Leslie Gore
1963… #2 US Billboard Hot 100 #2 US Cashbox Top 100 #2 New Zealand Charts #4 Australia #5 Canada Top Singles.. This was written for a singer named Maureen Gray, but when Quincy Jones (who was Lesley Gore’s producer) heard the song, he had the songwriters Madara and White play it for Gore. The song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The song remained at number two for three consecutive weeks on February 1, 1964, unable to overcome the Beatles’ hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. It became Gore’s second most successful hit after “It’s My Party”. The song was Gore’s last top-ten single. It was written by the Philadelphia songwriters John Madara and David White, whose hits include “1-2-3” and “At The Hop.” Madara said of the song in the Forgotten Hits newsletter: “Our original intent was to write a song with a woman telling a man off: ‘Don’t tell me what to do, don’t tell me what to say.’ Though we didn’t realize it at the time that it would become a woman’s anthem, it definitely was our intention to have a woman make a statement.”
Credit Classic Hits