Lesley Gore
Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), better known with her family’s adopted surname as Lesley Gore,[1] was an American singer and songwriter. At the age of 16, she recorded her first hit song "It's My Party", a US number one in 1963. She followed it up with ten further US Billboard top 40 hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry" and "You Don't Own Me". Gore said she considered "You Don't Own Me" her signature song.[2]
For the English footballer, see Les Gore.
Lesley Gore
February 16, 2015 (aged 68)
- Singer
- songwriter
- actress
1963–2015
Lois Sasson
(1982–2015; her death)
- Michael Gore (brother)
- Alan Dean Foster (cousin)
- Howie Horwitz (uncle)
Vocals
Gore later worked as an actress and television personality. She composed songs with her brother Michael Gore for the 1980 film Fame, and received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here On My Own". She hosted several editions of the LGBT-oriented public television show In the Life on American TV in the 2000s.
Early life and education[edit]
Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein[3] in Brooklyn, New York City,[4] into a middle-class Jewish family.[5] The daughter of Leo Goldstein and Ronny Gore, her family changed their surname to “Gore” soon after her birth.[1] Her father was the owner of Peter Pan, a children's swimwear and underwear manufacturer,[5] and later became a leading brand licensing agent in the apparel industry.[6] She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey,[7] and attended the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood. She also attended Sarah Lawrence College, graduating with a degree in American literature.[8]
Career[edit]
1963–1979: Commercial success[edit]
Gore was discovered after her uncle gave Joe Glaser a tape of her singing that he forwarded to Irving Green, president of Mercury Records. Green gave the tape to Quincy Jones for evaluation and Jones, recognizing her talent, became her producer. She was 16 years old.[8][9] When she recorded her version of "It's My Party" in 1963, she was a junior in high school. It became a number-one, nationwide hit. Gore's version was certified as a Gold record.[10] It also marked the beginning of a time when fans would show up on her front lawn.[4]
"It's My Party" was followed by many other hits for Gore, including the sequel, "Judy's Turn to Cry" (US number five); "She's a Fool" (US number five); the feminist-themed million-selling "You Don't Own Me",[10] which held at number two for three weeks behind the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand"; "That's the Way Boys Are" (US No. 12); "Maybe I Know" (US No. 14/UK No. 20); "Look of Love" (US No. 27); and "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" (US number 13), which she sang during a bus scene from the 1965 movie, Ski Party.[11] In 1965, she also 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".
Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love" by songwriters Carole Bayer and Toni Wine with a melody borrowed from a sonatina by Muzio Clementi,[12] but Shelby Singleton, a producer for Mercury subsidiary Smash Records, refused to let Gore record a song with the word "groovy" in its lyrics.[11] The Mindbenders went on to record it, and it reached number two on the Billboard charts.[13]
Personal life[edit]
Beginning in 2003, Gore hosted several editions of the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBTQ+ issues.[25] In a 2005 interview with AfterEllen, she stated she was a lesbian and had been in a relationship with luxury jewelry designer Lois Sasson since 1982.[25] She had known about her attraction to women from the time she was 20 and stated that although the music business was "totally homophobic", she never felt she had to pretend she was straight. "I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do," she said. "I didn't avoid anything, I didn't put it in anybody's face."[4]
Gore had been working on a memoir and a Broadway show based on her life[26] when she died of lung cancer on February 16, 2015, at the NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, New York City, at the age of 68.[27][28] At the time of her death, Gore and Sasson had been together for 33 years.[29]
Her New York Times obituary stated, "with songs like 'It's My Party,' 'Judy's Turn to Cry', and the indelibly defiant 1964 single 'You Don't Own Me' — all recorded before she was 18 — Gore made herself the voice of teenaged girls aggrieved by fickle boyfriends, moving quickly from tearful self-pity to fierce self-assertion."[26]
Awards and recognition[edit]
In 1964, "It's My Party" was nominated for a Grammy Award for rock-and-roll recording.[30]
National Public Radio named Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts, Gore's second album, as forebearer of one of the top 150 albums recorded by women. The album missed the official list (1964–present) because it was released in 1963. "She is a forebearer for her assertion of feminine power in pop, and her validation of a female perspective."[31]
Lesley Gore's papers were donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and became accessible to the public in 2022. Catalogued by the library and her partner Lois Sasson, it includes family photos, scrapbook pages, annotated music and lyrics, business files, an unfinished memoir, and sound and video recordings.[32]