News this week of the death of s
inger-songwriter-activist Lesley Gore caused in me a variety of reactions.
Way “back in the day,” during my formative and impressionable adolescent years, I remember all too well her No. 1 teen-age angst song “It’s My Party (and I’ll Cry if I Want to).” I long regarded it as just another soap opera-style girlie song that made it big on the charts.
The song came out in May 1963 and she recorded several other hits afterward, including “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” “You Don’t Own Me,” “She’s a Fool,” “That’s the Way Boys Are” and “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.”
I really didn’t have any evidence back then that she was more than just a female pop singer, just another in the line of performers like Connie Francis, Brenda Lee, Little Peggy March, Marcie Blaine, Petula Clark and Nancy Sinatra.
Her greatest hit was all about getting jilted by her boyfriend, Johnny, at her own birthday party when he starts sparkin’ with Judy.
I actually had a period in which I didn’t like Lesley Gore because of her “It’s My Party” sequel, “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” which I believed contained the awful, and unfair lyrics thus:
Oh, one night, I saw them kissin’ at a party
(A party)
So, I kissed some other guy
Johnny jumped out and he hit him
‘Cause he still loved me, that’s why”
I despised that lyrical development because our esteemed heroine turns out to be a vixen who makes out with somebody else and her hero of a boyfriend smacks the poor guy she entraps. He used violence to win back her affection.
This made a hero and heroine out of a couple of jerks. I didn’t like extolling the virtues of bad behavior, though down deep I understood it seemed to be the way of the world.
Yet Ms. Gore came up with an astonishing song for which I had grudging respect. In 
December of 1963 and January 1964, just before the invasion of the Beatles, she released “You Don’t Own Me.” As Merle Haggard sang in “Fightin’ Side of Me,” “Let this song that I’m singin’ be a warnin’.”
The words to the song were simple and direct. They served as a very early feminist anthem to me and my brethren that our girlfriends are not our goods, chattel and possessions, rather they are human beings with free will. At times, this was a difficult lesson to swallow.
The words:
You don’t own me, I’m not just one of your many toys
You don’t own me, don’t say I can’t go with other boys
And don’t tell me what to do
And don’t tell me what to say…
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you
I’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please
For its time, it was a fairly radical idea, and today it could still serve as a lesson to those trapped in an abusive relationship. Indeed, this song very easily was Lesley’s Gore’s greatest gift, her legacy.
I now understand “You Don’t Own Me” became extremely important to her personally. She sang it almost always when she made public appearances and she seemed to use it to defend her being a lesbian woman.
So after I read biographical material about the now departed Lesley Gore, I have come to respect her as much more than just another female teen songstress.
Thank you, Lesley Gore, for your courage and ability to grow beyond the fluff and the superficial. I misjudged you.
