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Break
out the music and memories….and, ok, the handkerchiefs…because
44 years after her infamous tearful shindig that made her
a household name, Lesley Gore will be at the Suncoast November
17-18 proving that it’s still her party. And, yes, while
she can cry if she wants to, it will be evident that Gore
much prefers to raise the roof and sing all her great hits,
bringing back those fun-filled days of the 60’s when
nose-blowing seemingly went hand-in-hand with celebratory
horn-blowing.
Well,
hey, maybe finally “it’s Judy’s turn to
cry” – whoever Judy might be.
“’It’s
My Party’ came out in 1963 and it brings back a lot
of memories for people,” says Gore, who will be appearing
at the Suncoast with Shirley Alston Reeves of the Shirelles
in “The Legendary Ladies of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
“It reminds you of who your boyfriend or girlfriend
was, who your fourth-grade teacher was, where that zit was
on your face – it all comes back in a tremendous rush.
If you put a gun to my head, I couldn’t tell you how
many times I’ve sung it. But there’s something
about watching the audience’s reaction that makes singing
it fun for me.”
Gore was
only 16 years old and a junior in high school when she cut
the record and it sailed to number one on the music charts.
She subsequently went on to have a dozen major hits between
1963-67, including “It’s Judy’s Turn to
Cry,” “You Don’t Own Me” and “California
Nights.” It was Quincy Jones, back then head of A&R
for Mercury Records, who discovered Gore and became her mentor,
having received some piano/voice demos that she had recorded.
“It’s My Party” also became the first number
one hit that Jones produced.
“Quincy
got a hold of .songs by contacting writers at the Brill Building
or they would contact him,” Gore recalls. “Songwriters
like Neil Sedaka, Carole King and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
would invite us over to their offices and play their songs
live for us. It was a seat-of-the-pants kind of thing –
once you found a song, you recorded it two weeks later.”
“Everyone
on the record was recorded in the studio at the same time;
they didn’t build tracks like they did later on,”
she adds. “There were four tracks done simultaneously
– the lead was on one microphone, the background vocalists
were all on another microphone and there were two hanging
microphones that picked up rhythm and horns. There were many
times that I’d get done recording late at night and,
on my way back to New Jersey from New York, I’d stop
at a local radio station and give them my new release and
they would play it right then and there on the air. I’d
leave the studio with an acetate record that you could play
once or twice and get good sound quality from. Recording was
a new industry back then. It wasn’t old and tired like
it is now. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!”
Even at
her young age, Gore enjoyed her years of fame and being treated
like a queen but admits that it was when it no longer existed
and she had to come back down to earth that it was very difficult.
She reveals that college was her salvation, giving her the
opportunity for more perspective, even though she continued
to perform on weekends. Gore graduated from Sarah Lawrence
with a degree in English and American Literature, with which,
she quips, she could do “pretty much nothing.”
But loving music, and deciding that that was what she wanted
to do with her life, she went out and honed her craft.
“I
learned how to do two shows in a row and how to preserve my
voice when singing 7-8 nights a week,” Gore explains.
“I learned how to put a show together and how to do
arrangements and work with musicians. That also led me to
songwriting and I was nominated for an Oscar for a song ‘Out
Here on My Own’ that I wrote for the movie ‘Fame.’
Gore is
still writing and recording, with her latest CD, “Ever
Since,” containing self-penned tunes, having been released
18 months ago. She is proud of the new album, saying that
it contains songs she will be able to sing 10 years from now
because they can stand on their own.
Still
doing 40-50 dates a year, Gore continues to enjoy performing
in front of a live audience, citing the thrill of that “chemical
combustion,” that perfect triangle between performer,
band and audience. To that avail, she takes good care of herself,
vocalizing and exercising on a treadmill.
“Your
voice is your body,” she proclaims. “Your whole
body has to feel good for you to sing well. It may not be
as demanding as being a fighter but singing takes a lot of
training, saying ‘No,’ eating properly and exercising.”
On the
personal front, Gore is not married and admits to being gay.
She says that she is still striving for happiness, which she
finds elusive, and that she is a political person who is concerned
about the world around her and worries about everything. She
is very involved in feminist politics and is beginning to
write her memoirs.
“My
happiest moments are when I’m on stage,” she admits.
“The feeling, the flow of the music is coming through
me with nothing in the way. It’s like an energy that
passes through me and it is that energy that I do it for.”
It certainly
beats crying.
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ADDITIONAL
ARTICLES
BY
BOBBIE KATZ
HERE |
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Out
Here On Her Own
