You Don't Own Me

by

Lesley Gore

Album: Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts     Released: 1963

US Chart: 2     

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Along with Betty Friedan's book The Feminine Mystique (which was published shortly before this song's release), this song can be considered one of the many artistic works that helped begin the Women's Liberation Movement, despite the fact that the movement did not really take off until a decade later. This song is one of the very first in which a woman demands her independence from her man.

This was Gore's last US Top 10 hit. It was written by the Philadelphia songwriters John Madara and David White, whose hits include "1-2-3" and "At The Hop." Madara said of the song in the Forgotten Hits newsletter: "Our original intent was to write a song with a woman telling a man off: 'Don't tell me what to do, don't tell me what to say.' Though we didn't realize it at the time that it would become a woman's anthem, it definitely was our intention to have a woman make a statement."

This was written for a singer named Maureen Gray, but when Quincy Jones (who was Lesley Gore's producer) heard the song, he had the songwriters Madara and White play it for Gore. In the boxed set of her Mercury Records recordings, Gore explained: "I met John Madara and Dave White up at the Catskills (New York) hotel Grossinger's. I was up there doing a record hop, gratis, for a disc jockey by the name of Gene Kay at WAAB in Allentown. I was sitting at the pool on, I think it was Saturday - the day I was going to perform - and John and Dave came up to me with a guitar, took me into a cabana by the pool, and played me 'You Don't Own Me.' I told them they had to meet me in New York on Monday, to see Quincy and play him the song, and we were in the studio probably a week and a half later. It is much to Quincy's credit that he could see what was really involved in that song, because his edict, as far as I know, was to keep me in 'It's My Party' territory - keep it light, keep it frothy, keep it young. You can't hold back a seventeen-year-old woman... she has got to find a way to spread her wings - and this was a song that allowed me a little bit more freedom vocally. The beauty of that song is that the verses start in a minor key, and then, when you go into the chorus, it goes into the major, and there's such a sense of lift and exhilaration. After seeing how powerful that is, it became a method I've used on a number of occasions."

Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, and Bette Midler sang this together in the 1996 film The First Wives Club. The song also appeared in the movies Dirty Dancing and Hairspray. (thanks, Jerro - New Alexandria, PA)

Joan Jett recorded a popular version for her 1981 album Bad Reputation. Jett certainly had the credentials to record this rebellious anthem - she was part of the all-female Punk Rock group The Runaways before moving on to solo success. Other artists to record this song include The Blow Monkeys (who recorded the version used in Dirty Dancing), Percy Faith, Bette Midler and Dusty Springfield.

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Comments:

I grew up listening to WAEB (not WAAB) in Allentown, PA...remember Gene Kaye and the dances he would show up at in the sixties. Joan, Lima,OH
- Joan Cole , Lima, OH

Very feminist indeed!!!
- Farrah , Elon, NC

Heh, Fyodor from Denver, maybe visa-versa: the Beatles' "You Can't Do That!" as a response to Leslie Gore's "You Don't Own Me!". I don't know, though. I do know, however, that the tension in those two couples - or same couple, whatever it is - is quite extreme. A coming breakup? Probably.
- andrew , birmingham, United States

This is a striking contrast to the "meek little girl trying to accept her man even though he is a jerk" mentality of "It's my Party" and "Judy's Turn to Cry". Leslie also recorded "That's the Boys Are", again defending macho idiocy. This may be to first "feminist" rock hit. And a damn good song it is!
- Jerry , Brooklyn, NY

Funny, I was just reading up on The Beatles' "You Can't Do That," and this would have worked perfectly as an answer song, although it couldn't have cause it came first! Ah, the war between the sexes...
- fyodor , Denver, CO

The Klaus Nomi version has been used on Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
- Billy , Atlanta, GA

also a family group by the name of the Ormsby Brothers covered it , here in Australia, think it got to number 1 ..good version
- pete , nowra, Australia

There was a cover version of this song by a very strange German fellow named Klaus Nomi. It has to be heard to be disbelieved.
- Frank , Westminster, SC

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