LISTEN: This ’80s pop gem by Tiffany was an anthem for young gays pining away

There’s something about a Tiffany song that makes us want an Orange Julius real bad!

We all remember the teenage ’80s pop sensation who toured malls across America before capturing our hearts (and the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100) with “I Think We’re Alone Now.”

The thumping and suggestive dance track has long outlived the era of Radio Shack and Waldenbooks, with syncs in Ted and The Umbrella Academy, not to mention remixes in gay clubs around the world.

But the synthy anthem, which poked fun at the “prohibition of teenage sex,” wasn’t Tiffany’s only contribution to the gay lexicon, nor was it even her first single. Before the California-born singer had us second-guessing dark corners, her heart was bleeding over a boy in “Danny.”

While the dramatic and kick-drum heavy bop never received a music video and failed to chart, its haunting production and wizened lyrics will still resonate with anyone who’s crushed on a prideful man like Danny. 

Much like “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which spoke to a generation of queer teens “trying to get away into the night,” Tiffany’s desperate plea to a boy on “Danny” also struck a chord with closeted young gay men who harbored secret, school-age crushes. 

Just look at the material: “If we don’t look back / On the price we pay / Well that’s all I ask / ’Cause we’ll never make it this way.” We know closeted yearning when we see it! 

And in retrospect, “Danny” is everything we miss about ’80s pop. 

Its slow-burning verses are furtive callouts to the darkness of silence, building to an impassioned chorus that finds a way to weave in poor Danny’s name thrice. The melodrama nears a level of camp as Tiffany finally begs for a truce, belting out, “It’s only pain / What does it prove / Again and again / Danny, nobody wins.”

Though radio may not remember the mid-tempo ballad, it will forever hold a spot in the queer hearts of those who felt its pubescent longing — and anyone who had the Tiffany cassette and was too lazy to fast forward. 

After the breakout success of “I Think We’re Alone Now,” Tiffany released a handful of top-10 hits like “Could’ve Been” and “I Saw Him Standing There,” which helped her self-titled debut record rise to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart. She even knocked George Michael’s Faith from its peak, but don’t worry friends, he eventually reclaimed the crown two weeks later.

Though Tiffany was never able to match the success of her first album, she did find a home with a community that always respects a hit single, no matter how many years pass by: the gays. 

At 51-years-old, the singer still sports her signature red locks and powerful voice at Pride festivals across the world. This year, she performed at St. Pete’s Pride alongside Idina Menzel and Malaysia Babydoll Foxx, and she even penned a “love letter to the LGBTQ community” for Billboard in 2017.

“I have always been extremely grateful for the LGBTQ community’s passionate support throughout my career,” she wrote. “I believe music heals and connects people across all communities — especially within the LGBTQ community.”

Overcoming struggle and finding acceptance continue to be themes in Tiffany’s new music, including her 2022 album Shadows, and she thinks that’s helped her music find an audience in the LGBTQ+ community. And as someone who has gay friends with “amazing taste,” she knows what a compliment that is. 

“To be in good company with people like Madonna and Barbra Streisand, who are the so-called ‘divas’ — that is great company to be a part of and to be associated with,” she told journalist Steve Housman in 2006.

…Even if that means her LGBTQ+ fans sometimes keep it too real.

“There’s something so honest about the gay audiences, whether it’s a snarky comment or a true, tears-coming-down-their-face moment while they’re listening to you sing,” she told Party Foul Radio in 2017. “Either way, I love all of it. Those are some of the best people in my life.”