Lesley Gore – You Don't Own Me
1964 · Directed by Steve Binder
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Best comments
1.“She was only 18...”
More comments
- 2.“I feel like she's TELLING people rather than singing to them.”
- 3.“You can really see how she feels: she starts off a little nervous, then brave, then confident and happy.”
The story
October 1964, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Local high school kids got in free to see a lineup that sounds made up: Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Beach Boys, James Brown and the Rolling Stones. In the middle of that murderers' row stands Lesley Gore, eighteen years old, with one of the longest sets in the whole show – six songs.
This is the one that lasted. Gore recorded You Don't Own Me at seventeen with Quincy Jones producing, and it sat at number two for three weeks in early 1964, stuck behind the Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand. A teenage girl telling a boyfriend, flat out, that she belongs to herself. It read as a statement of independence the day it came out, it has long been called an early feminist anthem, and in 2018 it became a rallying song at the women's marches.
The footage comes from the T.A.M.I. Show, directed by Steve Binder and shot on Electronovision, an early high-definition video system that could be blown up for movie screens. Teri Garr was one of the go-go dancers, and the Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2006. Gore later earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing Out Here on My Own from Fame, and she came out publicly in 2005. She called this one her signature song. She was right.
