Lesley Sue Goldstein, better known as Lesley Gore, was a singer known for “It’s My Party” and “You Don’t Own Me”, as a teenager in the 1960s. She also worked with her brother to compose music for the movie Fame, and worked as an actress and TV host until she passed away in 2015.

 

 

Lesley was born in New York, to a Jewish family. She was just a junior in high school when Quincy Jones had her record “It’s My Party” which became a number one hit. He was impressed by a tape of her singing, and the song that was chosen had a chorus aimed directly at Lesley’s peers (“You would cry too, if it happened to you”).

Her other hit, “You Don’t Own Me”, was at Number 2 on the charts behind the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. It was composed for Lesley by two male songwriters, but it became a feminist anthem. Lesley said that the music industry “only cared about males. They just thought it was easier to sell males. It really got to me after a while. When I heard [You Don’t Own Me] for the first time, I thought it had an important humanist quality," she said. "As I got older, feminism became more a part of my life and more a part of our whole awareness, and I could see why people would use it as a feminist anthem. I don't care what age you are -- whether you're 16 or 116 -- there's nothing more wonderful than standing on the stage and shaking your finger and singing, 'Don't tell me what to do.'"

 

 

She also recorded “Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows”, as well as “Judy’s Turn to Cry”. She also acted in two episodes of the 1960s Batman live action TV show, as one of Catwoman’s sidekicks. Her uncle produced the show, and created the character, Pink Pussycat, just for her. Lesley said, many years later, “It was great fun. People still watch it today, which is hysterical. They're probably wondering if I can still fit into my costume. I can. It's a little lower on my hips."

 

 

Lesley went to Sarah Lawrence College, studying literature, and was not cool for being into pop music, since folk music was the thing at the time. She said of her time at college: “I was a good student and I enjoyed school. It was good to get away from the attention. It was a good place to go, and if I didn’t have to travel on the weekend I enjoyed staying on campus and just sitting in the library all weekend. The school was a beautiful school and the campus was kind of like a haven for me. A beautiful school and an excellent philosophy. They treat women like human beings, and they were doing that back then. It felt really good to…to feel good being a woman, and Sarah Lawrence had a lot to do with helping me feel that way.”

After graduating, she recorded a few soul songs, but they weren’t really her thing, and she moved to becoming a composer for the movie Fame in 1980 with her brother, for which they were nominated for an Academy Award. In 2005, she recorded a new album which received positive reviews, including a new version of “You Don’t Own Me” which received critical acclaim.

In 2004, Lesley started hosting a TV show on PBS called In the Life, which was about LGBT issues. Lesley was a lesbian and in a relationship with a jewelry designer named Lois Sasson from 1982 till her death. She said she’d known she was gay since she was in her twenties, and never hid anything, but also “didn’t put it in anybody’s face”. When she passed away, she and Lois had been together for over thirty years.

 

 

Of her decision to start hosting a show about LGBT issues and come out publicly herself, Lesley said in an interview: “I meet a lot of young people in the Midwest, and I saw what a difference a show like In the Life can make to their lives in some of these small towns where, you know, there are probably two gay people in the whole damn town. It’s made a real inroads for them. They come and they talk to me about this stuff, so I know how important it is.”

There are some great covers of You Don’t Own Me on Youtube. I like these in particular.