Apologies for not posting a note of lament and respect yesterday for the late Lesley Gore, and particularly for the ballsy instinct that led to her recording “You Don’t Own Me,” a 1963 chart-climber than came to be regarded as a landmark feminist anthem. Quoting from an app.com piece that popped yesterday: “In an era when being a silent girlfriend to the football captain was a teenager’s dream and the feminist movement was still underground, Gore’s ‘You Don’t Own Me‘ in 1963 became a girl-power statement of confidence, independence, and sexual rebellion.”
“It was probably the first song that talked to guys like that,’ Gore told Newsday in 1994, ‘and the first time girls had this opportunity to go if she’s saying it, maybe it’s OK for me to think this way.'”
“You Don’t Own Me” was actually was written by a couple of guys who were clearly not all that hip and were hardly embracing a storm-the-barricades mindset at the time — the Philadelphia-based John Madara (co-writer of “1-2-3,” “At The Hop”) and David White (“Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay”). They played “You Don’t Own Me” for the 17-year-old Gore, who in turn had them play it for producer Quincy Jones” and yaddah-yaddah.