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Lesley Gore (born Lesley Sue Goldstein,[1] May 2, 1946) is an American singer. At the age of 16, in 1963, she recorded the pop hit "It's My Party".

Contents[]

 [hide*1 Early life

Early life[edit][]

Gore was born in New York City. She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey, in a Jewish family.[2] 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.[3] It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.[4]

1960s career[edit][]

"It's My Party" was followed by many other hits, including the sequel "Judy's Turn to Cry" (US #5); "She's a Fool" (US #5); the protofeminist million-selling "You Don't Own Me",[4] 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); "Look of Love" (US #27); and Grammy-nominated "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" (US #13), from the 1965 movie Ski Party. In 1965, she 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". Her record producer Quincy Jones, responsible for all her hits from 1963 to 1965, would later become one of the most famous producers in American music.

Gore was given first shot at recording "A Groovy Kind of Love" by songwriters Carole Bayer and Toni Wine, but Shelby Singleton, a producer for Smash Records, a Mercury subsidiary, refused to let her 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.[5]

Gore recorded composer Marvin Hamlisch's first hit composition, "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" on May 21, 1963, as "It's My Party" was bounding up the charts. Quincy Jones' dentist was Marvin Hamlisch's uncle, and Hamlisch asked his uncle to get several songs to Jones. "Sunshine, Lollipops, & Rainbows" sat in the Mercury vaults for two years, when someone at Mercury saw the hit potential, and Mercury released it in June 1965. Hamlisch authored three additional Gore tracks, one of which was "California Nights".[6] Other Hamlisch tracks recorded by Gore were "That's the Way the Ball Bounces", recorded September 21, 1963 at A&R Studios, New York, NY, released as the B-side of "That's the Way Boys Are" and appearing on the LP "Boys Boys Boys"; and "One by One", an unreleased track recorded on July 31, 1969 in New York, produced by Paul Leka, first appearing on the Bear Family five-CD anthology of Gore's Mercury work titled, It's My Party (1994).

Gore performed on two consecutive episodes of the Batman TV series (January 19 and 25, 1967), in which she guest-starred as Pussycat, one of Catwoman's minions. In the January 19 episode "That Darn Catwoman", she lip-synched to the Bob Crewe-produced "California Nights", and in the January 25 episode "Scat! Darn Catwoman" to "Maybe Now".[5] "California Nights", which Gore recorded for her 1967 hit album of the same name, returned her to the upper reaches of the Hot 100. The single peaked at number 16 in March 1967 (14 weeks on the chart) – her first top 40 hit since "My Town, My Guy and Me" in late 1965 and her first top 20 since "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows", which, like "California Nights", was co-written by Marvin Hamlisch and Howard Liebling.

Gore also performed the single "We Know We're in Love" ten months earlier on the final episode of The Donna Reed Show, which aired on March 19, 1966.

After high school, while continuing to work, Gore attended Sarah Lawrence College and studied English and American literature; she graduated in 1968.[7][8]

Later career[edit][]

Gore composed 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.[9] Michael won the Academy Awardfor Best Original Song for the theme song of the same film.

Gore played concerts and appeared on television throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2005, Gore recorded Ever Since (her first album of new material since Love Me By Name in 1976), with producer/songwriter Blake Morgan, for the small independent label Engine Company Records. In addition to extensive national radio coverage and critical acclaim from The New York TimesRolling StoneBillboard 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 theButlins Company TV advertisements in 2008 and for the Target Australia homewares TV advertisement in 2010.

Personal life[edit][]

Beginning in 2004, Gore hosted the PBS television series In the Life, which focused on LGBT issues.[10] She stated in a 2005 interview that she was a lesbian.[10] At the time of the interview, Gore had been living with her partner for more than 23 years.[10]

Discography[edit][]

Studio albums[edit][]

Year Album details Chart positions
US

[11]

1963 I'll Cry If I Want to
  • Released: June 1963
  • Label: Mercury
24
Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts
  • Released: November 1963
  • Label: Mercury
125
1964 Boys, Boys, Boys
  • Released: April 1964
  • Label: Mercury
127
Girl Talk
  • Released: October 1964
  • Label: Mercury
146
1965 My Town, My Guy & Me
  • Released: September 1965
  • Label: Mercury
120
1966 Lesley Gore Sings All About Love
  • Released: January 1966
  • Label: Mercury
1967 California Nights
  • Released: February 1967
  • Label: Mercury
169
Magic Colors
  • Cancelled (Was scheduled for November 1967 release)
  • Label: Mercury
1972 Someplace Else Now
1976 Love Me by Name
  • Released: May 1976
  • Label: A&M
1982 The Canvas Can Do Miracles
  • Released: July 1, 1982
  • Label: 51 West
2005 Ever Since
  • Released: June 28, 2005
  • Label: Engine Company
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Compilation albums[edit][]

Year Album details Chart positions
US

[11]

1965 The Golden Hits of Lesley Gore
  • Released: 1965
  • Label: Mercury
95
1968 Lesley Gore Golden Hits, Vol. 2[12]*Released: 1968
  • Label: Mercury
1986 The Lesley Gore Anthology
1994 Lesley Gore: It's My Party
1998 Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows: The Best of Lesley Gore
  • Released: June 16, 1998
  • Label: Rhino
2000 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection
  • Released: September 26, 2000
  • Label: Mercury
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Singles[edit][]

Year Single Peak chart positions Album
US

[13]

US AC

[13]

US R&B

[13]

UK

[14]

AU

[15]

1963 "It's My Party" 1 1 9 1 I'll Cry If I Want to
"Judy's Turn to Cry" 5 10 19
"She's a Fool" 5 26 28 Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts
1964 "You Don't Own Me" 2 4
"That's the Way Boys Are" 12 16 Boys, Boys, Boys
"I Don't Wanna Be a Loser" 37 12
"Maybe I Know" 14 20 37 Girl Talk
"Hey Now" 76
1965 "Look of Love" 27 89
"All Of My Life" 71 The Golden Hits of Lesley Gore
"Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" 13 53 Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts
"My Town, My Guy and Me" 32 88 My Town, My Guy & Me
"I Won't Love You Anymore (Sorry)" 80 92 Lesley Gore Sings All About Love
1966 "We Know We're in Love" 76
"Young Love" 50 24
"Off and Running" 108 75 California Nights
"Treat Me Like a Lady" 115
1967 "California Nights" 16
"Summer and Sandy" 65 Lesley Gore Golden Hits, Vol. 2[12]
"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[12]
"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.

B-sides[edit][]

Year Song Peak chart positions A-side
US

[13]

1964 "Sometimes I Wish I Were a Boy" 86 "Hey Now"

Television appearances[edit][]

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