From the late 1940s through the 1950s, Bourbon released a series of albums on the UTC (for Under the Counter) label. Many of these albums feature explicitly gay content, including one about a police raid of a gay wedding in a Chicago church. These albums, with titles such as The Wedding, You're Stepping on My Eyelashes, and Around the World in 80 Ways, were distributed as "party" or "adult" records, often by mail order or sold at Bourbon's appearances.

What is most remarkable about Bourbon's performances on these albums is not his raunchy humor and double entendres, but his air of defiance and his satirical gibes at the hypocrisy of the dominant culture, as well as his ability to laugh at himself. Moreover, although UTC records were by necessity distributed "sub rosa" or "under the counter," their production over such a long period indicates a continuing demand for them and the development and growth of a market for gay material.

One of Bourbon's UTC albums of the mid-1950s was entitled, Take a Look at My Operation, ostensibly about his own sex-change operation, which he claimed to have undergone in Mexico. The claim was undoubtedly a publicity stunt to capitalize on the widespread media attention aroused by Christine Jorgensen's sex-reassignment surgery in 1954, but it may have also been inspired by a real operation for cancer.