Tim Curry (1975)

Happy Halloween!

Hey! Might as well give today a Transylvania theme!

Sweet Transvestite is a song from the 1973 British musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show and its 1975 film counterpart The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song is performed by the character, Dr Frank N. Furter, originally played by Tim Curry. The book, music and lyrics are by Richard O’Brien and the musical arrangements by Richard Hartley. It is in the key of E major.

It was originally the fourth song in the musical but it was later switched with its following number, Time Warp, so that the latter came before Dr Frank N. Furter’s entrance.

The song is performed by the character, Dr Frank N. Furter, originated on stage and screen by actor Tim Curry, who performed in all of the original productions except Australia’s. This includes the short-lived first run on Broadway. It introduces the character of Dr Frank N. Furter to the audience and Brad and Janet. He openly boasts where he’s from, what he is, what he’s been doing and why he does it. The song is one of the film and stage show’s most famous and includes one of the show’s most notorious lines, “I’m just a sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania“. Later references in the film explain that it is not the Transylvania region of Europe, but instead a galaxy by that name, and that Transsexual is Frank’s (as well as secondary characters Magenta and Riff-Raff’s) home planet. Frank makes a passing reference in the lyrics to “a Steve Reeves movie;” O’Brien noted that he had a love for Reeves’s films and incorporated that into the show.