Lesley Gore performs It's My Party 1960

Pride Of Daddy Leo Gore In Jersey & Mercury Records In Chicago As the party princess of Tenafly, New Jersey, "It's My Party" would be the first of many teenage girl woes anthem hits for Lesley Gore. The daughter of a textile manufacturer Leo Gore, who created the line of Peter Pan swimsuits, curiously daughter Lesley never wore a bathing suit in any of the then popular rock and roll beach movies she appeared in. Go figure.

Lesley Gore, who will forever be identified with the memorable anthem of teenage angst, "It's My Party," remains a performer and songwriter. She quietly tours the casino and resort circuit performing all her hits from the 1960s. She has also appeared in Smokey Joe's Cafï¿½ on Broadway and gotten much more involved in work behind the scenes. Collaborating with her brother, Michael, with whom she penned some of her own hits in the 1960s, Gore continues to write songs. Together the team turned out a number of songs for the popular 1980 movie Fame, including "Out Here on My Own," which garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Song.

Born on May 2, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York, Gore was the oldest child of parents Leo and Ronny. When she was about five years old, the family left New York for the relative quiet of the New Jersey suburbs, settling in Tenafly. It was in this comfortable, middle-class setting that Lesley and her brother Michael grew up.

Both Gore children showed an interest in music at an early age. Even before she could read, Lesley had learned to identify the 45 rpm records of her favorite songs by the color of their labels. Impressed by their daughter's obvious interest in music, Lesley's parents scraped together the extra money needed to send her to a professional vocal coach. Before long, Gore's singing lessons gave her the self-confidence to take the stage and sing with her cousin's band at professional engagements whenever she could. One such appearance at the Prince George Hotel proved particularly fortuitous. In the audience that night was Irving Green, president of Mercury Records. So impressed was Green with Gore's singing voice that he quickly signed her to a contract. As the first order of business, Green had Lesley record a few demo tapes that he circulated among the creative types at Mercury. All agreed that Gore had the makings of a star.

When it came time to team Lesley up with a producer to work on her first recordings, Green had yet another stroke of genius. He put Lesley in the very capable hands of Quincy Jones, who was at that time A&R director for Mercury. The now-legendary music producer and Gore hit it off from the beginning. It proved to be an ideal creative marriage.

Despite the excellent vibes between Gore and her newfound mentor, finding the right vehicle to introduce Lesley to the record-buying public was anything but easy. Together the petite singer from New Jersey and Jones listened to more than 200 demo tapes in their search for just the right song. Finally, when they heard "It's My Party," both knew instantly that this was the perfect song for Gore. But the adventure had just begun. On the evening of the late March day that Lesley recorded the song, Jones learned that rival producer Phil Spector had another version in the works for the Crystals. Jones pulled out all the stops, rushed the record to radio stations around the country, and beat Spector and the Crystals to the punch. Gore and her record label had a smash hit. Her success with "It's My Party" was quickly followed by "Judy's Turn to Cry," which revisits the central theme of the first song, but with an added twist of vengeance. Other big hits for Gore included "You Don't Own Me," "Maybe I Know," "She's a Fool," and "That's the Way Boys Are."

His successful management of Gore's early career at Mercury helped to solidify Jones's already substantial reputation within the music business. Gore's early singles, including "It's My Party," were exceptionally well produced. Orchestral arrangements by Claus Ogermann gave Gore's records much more of a mainstream pop feel than some of the early rock sounds emerging in the early 1960s. Perhaps because the music one most closely identifies with Jones is a far cry from the somewhat petulant pop of Lesley Gore, many biographers have overlooked how important a role the Gore years played in the producer's overall development.

In 1963, her first year at Mercury, Gore released two albums--I'll Cry If I Want To and Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts. The following year saw two more albums from Gore, namely Boys, Boys, Boys and Girl Talk. This breakneck recording pace began to slow considerably after 1964, with only one album from Gore appearing each year from 1965 through 1969. The feverish demand for Gore's sound cooled off considerably after her first couple of years in the market. Even a label switch in the late 1960s failed to reverse the decline. The albums Love, Love, Love and Sound of Young Love were released on the Wing label in 1968 and 1969, respectively.

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