Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts

Lesley Gore's second album was far better than her crying-concept album debut (I'll Cry If I Want To), and in fact above average for a 1963 pop/rock album, though not excellent. For one thing, the silly notion of building a concept album around self-pitying songs was thrown out. For another, it had three big hits: the excellent girl group smash "She's a Fool," the classic early feminist anthem "You Don't Own Me," and the jovial "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," though the latter song wouldn't make the charts as a single until it was recycled almost a couple of years later. There were a number of other good tunes, though, that remain known almost exclusively to the relatively small band of listeners who have heard material by Gore aside from her big hits. "If That's the Way You Want It" and "Run, Bobby, Run" were both good moody girl group ditties with Quincy Jones' trademark hard-swinging, sophisticated production, both of them bringing out the slight aggressiveness of Gore's persona that made her singing far more attractive. "Hello Young Lover" was a pretty snazzy Paul Anka cover, one that owed as much to blaring jazz-pop as rock. Other songs were more average girl group pop, and Gore indulged her predilections for trying out adult pop ballads with pedestrian results in "Fools Rush In" and "Young and Foolish." All of the best songs, though, are on the two-CD Gore compilation It's My Party: The Mercury Anthology.