A song by American singer-songwriter Lesley Gore, “It’s My Party,” from her 1963 debut studio album “I’ll Cry If I Want To,” went to number 1 in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. Gore was 16 when she recorded this song, which led the media to call her “The Teen Queen.” Gore was driving when she heard the song on the radio for the first time. She had never heard her voice through a car radio before, and initially didn’t recognize it as herself, thinking somebody else had recorded her song,”
“It’s My Party” is about the discomfort a teenage girl feels at her birthday party when her boyfriend Johnny disappears, only to return later in the company of Judy, who is “wearing his ring”, indicating Judy has replaced the birthday girl as Johnny’s love interest.
This week in 1981 a cover version by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin topped the singles chart in the UK.