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Lesley Gore recorded her iconic hit, “It’s My Party,” when she was only 16. The song, which is about a teenager at her birthday party who catches her boyfriend holding hands with another girl, has catchy lyrics like, “Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone. Judy left the same time. Why was he holding her hand when he’s supposed to be mine?”
The song was produced by Quincy Jones, who also worked with Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra. When speaking of Jones in a 2008 interview with Pop Entertainment, Gore said, “This is a man who had exhaustive talents in the jazz world. He had already arranged for Dinah Washington and Count Basie. He was going to steer me down a road that was a little bit more of what he enjoyed as well. We found a roadway that brought Quincy’s unique talents to the simplification of a pop song. However he got a performance out of me, he did. Three takes later, we were finished.”
“It’s My Party” rose to No. 1 on the Billboard charts 63 years ago, in 1963. Over the course of her career, Gore went on to record 10 more Top 40 hits, including “You Don’t Own Me,” “Judy’s Turn to Cry,” and “She’s a Fool.” Gore also composed songs for Fame, the 1980 film about students attending The High School of Performing Arts.
In addition to creating iconic music, Gore became a prominent figure in the LGBT+ community. She was with her partner, Lois Sasson, for over 30 years, until Gore passed away. In the 2000s, she also hosted several episodes of In the Life, a television show focused on LGBT+ issues.
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“I did officially come out, and that would be on The Life,” she explained. “I only hosted a few of them, but I told them that I would be proud to come out, because the show is such a huge help to so many people in the interior of this country. It felt pretty natural by that time. And I also thought, if somebody has a problem with it, well, too bad.”
Gore passed away in 2015 at the age of 68 after a battle with lung cancer.