Lesley Gore, coming off five big top ten hits in 1963-64, released "Girl Talk" in 1964. It contained "Maybe I Know" a massive hit that is still remembered to this day. "Look of Love", a Jeff Barry-Ellie Greenwich penned song -- was also included and was a major hit at the end of 1964.
This album has many wonderful and powerful songs. Perhaps the best song on this album is "You've Come Back", an almost flawless rendition of love with Lesley, a teenage girl, singing with such strength and passion that she outdid women three times her age. Van McCoy wrote this beautiful ballad, and it was released as the B-side of "Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows" in the summer of 1965.
"Girl Talk" includes snappy pop songs like "Say Goodbye" and "Live and Learn", and a Gore penned song "I Died Inside". "Movin' Away" was also a catchy song that was hard to get out of your mind.
Girl Talk did not chart as well as it should have, due to the fact that the song was not on the album -- and the public wanted to hear Lesley Gore hits. Much has been made of these Mercury titles. The obvious title of this album should have been MAYBE I KNOW. It also emphasized a failed single, "Hey Now" a noncommercial song that should never have been released as a single. The song does sound better today, and is very likable. But when it was released in 1964, it was immediately recognized as noncommercial and the radio stations would not play it, despite Lesley's previous parade of hits. Mercury desperately tried to turn the tables, releasing the single again, this time emphasizing "It's Gotta Be You" as the A-side, but it was too late, as the radio stations did not look kindly on these kind of tricks. Had "It's Gotta Be You" been released as a regular issue, it would have done well. Despite these problems, the next release, MAYBE I KNOW was impossible to ignore, although it only reached #14 on Billboard, an incredibly low ranking for a song that is still remembered to this day.
However, the song hit the top ten in Cashbox, and was #5 in Phonolog. Dick Clark's American Bandstand had it in the top ten for several weeks. Needless to say it was a giant hit, and deserved a better follow up than it got. Had they held "Wonder Boy" and released next, it would have done wonders for her chart hits. Actually, Mercury had a trove of songs that were commercial they could have released, but whoever was in charge of the release of singles did not do Lesley any favors at many junctures during her career.
Nevertheless, GIRL TALK is an incredibly rich album filled with classic pop songs, many of them written by the songwriting giants of the time: Greenwich and Barry wrote two commercial hits for the album, as did Van McCoy. Lesley herself wrote three.
Much has been made of Lesley's handling of classic pop hits. I think "Something Wonderful" is indeed something wonderful. Growing up with this song was magnificent. I have never heard a better rendition of this song. Lesley recorded this in her very first session with Quincy Jones in May of 1963 -- the same session that produced "It's My Party" and the hit "Danny". "Danny" was the flip side hit of "It's My Party" and went all the way to #1 on its own where I lived. The DJs began playing it, the listeners loved it, and the requests for it pushed it all the way to the #1 position on its own. "It's My Party" was #1 for three weeks, and then "Danny" filled the position for a week. It was a great month for Lesley Gore! There were many more years to come.
Gore's delivery is always superb, and she handles each of the songs with incredible precision and depth of feeling. Lesley Gore's voice has never been equaled in the realm of pop music. Her voice is instantly recognizable and is always on tune, clear, and powerful. Her first hits established her as a early 60s pop girl but if you listen to Gore's delivery, you hear her powerful and strong voice coming out of each groove. This is the teenage girl who had the strength to sing "You Don't Own Me" and later "It's My Body (Not Your Body)".
"No Matter What You Do" was pushed strongly by Billboard and other sources to be a Lesley Gore single because it would establish her as a ROCK star. The blazing electric guitars on the song would knock you out of the water and it would have likely brought Lesley into the forefront of the 1966-68 world. But Mercury wanted to keep her in the girl groove realm and chose pop songs instead. But many people have wondered: what if Billboard was right? Would Lesley have gone on to stronger types of music and had a longer career? Lesley certainly deserved to have more hits and a longer career. Could "No Matter What You Do" introduced her to that world?
Regardless, we have a giant star in the voice of Lesley Gore, and GIRL TALK is one of the best albums of the 1960s. It deserves to be in your collection.