Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine about the hits from coast to coast.

I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number One series?

On our last episode, we walked through the varied history of LGBTQ hitmakers on the charts, from Little Richard to Leslie Gore,

dusty Springfield to Sylvester.

We focused on rock and soul's early years,

from the birth of rock and roll to the peak of disco,

when gay hitmakers were defining the culture. We are now going to

take a twirl through a selection of chart-toppers who managed to reach number one both in and out

of Pop's closet. Thus far, the LGBTQ performers we've covered from Rock's first few decades were rarely out of the closet.

The majority came out years after the peak of their fame, or not at all. For example, to reiterate,

both Leslie Gore and Billy Preston did score number one hits, but neither was out at the time.

Conversely, the artists who were out didn't actually top the Hot 100 or the pop

album chart from Gibriath to Sylvester.

Also, complicating matters is that bisexual artists were, to quote one Janice Joplin historian, often heterosexualized.

That was certainly the case with Joplin during her lifetime. She was regarded as a straight, free-love

hippie. Her lesbian relationships largely kept secret, except to her friends.

Even if Janice had been out, her only chart-topper, me and Bobby McGee,

topped the Hot 100 in 1971, after she was gone.

Feeling good was easy, love, when he sang a blues, you know. after she was gone.

So as I walk through some LGBTQ acts who scored greater pop success toward the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, we will try to reckon with each artist's public persona

and presentation. Let's start with the Hot 100. And right off the bat, we have to address

this chart-topping gentleman. David Bowie, in the January 22nd, 1972 issue of England's Melodymaker magazine, said,

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