I do, especially if the song is meaningful to me.
If it’s a song about a man’s love for a woman, I’ll often change the gender to suit my preference. In the thread about singing out loud, I listed the song Loving Her was Easier than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again, but whenever I sing it, I change it to “Loving Him”. I also change a line slightly in the song itself to make it fit.
Anyone else do sex changes on songs like this? Or am I just weird?
See the thread I just commented to on “Ten Favorite Songs to Sing.” I role-reversed “Society’s Child” at karaoke one night when the lady who partners with me on “Blue Moon” wouldn’t sing it. Seemed not doing so would have created enough of a distraction to ruin the “punch” of the song!
Yes. Of course some songs take on an entire new dimension with changed gender, like *I Enjoy Being a Guy *from “Flower Drum Song.”
Since most of the singing I do is songs I write myself, no. Though I’m straight I sometimes write from a gay perspective, just because it can be interesting and challenging to mix things up. I have never written from the point of view of a female, though.
I always thought it interesting how Joan Armatrading wrote umpteen songs about relationships without ever mentioning gender.
I don’t, but I don’t really need to.
This.
Only if it’s been done before by someone else (in which case I’m singing their version) or that the change is very insignificant.
For example, I’ve never heard “I’m gonna wash that girl right out of my hair”, and it’s in the title, so I will not make the alteration. In fact, I usually put on a fake femme (I wouldn’t quite call it gay) accent when I sing it. I’m “secure in my sexuality,” as some people say. (Though there is some hilarity in singing it as a bass.)