Search - Lesley Gore :: Golden Hits

One teeny tiny gripe

Dana Ross Martin | Austin, Texas USA | 07/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Don't get me wrong, this is a GREAT compilation of Lesley's stuff, but something bothers me about this particular album (and we see it happening more and more in the music world nowadays).



Whenever an artist's work is released - or, should I say RE-released - there're folks (producers? record companies?) who feel the need to tweak the original music. Add a little something here - delete a little something there.



I first noticed this tactic on some of James Taylor's Greatest Hits many years ago: almost a total remix of the original tunes. UNbelievable! (unless he okayed it, then, well. . James, why WOULD you?).



Such is the case with this album. I knew it immediately when I listened to, "Look of Love" (my favorite Lesley Gore tune). The jingle bells in the background are missing! A little thing, you might say, but Quincy Jones (who produced this) put them in the original version for a reason. (one of those little touches by him that made this song so special for me - that REALLY placed it back in that era of song producing)



Go ahead, listen to the song on this album - then click over and listen to the same cut on the "20th Century Masters" (also avaliable at Amazon).



Yes, the music is great, timeless, worth owning - but to me, it's so annoying when folks mess with the originals. I don't know, sorta like going back and adding a perky banjo track to Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven"."

All the Mercury hits

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 09/17/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Whilst a comprehensive box set exists for Lesley Gore completists, this will probably suffice for the more casual listener if the price is right. Kicking off with the iconic anthem of teen girl angst, It's My Party (And I'll Cry If I Want To), which sounds petulant until you realise it is the end of the world because Johnny has left the party with Judy, and its triumphal and equally unsophisticated sequel, the glorious Judy's Turn To Cry, it contains all of Lesley Gore's 12 Mercury label Top 100 hits from 1963 and 1966 together with three flip sides, two album tracks and one flop. It includes the powerful feminist statement You Don't Own Me, rather ahead of its time in 1963, although she took a backwards step the following year with the resignedly accepting sentiments of That's The Way Boys Are.

Lesley Gore benefited greatly from the production skills of Quincy Jones and Claus Ogerman's arrangements, though What Am I Gonna Do With You, a standout track that wasn't a single, has a typically brilliant Jack Nitzsche arrangement.

As this album first came out on CD in 1987 (expanded from its vinyl original) it suffers slightly from mastering which foreshortens songs by a second or two to mask analogue hiss, although all are taken from original 2,3 and 4 track stereo master tapes (some of which differ slightly from their mono equivalents), and has an ungenerous 43 minutes playing time by today's standards"

The Ultimate 60's Female Pop Vocalist.

WILLIE A YOUNG II | Houston, TX. | 02/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My mother played this album around the house when I was a child and though I have a preference for the original LP, the extras on this deluxe CD are well worth the price of admission. Truth be told, I developed my love of 60's pop from listening to Lesley Gore, thanks Mom! The hits are all here, but album cuts like the insistently hooky "Maybe I Know"(I dare you to play it only once) and the doo-wop flavored "The Look Of Love" are so top-notch, they could have easily been #1 hits as well. There is absolutely no filler to be found here and indeed none in Ms. Gore's entire catalogue. Every song here is catchy as heck, superbly produced (most notably by Quincy Jones on "It's My Party") and sounds as fresh today as it did when this hits package first appeared in 1965. For true classic pop and some of the greatest vocals ever recorded, "Golden Hits..." is a must own. You will NEVER tire of this collection."