Lesley Gore, singer, songwriter, teen idol of the 1960s and later, feminist icon, died February 16 after a battle with lung cancer.
She was 68. Her partner of 33 years, jewelry designer Lois Sasson, said Gore died at Manhattan’s NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Gore is also survived by her mother, Ronny and brother, Michael.
Born Lesley Sue Goldstein, Gore was a junior in high school when her hit single “It’s My Party” made her a star in 1963. Discovered by Quincy Jones, who produced the No.1 Grammy-nominated hit, “It’s My Party,” Gore would go on to become the best-selling single female pop artist of the 1960s in the U.S., an era of girl groups and single male singers, like Elvis. She is credited with paving the way for other female solo acts and her feminist-driven hits were said to propel others, like Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
Quincy Jones told NPR that Gore helped propel his career back into the fast lane, when Jones had just become head of A&R for Mercury Records.
“Gore was one of the first teen sensations. In the beginning, I was not dealing with pop hits at all. They had a demo of this little girl that had been submitted. I liked it because she sang in tune, and she had a nice sound, a very identifiable sound, and that was the first pop record I made, was Lesley Gore, ‘It’s My Party.’”
In 2005 Gore told World Café that Jones “taught me what to do in the studio. He taught me how to do it. But he felt it was really important for me to understand live performing.”
The singer said Jones took her on a tour of New York’s jazz club scene where she learned from greats such as Peggy Lee and Sarah Vaughn. “He would literally talk to me during the performance and say: watch this, look at this, listen to what the drummer does,” Gore said.
Called the voice of teenage heartbreak, most of Gore’s songs had, as “American Bandstand’s” Dick Clark said, a danceable beat, but they also had an undercurrent of defiance, which is why her songs remained popular far past their era. While her first big hit was “It’s My Party (And I’ll Cry if I Want To)” in 1963, and the song was featured in the films “Problem Child” and “Mermaid,” that hit was followed by a string of other hits for the teenaged singer.
“It’s My Party” was followed by the smack-down follow-up: “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” where the women writers Edna Lewis and Beverly Ross stopped Gore’s tears and put her in charge.
Gore was featured, along with James Brown, the Rolling Stones, the Supremes and Marvin Gaye, in the 1964 concerts at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium that were documented as the “T.A.M.I. Show.”
Other Gore hits of the 1960s included Marvin Hamlisch’s “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” and “California Nights,” as well as “That’s the Way Boys Are” and “Sometimes I Wish I Were A Boy.” “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows”was also nominated for a Grammy.
(Gore was given first option to record “A Groovy Kind of Love,” by songwriters Carole Bayer and Toni Wine, but Shelby Singleton, producer for Mercury, refused to let Gore record a song with the word “groovy” in its lyrics, as the word then had sexual connotations. The Mindbenders went on to record the song and it became a hit.)
But it was Gore’s 1964 hit “You Don’t Own Me,” that made her an iconic voice. Written by John Madara and David White, the song climbed to No. 2 on Billboard’s 100 where it stayed right behind The Beatles’ “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” for weeks,“You Don’t Own Me” stayed on the Billboard 100 for months and remained a standard for decades.
With its edgy lyrics that begin “You don’t own me, don’t try to change me in any way / You don’t own me, don’t tie me down ‘cause I’d never stay” and a chorus that entreats, “And don’t tell me what to do/And don’t tell me what to say/And please when I go out with you/Don’t put me on display,” the song had a defiant feminist tone–well before Second Wave feminism had begun in earnest. “You Don’t Own Me” was far more of a feminist theme song than Helen Reddy’s 1975 “I Am Woman,”which was often parodied.
“You Don’t Own Me” has been covered by numerous other female artists including singers as diverse as Dusty Springfield and Joan Jett. In the 1996 film“The First Wives Club,”it was sung by stars Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn.
Gore’s song got another revival in 2012 in a PSA about reproductive rights, countering the Republican so-called War on Women. The PSA ran throughout the 2012 presidential election and featured “Girls” star Lena Dunham. Gore made a cameo appearance in the video.
When the PSA was released, Gore said, “I recorded ‘You Don’t Own Me’ in 1964. It’s hard for me to believe, but we’re still fighting for the same things we were then.”
Gore took a break from her singing career in the late 1960s to attend the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College, then an all-women’s liberal arts college.
Gore and her brother Michael co-wrote the tracks “Hot Lunch Jam” and “Out Here on My Own” for the 1980 (now-cult) film “Fame.” (Gore was the lyricist, her brother the composer.) “Fame” star Irene Cara performed the song at the 1981 Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Original Song.
Gore also occasionally acted in TV and films, playing Pink Pussycat, Catwoman’s sidekick, in the live-action TV series “Batman” and co-starring in several teen-driven films in the 1960s. In 1965, she appeared in the beach party film, “The Girls on the Beach.” in which she performed three songs: “Leave Me Alone,” “It’s Gotta Be You” and “I Don’t Want to Be a Loser.” In 1999, she also starred in the Broadway musical “Smokey Joe’s Café.” She continued to release albums into the 2000s and in 2005 released her album, “Ever Since,” which won critical acclaim. A cabaret-style album, “Ever Since” includes a provocative remake of “You Don’t Own Me.” Other tracks from the album were included in recent TV shows–“Better Angels” on “C.S.I.,” and “Words We Don’t Say” on “The L Word.”
Gore, who continued to perform in concert until last year, came out publicly as a lesbian when she hosted the series “In the Life,” an LGBT news and culture show that airs on PBS in the U.S.
In 2005 Gore said in an interview with the New York Times that she wanted to host “In the Life” because she wanted young lesbians and gays who were not on the coasts or in gay-friendly cities and towns to know that they were not alone.
“I did that [show] really as a result of meeting a lot of young gay people in the Midwest who really had nothing to relate to.At least I felt this program is presenting them with some options.”
Gore said she initially didn’t appreciate her singing career. “I have to say that when I first started singing, I didn’t think it was a very noble profession. I worked for people like Robert Kennedy and I thought: ‘Wow, that’s what it’s about. That’s how you change the world.’ And then I watched that disintegrate in front of my eyes, and it was very discouraging.”
But she also told the New York Times, “I have found over 43 years that I really rather love what I do. And it really does keep me in touch with people, in a way that a lot of people don’t get a chance to be in touch with people. So I have a newfound love and respect for my career.”
A memorial service is pending.