You Don't Own Me: The Life and Times of Lesley Gore

by Trevor Tolliver

1963 – tail fins were in, sock hops were hot, and a fairytale white knight was president., That summer, sixteen year-old singer Lesley Gore released her debut single, “It's My Party ” propelling her to Number One on the charts., For the next several years, the crowned Princess of Pop dominated the radio with a string of hits including “Judy's Turn to Cry ” “She's A Fool ” “Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows ” and the rousing anthem for independence, “You Don't Own Me ” making her the most successful and influential solo female artist of the 60s., But beneath the bubblegum façade was a girl squirming against social and professional pressures to simply be herself and to forge a future where she could write and perform music beyond the trappings of teenage angst and love triangles., Assembled over five years of research and interviews, this is the first and long overdue biography of Lesley Gore, one of pop music's pioneering Mothers, which chronicles her meteoric rise to fame, her devastating fall from popularity and struggle for relevance in the 1970s, and her reemergence as a powerful songwriter, political activist, and camp icon., The biography includes behind-the-scenes stories about the making of her hit records, debunks or clarifies popular myths about her career, and places her remarkable life and times within a historical context to reveal how her music was both impacted by, and contributed to, each decade of her astounding fifty-year career.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2015

Reviews

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would have been better as an autobiography but Lesley did not write an autobio so this is as good as it gets. It would have been interesting to hear Lesley's inner thoughts of being a lesbian in an age where it wasn't very acceptable, especially if you were in the entertainment business. There are no personal interviews even with Lesley's family and friends, so the book is written more as a fan than as someone who knew her personally. Because of this the book spends more time going through her music and other professional accomplishments one by one and too much detail. If you are a fan you might like this as there are not a lot of bios out there but otherwise I would skip it. I dare you to read this without getting It's My Party and You Don't Own me stuck in your head.

[Tarregafan · Rating 4 out of 5]

You Don't Own Me: The Life and Times of Lesley Gore, by Trevor Tolliver, is slightly fannish in the beginning, but nobody but a true fan of Lesley Gore would write such a complete biography that also contained so much detail about the individual songs she recorded.

One thing that surprised me was that Lesley Gore's innocent lyrics were criticized by some religious organizations for the romantic preoccupations of the “Dumb Sound.” In Tolliver's analysis, recordings supervised by Quincy Jones and other well-known producers were anything but simplistic.

The career that everybody remembers Lesley Gore having wasn't all that long. After a decade, she was working on comebacks.

According to Tolliver, many of the songs on Gore's later albums, such as Love Me by Name, are near-masterpieces, but then you have to explain why these more personal recordings didn't sell. In this case, Tolliver points to Quincy Jones's “grandiose” production and overly dense instrumentals. But that big sound is what made Lesley Gore a star.

Compared to a lot of musicians who became popular suddenly, Lesley Gore had a long and successful career. She and her brother Michael (a film composer) worked on the hit show Fame, and Gore performed on stage throughout her career. As one of her producers said, there was a time when the only act with more hits on the charts than Lesley Gore was the Beatles.

Maybe her fans still wanted to feel the teenage heartache that Lesley Gore communicated in her songs, because then they wouldn't have to face grown-up problems yet—at least not for two and a half minutes.

(Thanks to Edelweiss and Backstreet Books for a digital review copy.)

[Storm Surger · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been a Lesley Gore fan since 1963. I mean fan club, purchased every available release from It's My Party to Pull Your Pants Up and was glad to see this finally happening. If you're a fan this book is not for you. It's mostly a rehash of decades old interviews by other writers, analysis of the song lyrics and an overall lack of appreciation for Lesley's hits and her fans. While he did interview Lesley's mother it's just poorly focused. I wanted to know about her life from day one to the end. There are dozens of good stories I've heard over the years about her hit years and those are all missing. Tolliver wasn't born until 1970 so he has no clue what life was like when she hit in 1963. There are several factual errors in the prologue that made me worry. By the time I finished I was totally deflated. He would have you believing she hated the hits and she started the feminist movement with You Don't Own Me which, according to Lesley, was never about any cause when that was recorded and released. That all came many years later. Her life didn't revolve around her sexuality but Tolliver made it seem so. Frankly, the fact she was a lesbian never mattered to me as a fan. I saw her (and worked with her) many times over the years and he completely missed the essence of her life.

My advice, don't waste your money. Lesley was working on an autobiography at the time of her death. I'd love to see that completed by someone who knows how to write a biography that captures the spirit of the subject. Until then, keep waiting. This isn't the book you want.

[Marcea · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. The writing wasn’t good, there was no depth and the author let his fandom show through which was annoying. 99% of the photos were stock images and none from her early childhood. Also all of the quotes that were noted with “as told to this author” were unnecessary and a sign of bad writing skills. Hopefully one day someone else writes about Lesley Gore’s life and gets it right.

[Kelly Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book because it gave the whole story of Lesley Gore's success and life, but I found the book to musical. It was inundated with music information from top hits of the year to other linking relationships of songs that came out because of Gore or another hit maker. While it was interesting to see how many people reacted and were moved by the songs it was hard for someone who did not grow up in that era, I had to research some of the people just to get a handle of the references. Overall a definitely good read for music enthusiasts.

3 stars out of 5. Thanks Edelweiss.

[Trailhoundz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad biography by any means, but many parts read as a long, detailed discography more than anything else. By the author's own admission, Gore was very private so there isn't much outside her music and public persona to talk about. I would have liked to know more about her struggles as an LGTQ during the '60s and '70's, relationship with her long-time partner (supposedly tumultuous) etc. Oh well. it was a great read and inspired me to re-listen to a few of her hits on YouTube. Nice photo insert.

[Cloudy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite by accident I found myself specialising in queer women's biography in my academic career and found this one in the database. I'm a big fan so I gave it a read. On paper it isn't bad, it's a blow by blow of Lesley Gore's career but I don't know... it lacks soul. And I have a slight irritation about something which is a continuing theme in biographies of lesbian women, there was barely any information about her partner. Yes I know there was more to Lesley's life than being gay but there's only a few paragraphs dedicated to her relationship with her partner of 33 years... Lou Christie got more information here than Lois which is sad. I know they were private people but come on...

The author gains a star though for being a huge fan of Lesley's album Someplace Else Now which is absolutely her best album and totally underrated.

[J. Stevulak · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Review by Jim Allio)
In this first published biography of Lesley Gore - written with the approval of Gore and enhanced by interviews with collaborators, coworkers, friends as well as Lesley's mother - new author Trevor Tolliver took on the daunting task of detailing a 50 year musical career and a famously private life of the enduring pop star. That he succeeded in no small measure is due to his enthusiasm and passion for Gore and her music, and for the surprises he uncovered along the way. Who knew, for example, that she disliked "She's A Fool" (one of her biggest and best constructed 60s hits) from the day she recorded it ? Not this reader! Tolliver lovingly details her early childhood and precocious musical abilities and then, once Quincy Jones and Mercury Records appear, the years of 60s hits are covered thoroughly and in rapid-fire fashion much as it must have felt to be in the center of that particular pop culture storm at the time. His coverage of songs and appearances draw on a wide variety of sources, and he surmises what particular songs may have meant to the reluctant rock star. Thoroughly engaging are the chapters on Gore's comeback tries where his love for and awe of her 1972 "Someplace Else Now" and 2005 "Ever Since" projects are apparent and infectious. More than once I was brought to tears, reading this ambitious history of a 50 year career of this most individual 60s pop star who chose college over career at the peak of her fame. "You Don't Own Me" indeed! And the photos are gorgeous to boot. Excellent work.

[Guy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tolliver's writing is a little gushy, but the sentences flow well, and this was easy to read quickly. Not much substance beyond the kind of details you'd find in fan magazines and discographies, but the author doesn't claim to be writing the definitive biography; only an introduction.

One thing that stood out for me is a passage where Tolliver claims Gore's mother worried in February of 1963 about Lesley's safety because of the recent deaths of Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, but only Holly was dead at the time. Cline passed in March of '63 and Reeves in August of '64.

The unreleased/lost section of the discography included is also missing recordings one can find on YouTube. Tolliver mentions Gore was writing her own memoirs, and I think with such a complex entertainer who lived through bouffants, Beatles and beyond, the personal development and perspective would be a satisfying read.

[Sherrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a big fan of the late Lesley Gore, I was excited to stumble across this book at the library. After reading it, not so much. Equal parts gushing fanboy adulation and incredibly (read: numbingly) detailed descriptions of each song Gore ever recorded, the book manages to omit almost any part of Gore's personal life that wasn't common knowledge in favor of bemoaning endless songs that were not commercially successful. I give it two stars only because it made me start singing her much-loved music again.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for any die hard or casual Lesley fan.

[Dominique King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd always liked Lesley Gore's music, but I didn't know too much about her life and career after sometime around the period of the time around "California Nights". This book was a real revelation in some ways because, even as I had some dim memories of hearing of her connections to later projects, I just didn't know very much at all until hearing of her unexpected passing in 2015 (I had been pretty much immersed with care giving to someone with lung cancer at the time...and several subsequent family deaths...so I just haven't been able to catch up with the story of the most recent part of her life until reading this book.
The author does a nice and respectful job of detailing the frustrations of the post 1960s career, and I'm glad he did this book to give her some post-death appreciation and recognition.
Gore's story certainly belies her 1960s image as a shiny and perfect teenager. The singer and artist here is revealed as a complex woman with talents that were sadly really unheralded during her lifetime, although I think she will be long remembered by many of us. This book makes me want to check out some of her later work...off to check out YouTube now :)

[Anna]

I must admit, going into this book, I was hoping to learn more about Lesley’s contributions to the gay liberation and women’s movements, and there was some of that, but mostly this book was just a play by play of her career. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad book, just that it wasn’t what I was hoping to read. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the writing. The author admits in the prologue that he is a huge Lesley Gore fan and that comes through in the writing, which could have been cool if he included himself more in the book, but this was written in such a way to avoid any mention of the narrator, so it’s strange to be able to read the narrator’s emotion. Tbh I probably would have DNFed this book but I bought it cause I couldn’t find it anywhere else and I didn’t want to feel like I had wasted my money. I don’t regret finishing it, I found the last few chapters the most interesting, but overall the book was just eh.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, I love her hit songs and a lot of great music came out of Lesley's career. A very shallow book with very little actually about her life. Take out the dissections and descriptions of just about every song she ever made and what hits they were similar to when they didn't chart well, and you have a book about 45/50 pages long. So very disappointing that there is hardly anything about her life. Terrible biography. One of the most annoying things were all the "as told to this author", "as recalled to this author", "told to this author" statements. I think he was trying to make up for the fact that he really wrote almost nothing new in this book about Lesley or her career. He's just an obsessed fan sugar coating everything. Don't buy it.

[Natalie Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I have recently discovered and fallen in love with Lesley Gore's music, I found this so interesting to read and really enjoyed learning more about her life and career. I particularly appreciated the anecdotes about the origins of some of her songs and loved getting to know more about her story.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick but informative read about Lesley Gore and her music. It sent me to You Tube to check out her obscure songs and she made a lot of excellent music.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

#42 of 120 books pledged to read during 2023

[LeAnn L Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good biography about Lesley Gore. I was a fan of hers in the 60’s.

[Joanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really liked Leslie Gore and was looking forward to reading this, but it was poorly written... Don’t waste your money!