Lesley Gore: the pitch-perfect pop star who gave a voice to teenage girls
Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit It’s My Party was a joyous slice of lovesick pop. But the singer, songwriter and activist, who has died aged 68, had many more strings to her bow
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<figcaption class="caption caption--main caption--img" itemprop="description"> Singer Lesley Gore, who died of cancer aged 68. Photograph: David Redfern/Redferns </figcaption> </figure> Sheila Burgel
<time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2015-02-17T03:44:18-0500" data-timestamp="1424162658000" class="content__dateline-wpd js-wpd content__dateline-wpd--modified tone-colour"> Tuesday 17 February 2015 03.44 EST </time> <time itemprop="lastModified" datetime="2015-02-17T03:54:02-0500" data-timestamp="1424163242821" class="content__dateline-lm js-lm u-h"> Last modified on Tuesday 17 February 2015 03.54 EST </time>
It’s hard to believe that Lesley Gore, the unmistakable, pitch-perfect voice behind some of the biggest and most beloved US pop records, is gone. It’s especially difficult to grasp given that just over a year ago I was sitting in the apartment of this vibrant, life-loving lady, on assignment from Ace Records, interviewing her for the liner notes of the rerelease of her fourth album, Girl Talk from 1964.
She was just beginning to emerge from “the most horrible year I’ve ever had”, she said. A fire had destroyed the Manhattan apartment she had lived in for many years, and she and her partner were “being sued royally” by the building’s landlords. But she was not about to feel sorry for herself, she said. She had a musical in the works, gigs booked, women’s rights causes to support and a memoir to write – one that would undoubtedly focus on the year 1963, when her debut single It’s My Party propelled the petite strawberry-blonde teenager from Tenafly, New Jersey to worldwide fame.
Lesley likened the experience to being “shot out of a cannon … when I woke up in the morning and heard my own record as I was getting dressed to go to school, I don’t think my feet hit the ground for a number of weeks.”
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<figcaption itemprop="description" class=" caption caption--img"> Watch Lesley Gore sing It’s My Party from 1965 </figcaption> </figure> It’s My Party gave voice to millions of hormonal, lovesick teenage girls, who, until the early 60s, had few female pop-culture idols to look up to or identify with. The song may have been written and produced by men, but Lesley was speaking directly to the female experience, the fluctuating feelings of euphoria and devastation, captured so perfectly in the music’s message and melody.
When I asked Lesley to pick a favourite of all the songs she’d ever recorded, she immediately blurted out You Don’t Own Me. “It gave me the gravitas I needed to get beyond doing the pop song,” she explained. Although her record label Mercury wanted to continue milking the teary-eyed-teen theme popularised by It’s My Party, Gore was itching for more repertoire in the You Don’t Own Me vein — beautifully written, sophisticated pop that shook off the shackles of sexism to the elegant sound of a moody piano and soaring violins. I still get goosebumps every time I hear it.
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<figcaption itemprop="description" class=" caption caption--img"> Watch Lesley Gore sing You Don’t Own Me </figcaption> </figure> You Don’t Own Me charted at No 2, her fourth consecutive top 10 hit in a career that would generate another seven top 40 singles. You’d hope such an exemplary track record would warrant induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Gore never made it in. When we spoke, we didn’t touch upon the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame specifically, but she did detail the difficulties of being a female artist in the big, bad, male-dominated music business. “When my time was up at Mercury, it was ‘Adios’,” she said. “I was being kicked out. And I felt pretty badly about myself. But now when I look at who got what, and how it all got doled out, I realise that I didn’t treat myself well – and certainly they didn’t either.”
She credits her education and songwriting as her salvation, and years later Lesley would earn an Oscar nomination as a songwriter for Irene Cara’s Out Here on My Own.
Much of my life’s work has been dedicated to championing artists like Lesley Gore: female artists from the 1960s who, despite scoring enormous hits and record sales, never received the same adulation and respect as their male counterparts. To interview Lesley Gore and write the liner notes for her Girl Talk reissue was a chance to pay my respect to a first-class woman, artist, songwriter and activist whose flawless pop records will continue to live on. Lesley, you will be missed.
Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit It’s My Party was a joyous slice of lovesick pop. But the singer, songwriter and activist, who has died aged 68, had many more strings to her bow
<figure itemprop="associatedMedia image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" data-component="image" class="media-primary media-content">
<figcaption class="caption caption--main caption--img" itemprop="description"> Singer Lesley Gore, who died of cancer aged 68. Photograph: David Redfern/Redferns </figcaption> </figure> Sheila Burgel
<time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2015-02-17T03:44:18-0500" data-timestamp="1424162658000" class="content__dateline-wpd js-wpd content__dateline-wpd--modified tone-colour"> Tuesday 17 February 2015 03.44 EST </time> <time itemprop="lastModified" datetime="2015-02-17T03:54:02-0500" data-timestamp="1424163242821" class="content__dateline-lm js-lm u-h"> Last modified on Tuesday 17 February 2015 03.54 EST </time>
It’s hard to believe that Lesley Gore, the unmistakable, pitch-perfect voice behind some of the biggest and most beloved US pop records, is gone. It’s especially difficult to grasp given that just over a year ago I was sitting in the apartment of this vibrant, life-loving lady, on assignment from Ace Records, interviewing her for the liner notes of the rerelease of her fourth album, Girl Talk from 1964.
She was just beginning to emerge from “the most horrible year I’ve ever had”, she said. A fire had destroyed the Manhattan apartment she had lived in for many years, and she and her partner were “being sued royally” by the building’s landlords. But she was not about to feel sorry for herself, she said. She had a musical in the works, gigs booked, women’s rights causes to support and a memoir to write – one that would undoubtedly focus on the year 1963, when her debut single It’s My Party propelled the petite strawberry-blonde teenager from Tenafly, New Jersey to worldwide fame.
Lesley likened the experience to being “shot out of a cannon … when I woke up in the morning and heard my own record as I was getting dressed to go to school, I don’t think my feet hit the ground for a number of weeks.”
<figure class="element element-video fig--border" data-canonical-url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYJyVEUaC4" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject">
<figcaption itemprop="description" class=" caption caption--img"> Watch Lesley Gore sing It’s My Party from 1965 </figcaption> </figure> It’s My Party gave voice to millions of hormonal, lovesick teenage girls, who, until the early 60s, had few female pop-culture idols to look up to or identify with. The song may have been written and produced by men, but Lesley was speaking directly to the female experience, the fluctuating feelings of euphoria and devastation, captured so perfectly in the music’s message and melody.
When I asked Lesley to pick a favourite of all the songs she’d ever recorded, she immediately blurted out You Don’t Own Me. “It gave me the gravitas I needed to get beyond doing the pop song,” she explained. Although her record label Mercury wanted to continue milking the teary-eyed-teen theme popularised by It’s My Party, Gore was itching for more repertoire in the You Don’t Own Me vein — beautifully written, sophisticated pop that shook off the shackles of sexism to the elegant sound of a moody piano and soaring violins. I still get goosebumps every time I hear it.
<figure class="element element-video fig--border" data-canonical-url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDUjeR01wnU" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject">
<figcaption itemprop="description" class=" caption caption--img"> Watch Lesley Gore sing You Don’t Own Me </figcaption> </figure> You Don’t Own Me charted at No 2, her fourth consecutive top 10 hit in a career that would generate another seven top 40 singles. You’d hope such an exemplary track record would warrant induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Gore never made it in. When we spoke, we didn’t touch upon the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame specifically, but she did detail the difficulties of being a female artist in the big, bad, male-dominated music business. “When my time was up at Mercury, it was ‘Adios’,” she said. “I was being kicked out. And I felt pretty badly about myself. But now when I look at who got what, and how it all got doled out, I realise that I didn’t treat myself well – and certainly they didn’t either.”
She credits her education and songwriting as her salvation, and years later Lesley would earn an Oscar nomination as a songwriter for Irene Cara’s Out Here on My Own.
Much of my life’s work has been dedicated to championing artists like Lesley Gore: female artists from the 1960s who, despite scoring enormous hits and record sales, never received the same adulation and respect as their male counterparts. To interview Lesley Gore and write the liner notes for her Girl Talk reissue was a chance to pay my respect to a first-class woman, artist, songwriter and activist whose flawless pop records will continue to live on. Lesley, you will be missed.
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