Why Lesley Gore Mattered
Singer Lesley Gore, who died on Monday at 68, is best remembered for her hit single of 1963, "It's My Party." But don't make the mistake of dismissing her as a one-hit wonder. First, she scored several other top ten hits in the 1960s; true, none hit the heights of that first song, which reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts. Still, Gore did well enough to lip-synch to her single "California Nights" on the Batman TV show in 1967.

And "You Don't Own Me" was an important message to hear in a pop song at a time when feminism was gaining steam but not yet a current in the musical mainstream.

But what makes Lesley Gore important isn't a couple of hit pop tunes from 40 years ago. It's the connections, and unexpected consequences of her songs. "It's My Party" was produced by Quincy Jones. It was in fact his first hit song. I'm not suggesting that we would not know who this hugely influential man is today without her -- he was already a hot topic in the jazz world by then. But his astonishing career in pop music, including the record-breaking albums he made with Michael Jackson, had to begin somewhere -- and it began with the 16-year old high school student who took the name Lesley Gore.

And that song she sang on national television? That was one of several songs she recorded that were written by a young Marvin Hamlisch. Gore, Jones, and Hamlisch began working together in 1963, when she sang and Jones produced a song called "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows."

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