, beloved by stars like Frank Sinatra and Liberace, as well as gay audiences on the east and west coasts. In the early 60s, a straight singer who sang with Stan Kenton’s band generously agreed to voice an album intended for a gay audience on which he sincerely serenaded another man with some of the most passionate love songs ever written.
Strayhorn’s clever lyrical dodge gave him both plausible deniability and a pathway towards an eventual truth.
Later, it became a jazz standard, with lyrics that pivoted on an antique meaning of the word “gay”. Though lyricist Billy Strayhorn wrote Lush Life in the 1930s, for a long time he would only perform it in private.