Lesley Gore: “You Don’t Own Me”

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 17-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.

(source: songfacts.com)

You don’t own me
I’m not just one of your many toys
You don’t own me
Don’t say I can’t go with other boys

And don’t tell me what to do
Don’t tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don’t put me on display ’cause

You don’t own me
Don’t try to change me in any way
You don’t own me
Don’t tie me down ’cause I’d never stay

I don’t tell you what to say
I don’t tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you

I’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
To live my life the way I want
To say and do whatever I please

And don’t tell me what to do
Oh, don’t tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don’t put me on display

I don’t tell you what to say
Oh, don’t tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That’s all I ask of you

I’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
To live

Hear more of Lesley’s hits