Lesley Gore (1946-2015)
February 16, 2015 2:21 PM   Subscribe

Lesley Gore, who sang "It's My Party" (live performance) and "You Don't Own Me," which Wikipedia calls a "proto-feminist" song (live performance + more), died of lung cancer at age 68 today in New York City.

An interview with her.

More songs:
California Nights
That's the Way Boys Are
She's a Fool
She didn't write her most famous songs, but she was a songwriter. In 1980, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Out Here on My Own," in the movie Fame. (She wrote that song with her brother, Michael Gore, who won the Oscar that year for a different song in the same movie.)

The manically happy "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was used in an episode of The Simpsons, "Marge on the Lam" (season 5).

She had a comeback in 2005, releasing a new album, Ever Since — her first since 1976. A couple songs from that album: "Cool Web" and "It's Gone."

ABC News notes:
Gore had been working on a stage version of her life with playwright Mark Hampton when she died.

She officially came out to the public when she hosted several episodes of the PBS series, "In The Life," which dealt with gay and lesbian issues.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Gore turned "You Don't Own Me" into an online video public service announcement demanding reproductive rights which starred Lena Dunham and Tavi Gevinson, among others.
Previously.
posted by John Cohen (78 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
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for the countless times Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows brought a smile to my face
posted by bigendian at 2:28 PM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]




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posted by Kitteh at 2:29 PM on February 16, 2015


RIP, Lesley. You made some great records.

You're gone and we'll cry if we want to.
posted by jonmc at 2:30 PM on February 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


Worth noting that "It's my Party" was recorded when she was only 16 years old....

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posted by HuronBob at 2:33 PM on February 16, 2015 [7 favorites]


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posted by ghostbikes at 2:34 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]



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posted by Thorzdad at 2:40 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by rtha at 2:44 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 2:45 PM on February 16, 2015


Worth noting that "It's my Party" was recorded when she was only 16 years old....

That explains how she was only 68, which astonished me when I first read this post.
posted by orange swan at 2:45 PM on February 16, 2015 [6 favorites]


Here's the 2012 political ad mentioned in the FPP.

I haven't really her her newest album before, but I'm listening now.

RIP.
posted by muddgirl at 2:45 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


I used to do a cover of It's My Party.

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posted by Obscure Reference at 2:47 PM on February 16, 2015


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She was pretty damned transgressive for the 1960s, as well--her 1964 single "Hey Now" had this gender-nonconforming flip side: "Sometimes I Wish I Were A Boy."
posted by yellowcandy at 2:48 PM on February 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


🌞🍭🌈
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posted by phunniemee at 2:51 PM on February 16, 2015 [8 favorites]


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posted by Iridic at 2:54 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by runincircles at 2:54 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by localroger at 2:55 PM on February 16, 2015


It seems Judy got the last laugh.

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posted by Pope Guilty at 2:56 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


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posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 2:58 PM on February 16, 2015


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"You Don't Own Me" is one of the best songs ever recorded.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:02 PM on February 16, 2015 [19 favorites]


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posted by Blue Jello Elf at 3:04 PM on February 16, 2015


Lesley Gore on The TAMI Show.

Lesley Gore on The Batman TV Series.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 3:12 PM on February 16, 2015


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What Am I Gonna Do With You is probably my favorite song by her. Such a lovely voice.
posted by chairmanroflmao at 3:15 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Pure pop perfection.

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posted by naju at 3:18 PM on February 16, 2015


and even when her voice had gone to hell, it was still one hell of a thing
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 3:23 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


:(
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posted by sexyrobot at 3:25 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by cookie-k at 3:27 PM on February 16, 2015


Fuck you, cancer.

(You too, Judy & Johnny.)

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posted by Sys Rq at 3:28 PM on February 16, 2015 [5 favorites]


Her cover of AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is a personal fave.
posted by Mad_Carew at 3:37 PM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


Gore had been working on a stage version of her life with playwright Mark Hampton when she died.

I hope this ends up as something because it seems like it could be great.

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:44 PM on February 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think I'm going to watch Grace of My Heart, or at least the Bridget-Fonda-as-a-thinly-veiled-version-of-Lesley-Gore bit and then try to imagine an Alison Anders Gore biopic.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:57 PM on February 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


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posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 3:58 PM on February 16, 2015


Damn. She was awesome.
posted by allthinky at 4:02 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by little mouth at 4:09 PM on February 16, 2015



posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:12 PM on February 16, 2015


I always wanted her to write a song in which she and Judy both wise up, ditch that sleazebag Johnny, and get together for a happy ending.
posted by darksasami at 4:16 PM on February 16, 2015 [18 favorites]


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posted by iviken at 4:16 PM on February 16, 2015


. Crying cause I want to.
posted by Fibognocchi at 4:16 PM on February 16, 2015 [3 favorites]


I've always had a soft spot for Maybe I Know, which is just so sad. And she was 17 when she recorded it. Shit.

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posted by dismas at 4:17 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]



posted by Smart Dalek at 4:30 PM on February 16, 2015


I just went on a Lesley Gore youtube kick about a week ago and found these clips from the movies "Ski Trip" and "Girls on the Beach," which are equal parts schmaltz and brilliance.

Girls on the Beach:
I Don't Wanna Be a Loser
Leave Me Alone
It's Gotta Be You
(Alternate, technicolor version of It's Gotta Be You with, uh, questionable title.)

Ski Trip:
Sunshine + Lollipops

(BONUS JAMES BROWN GETTIN IT IN AN UGLY SWEATER)
posted by StopMakingSense at 4:40 PM on February 16, 2015 [5 favorites]




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posted by quazichimp at 4:53 PM on February 16, 2015


Someone should take a set of speakers and ipod and just play "You Don't Own Me" on repeat outside every theater in North America this weekend. Perhaps it would counteract a 50 Shades a little.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:53 PM on February 16, 2015 [4 favorites]


Speaking LGBT and Lesley Gore, here's Klaus Nomi's cover of "You Don't Own Me", which puts a lot of emphasis on the word "boys" in the lyrics.
posted by SansPoint at 5:39 PM on February 16, 2015


Scott Ligon does a great cover of "Treat Me Like a Lady."
It's a bit more true to the original than Nomi's oeuvre.
posted by hydrophonic at 6:02 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by Cash4Lead at 6:07 PM on February 16, 2015


During the 2012 presidential campaign, Gore turned "You Don't Own Me" into an online video public service announcement demanding reproductive rights which starred Lena Dunham and Tavi Gevinson, among others.

It was powerful PSA, and a shrewd move on her part.

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posted by homunculus at 6:25 PM on February 16, 2015


I'm partial to the Rasputina cover of You Don't Own Me myself.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 6:30 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


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Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin's cover is the second-best.
posted by scruss at 6:35 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by cotton dress sock at 7:06 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by Superfrankenstein at 7:26 PM on February 16, 2015


. You would cry too, if it happened to you.
posted by dannyboybell at 7:45 PM on February 16, 2015


For some reason, when my daughter was nine years old and I would take her to a retro Fifties diner with manually flipping playlists at each table (I hope you know what I mean), "It's My Party" was one song she always picked. The words "party" and "cry" both have extraordinary resonance with children, and to have them in the same song - in the title/climactic chorus - really got her happy…and perhaps pre-tweeny-angsty?
posted by kozad at 7:51 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


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posted by breadbox at 7:55 PM on February 16, 2015


There is a fantastic theatrical moment in the opening to Charles Mee's play Big Love (based on Aeschylus' The Suppliants, about fifty sisters who flee to Italy from Greece to avoid forced marriage to their cousins), where the three main sisters gradually join in singing "You Don't Own Me" as they smash trunks' worth of their wedding china against a wall. It's one of my favourite theatre memories. Thanks to Ms. Gore for creating a song so electric, it seems to bridge centuries of thoughts of independence.

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posted by ilana at 7:55 PM on February 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


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posted by discopolo at 8:20 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by Mister Bijou at 8:47 PM on February 16, 2015


. Godspeed!

Jean Jett singing "You Don't Own Me"
posted by Vibrissae at 9:29 PM on February 16, 2015 [2 favorites]


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"You Don't Own Me" is my favorite part of The First Wives Club. I saw the movie when I was 6 or 7 (much to my parents' bemusement) and was obsessed with all of it for reasons I only understand now as an adult after being with a few men who did not respect me. Thank you, Lesley, for providing me with something to sing as I got myself out of the abusive relationships that dominated my young adulthood.
posted by Hermione Granger at 9:38 PM on February 16, 2015


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posted by Rash at 10:17 PM on February 16, 2015


Gore was very much her own person, right from the start. My understanding is that her record company wanted to put her on the teen-pop treadmill and churn out album after album of other people's songs. Her response? "Sorry! I've been accepted into Sarah Lawrence. See you in four years."
posted by Sonny Jim at 1:06 AM on February 17, 2015 [5 favorites]



posted by Gelatin at 3:26 AM on February 17, 2015


Maybe tomorrow when I'm not sobbing I will watch the links you lovely people have posted.

I can't remember when she became so important to me. My mother had lots of 45's when I was a kid in the 70's, and I'm pretty sure It's My Party was one. Somehow, I ended up buying an album. I can still sing so many of them, word for word, and my teenagers look at me like I'm a fruit loop... and then later I find out that amongst their Radiohead and ACDC and Five Seconds of Summer, Lesley's music lurks.

Vale, you amazing, beautiful, talented woman. I love your work, my kids love your work, and I can guarantee that their kids will love your work too, because they'll play it for their kids, and so on and so forth.

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posted by malibustacey9999 at 3:42 AM on February 17, 2015


Worth noting that "It's my Party" was recorded when she was only 16 years old....

And worth noting as well that it was produced by none other than Quincy Jones. Actually, he produced most of her hits. Jones wrote this:

"I am heartbroken at the news today of the passing of Lesley Gore. I discovered Lesley, almost on a dare, in 1963 when she was 16 years old and I was Vice President of Mercury Records and we would go on to make 16 hit songs together including 'It's My Party,' 'Judy's Turn to Cry,' 'You Don't Own Me,' and 'Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows.' Lesley was an incredibly soulful singer/songwriter even at that young and that was why the world embraced her songs the way it did. It is important to remember that at one point, the only group that surpassed her in the pop charts was The Beatles. It was a privelege to have been a part of Lesley's life personally and professionally from those early days until now, and although I will miss her deeply, her essence will remain with us always through her music."

RIP Lesley Gore.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 AM on February 17, 2015 [8 favorites]


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posted by BibiRose at 6:39 AM on February 17, 2015


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posted by jonp72 at 7:03 AM on February 17, 2015


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posted by mkim at 6:44 PM on February 17, 2015


Sad news.
I got into her music when I heard bootlegs of They Might Be Giants covering "Maybe I Know" from their early shows.

She had a great, what's the word... husky (?) voice that is really unique. In the early records she sounds great with no vibrato and dead-on double-tracking that gave her a really spacey pop quality.

R.I.P.
posted by JBennett at 9:12 AM on February 18, 2015


They had a brief tribute to her on the sixties station on XM radio last night during the Brucie show. :)
posted by Buttons Bellbottom at 9:31 AM on February 19, 2015


Why Lesley Gore Mattered.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:32 AM on February 21, 2015


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