Lesley Gore, a major force in pop music of the early and mid-60’s, died on Monday morning at New York-Presbyterian Hospital after battling cancer. She was 68.
Gore was born in New York City but raised in Tenafly, NJ. While a junior at the Dwight School for Girls, Gore’s vocal coach sent off a couple of demos she had recorded to the head of Mercury Records who put her together with the label’s head of A&R, Quincy Jones. Gore and Jones picked out the song It’s My Party from a pile of demos and tried it out in the studio with the result being so good that the label rush released it to the public.
It’s My Party went to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 along with their R&B chart. Gore and Jones quickly followed with a series of songs that could almost be put together as a single story, Judy’s Turn to Cry (1963 / #5 Pop / #10 R&B), She’s a Fool (1963 / #5 Pop / #26 R&B) and You Don’t Own Me (1964 / #2 Pop).
While Gore would not reach the top ten again after the four song run, she still continued to get airplay even as the British took over the charts with That’s the Way Boys Are (1964 / #12), Maybe I Know (1964 / #14), Marvin Hamlish’s first major hit as a songwriter, Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows (1965 / #13) and California Nights (1967 / #16). Quincy Jones produced all of them except for Nights which was handled by Bob Crewe.
Gore branched out a bit during her hitmaking years, appearing twice on Batman as Pussycat, a cohort of Catwoman and on a 1966 episode of The Donna Reed Show.
Amazingly, even while she was the toast of the pop charts, Gore went to school at St. Lawrence College, getting her degree in 1968 in English and American literature.
Leslie continued in the business over the years and, in 1980, was nominated for Best Original Song for Out Here On My Own from the movie Fame which she co-wrote with her brother Michael Gore. She recorded her last album, Ever Since, in 2005.
In 2004, Gore began hosting the PBS show In the Life which concentrated on LGBT issues. A year later, she came out as a lesbian, stating that she had been with her partner, Lois Sasson, for 23 years. Sasson told the Associated Press “She was a wonderful human being — caring, giving, a great feminist, great woman, great human being, great humanitarian.”
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