| Lesley Gore | |
|---|---|
Gore on the cover of Ever Since, 2005 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lesley Sue Goldstein |
| Born | May 2, 1946 |
| Origin | New York City, New York, United States |
| Genres | Pop Rock music |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Associated acts | Sue Thompson, Brenda Lee |
| Website | lesleygore.com |
Lesley Gore (born Lesley Sue Goldstein; May 2, 1946) is an American singer. She is perhaps best known for her 1963 pop hit "It's My Party", which she recorded at the age of 16. Following the hit, she became one of the most recognized teen pop singers of the 1960s.
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Gore was born in New York City, New York. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, in a Jewish family.[1] Her younger brother Michael, was an Oscar winner for Best Original Song for the theme song of ”Fame”. Her father, Leo Gore, was a wealthy manufacturer of children's clothes and swimwear.
Lesley was a junior at the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood when "It's My Party" became a #1 hit. It was later nominated for a Grammy Award for rock and roll recording.[2] It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[3]
Gore's first hit was followed by many others, including: "Judy's Turn to Cry" (US #5), the sequel to "It's My Party"; "She's a Fool" (US #5); the proto-feminist "You Don't Own Me", which held at #2 for three weeks behind The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand"; "That's the Way Boys Are" (US #12); "Maybe I Know" (US #14/UK #20); "The Look of Love" (US #27); and Grammy-nominated "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" (US #13), from the 1965 movie "Ski Party". Her record producer was Quincy Jones, who would later become one of the most famous producers in American music. "You Don't Own Me" also sold a million copies, and was awarded gold disc status.[3]
Instead of accepting the television and movie contracts that came her way, Gore chose to attend Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York. This limited her public career to weekends and summer vacations and undoubtedly hurt her career. Nevertheless, throughout the mid 1960s Gore continued to be one of the most popular female singers in the United States and Canada.
Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love", but Shelby Singleton, a producer for Smash Records, a Mercury subsidiary, recommended that she not record a song with the word "groovy" in it. The Mindbenders went on to record the song, and it went to #2 on the Billboard charts.[4] Gore also released "Wedding Bell Blues" as a single in 1969, but her version flopped while the 5th Dimension's version spent three weeks at #1. Gore also recorded many of her hit songs in French, German, and Italian.
By the late 1960s, her popularity had decreased with the advent of harder-edged psychedelic music. Her last major hit was the Bob Crewe-produced "California Nights" (US #16), which she performed on both the January 19 and January 25, 1967, episodes of the Batman TV series, in which she guest-starred as Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions. In the episodes, she lip-synched to her songs "California Nights" (skipping the second verse) and "Maybe Now"[4] (the latter was for some reason cut from most later broadcasts of the episodes). Gore also performed the single "We Know We're in Love" almost a year earlier on the final episode of "The Donna Reed Show", which aired on March 19, 1966. Afterwards, she maintained a lower profile in the music industry, performing at concerts and in cabarets. She also kept busy writing songs, including composing songs for the soundtrack of the 1980 film Fame, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for "Out Here on My Own", written with her brother Michael.[5] The song was a Top 20 hit for Irene Cara.
In an interview Gore said that when Mercury Records dropped her in 1969, they owed her $175,000.00 and she did not see a nickel from them until 1989, by which time Mercury has recouped all of their costs from her royalties.
Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 2005, she recorded her first album of new material since 1976 (Love Me By Name) — Ever Since — with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan for Engine Company Records (a small independent label). In addition to extensive national radio coverage and critical acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine, and other national press, three songs from Ever Since have been used in television shows and films: Better Angels, in CSI: Miami's fourth season premiere episode, "Words We Don't Say", in an episode of The L Word, and "It's Gone", in the Jeff Lipsky-directed film Flannel Pajamas. In 2009, "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was featured in the film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" was also used in the Simpsons episode Marge on the Lam, for the Butlins Company TV advertisements in 2008 and for the Target Australia homewares TV advertisement in 2010.
Beginning in 2004, Gore hosted the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBT issues.[6] In 2005, she stated in an interview that she was a lesbian.[6] As of the time of the interview, Gore had been living with her partner for more than 23 years.[6]
| Year | Album details | Chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| US [7] |
||
| 1963 | I'll Cry If I Want to
|
24 |
Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts
|
125 | |
| 1964 | Boys, Boys, Boys
|
127 |
Girl Talk
|
146 | |
| 1965 | My Town, My Guy, and Me
|
120 |
| 1966 | Lesley Gore Sings All About Love
|
— |
| 1967 | California Nights
|
169 |
Magic Colors
|
— | |
| 1972 | Someplace Else Now
|
— |
| 1976 | Love Me by Name
|
— |
| 1982 | The Canvas Can Do Miracles
|
— |
| 2005 | Ever Since
|
— |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||
| Year | Album details | Chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| US [7] |
||
| 1965 | The Golden Hits of Lesley Gore
|
95 |
| 1968 | Lesley Gore Golden Hits, Vol. 2 [8]
|
— |
| 1994 | Lesley Gore: It's My Party
|
— |
| 1998 | Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows: The Best of Lesley Gore
|
— |
| 2000 | 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection
|
— |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [9] |
US AC [9] |
US R&B [9] |
UK [10] |
|||
| 1963 | "It's My Party" | 1 | — | 1 | 9 | I'll Cry If I Want to |
| "Judy's Turn to Cry" | 5 | — | 10 | — | ||
| "She's a Fool" | 5 | — | 26 | — | Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts | |
| 1964 | "You Don't Own Me" | 2 | — | — | — | |
| "I Don't Know Anymore" | — | — | — | — | non-album single | |
| "That's the Way Boys Are" | 12 | — | — | — | Boys, Boys, Boys | |
| "I Don't Wanna Be a Loser" | 37 | 12 | — | — | ||
| "Maybe I Know" | 14 | — | — | 20 | Girl Talk | |
| "Hey Now" | 76 | — | — | — | ||
| 1965 | "Look of Love" | 27 | — | — | — | |
| "All My Life" | 71 | — | — | — | The Golden Hits of Lesley Gore | |
| "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" | 13 | — | — | — | Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts | |
| "My Town, My Guy, and Me" | 32 | — | — | — | My Town, My Guy, and Me | |
| "I Won't Love You Anymore (Sorry)" | 80 | — | — | — | Lesley Gore Sings All About Love | |
| 1966 | "We Know We're in Love" | 76 | — | — | — | |
| "Young Love" | 50 | — | — | — | ||
| "Off and Running" | 108 | — | — | — | California Nights | |
| "Treat Me Like a Lady" | 115 | — | — | — | ||
| 1967 | "California Nights" | 16 | — | — | — | |
| "Summer and Sandy" | 65 | — | — | — | Lesley Gore Golden Hits, Vol. 2[8] | |
| "Brink of Disaster" | 82 | — | — | — | Magic Colors (unreleased) | |
| "Magic Colors" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1968 | "Small Talk" | 124 | — | — | — | non-album single |
| "He Gives Me Love (La, La, La)" | 119 | — | — | — | Lesley Gore Golden Hits, Vol. 2[8] | |
| "I Can't Make It Without You" | 124 | — | — | — | ||
| "I'll Be Standing By" | — | — | — | — | non-album singles | |
| 1969 | "Take Good Care (Of My Heart)" | — | — | — | — | |
| "98.6-Lazy Day" | — | 36 | — | — | ||
| "Wedding Bell Blues" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1970 | "Why Doesn't Love Make Me Happy" | — | 39 | — | — | |
| "Come Softly to Me" | — | — | — | — | ||
| "When Yesterday Was Tomorrow" | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1971 | "Back Together" | — | — | — | — | |
| 1972 | "She Said That" | — | — | — | — | Someplace Else Now |
| 1975 | "Immortality" | — | — | — | — | Love Me by Name |
| "Sometimes" (with The Brothers Johnson) | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | ||||||
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | A-side |
|---|---|---|---|
| US [9] |
|||
| 1964 | "Sometimes I Wish I Were a Boy" | 86 | "Hey Now" |