I absolutely love being a musician! ❤ I love performing the songs I write and the songs others have written and having a connection with others! ❤
A song that someone has recently requested that I learn is Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me.” This is such a fantastic song! ❤
The first time that I remember hearing this song was actually in The First Wives Club.
This is such a great scene! 😀
When I watch Lesley Gore perform the song, I get goosebumps.
It’s such a powerful performance! ❤
Lyrics:
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 boysAnd 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 ’causeYou 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 stayI 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 youI’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 displayI 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 youI’m young and I love to be young
I’m free and I love to be free
I was so surprised to learn this because “It’s My Party” and “You Don’t Own Me” are VERY different songs. However, I learned that Lesley Gore wanted to challenge herself and sing something different than the songs she had been known for, like “It’s My Party.”
I was also surprised to learn that “You Don’t Own Me” wasn’t written by Leslie Gore! 😮 Leslie Gore did such a great job singing the song as if it were her own. ❤ It was actually written by John Madara and David White.
According to NPR, John Madara shared that they wrote the song because ” [they] were disgusted by how much music written for female singers in the early 1960s centered on mooning over guys and decided to try something: ‘Let’s write a song about a woman telling a guy off.'” 😮 I found it to be very powerful that this was one of the reasons they wrote the song.
What I was most surprised about and moved by in NPR’s story was when NPR shared that “the song’s sensibility was also shaped by [Madara’s] upbringing in a multiracial Philadelphia neighborhood and his participation in the civil rights movement.” How powerful! ❤ Knowing this makes the listening experience quite different!
I hope you learned some new things about “You Don’t Own Me.” I look forward to learning this powerful song and performing it in the future!
I’d like to close with Lesley Gore’s 2005 remake of the song. It’s quite moving! ❤
Allison Merten 