Its My Party is a song recorded by multiple artists since the 1960s. In 1963, American singer Lesley Gores version hit #1 on the pop and rhythm and blues charts in the United States. It was the first hit single for producer Quincy Jones;The song lyrically portrays the discomfiture of a teenage girl at her birthday party when her boyfriend Johnny disappears only to surface in the company of Judy, another girl, who is wearing his ring to indicate shes replaced the birthday girl as his love interest. The songs chorus, Its my party, and Ill cry if I want to... You would cry too if it happened to you, became a part of American pop cultural language as a phrase used to describe being utterly humiliated and miserable during an event that is supposed to be a happy occasion. Its My Party is in the key of A major. The songs effectiveness is enhanced by several musical touches producer Quincy Jones incorporated, including Latin-sounding rhythms, double tracked vocals and effective horn parts. Allmusic critic Jason Ankeny wrote of the song Its My Party remains one of the most vivid evocations of adolescent heartbreak ever waxed -- Quincy Jones produced the record, although youd swear it was Aaron Spelling instead. Background Its My Party was written in 1962 by John Gluck, Wally Gold and Herb Weiner who were staff writers employed at the Aaron Schroeder Music firm. The demo for the song was cut by Barbara Jean English, a girl group veteran (the Clickettes, the Fashions) who was then working as both a receptionist at the firm and with Jimmy Radcliffe, serving as its in-house demo singer. Radcliffe produced the demo and according to English tried to persuade Musicor [the label owned by Aaron Schroeder] to release it as a record, or to take me into a master studio and redo it, but they werent interested. The first recording of the song was by Helen Shapiro for her Helen in Nashville album recorded in February 1963 with Shapiros regular producer Norrie Paramor and also Al Kasha. Shapiro would recall: Right from the first time we heard the song on the rough demo back in London, we thought we were going to sock them between the eyes with that one; however Shapiros version was not one of the cuts chosen as an advance single from the album and by the time of the albums release that October the Its My Party track was perceived as a cover of Lesley Gores hit. Lesley Gore recalls that Its My Party was among some two hundred demos producer Quincy Jones brought to review with her in the den of her family home in February 1963. On hearing Its My Party Gore told Jones: Thats not half bad. I like it. Good melody. Lets put it on the maybe pile. The song proved to be the only demo Gore and Jones found agreeable. With Jones producing and Claus Ogerman handling arranging and conducting duties, Gore recorded Its My Party at Bell Sound Studios in Manhattan on 30 March 1963. In March 1963 Phil Spector heard the demo of Its My Party while visiting Aaron Schroeders office. Wally Gold would recall: He [Spector] said, Great, I love it. I’m gonna do it with the Crystals. We [the songs writers] were really excited, because that would ensure that the record was #1! Schroeder apparently only learned of the Lesley Gore recording of Its My Party when Quincy Jones invited him to hear the completed track, which Schroeder found formulaic; believing that Spector would be able to cut a much stronger version of the song with the Crystals and not wanting to lose Spectors goodwill, Schroeder attempted to convince Jones to suppress the track. Schroeder didnt mention Spectors version to Jones but Jones and Spector both happened to attend a concert with Charles Aznavour at Carnegie Hall on the evening of 30 March 1963 and when they met outside it came up in conversation that Spector had recorded a version of Its My Party with the Crystals. Jones skipped the concert instead spending that night—a Saturday—at Bell Sound Studios making a test pressing of the track comprising one hundred copies. Over the next two days Jones mailed these out to radio programmers in key markets across the US. Gore heard her record played on the radio for the first time that Friday; the official release of Its My Party came later in the month with the disc ascending to #1 nationally in four weeks. Jones was abroad at the time of Its My Partys release; on his return he expressed dismay when Aaron Schroeder advised him that the rush release of Its My Party had precluded coining a more pleasant name for the singer than Lesley Gore to which Schroeder replied: Didnt anybody tell you?...Quince, the records number one. Do you really give a damn what her last name is? In 1980, WCBN-FM, the University of Michigan freeform student radio station, played Its My Party for 18 hours straight the day after Ronald Reagan was elected.......Eddie
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 22:28:57 +0000