# You Don't Own Me
**"You Don't Own Me"** is a pop song written by John Madara and David White and recorded in 1963 by the American singer [Lesley Gore](https://www.edgepedia.org/lesley-gore) (born 1946), whose version became a number two hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1964 and is widely regarded as one of the first feminist anthems in mainstream pop music[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130). Produced by [Quincy Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/quincy-jones), the record pairs a defiant first-person lyric, "You don't own me / I'm not just one of your many toys," with a dark minor-key verse that lifts into a major-key chorus[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/). Gore was 17 when she recorded it[3](https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-lesley-gores-feminist-civil-rights-anthem-you-dont-own-me/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Writers | John Madara and David White, two songwriters from Philadelphia[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130) |
| Original recording | Lesley Gore, Mercury 72206 (released December 1963), produced by Quincy Jones[4](https://www.lesleygorefanclub.com/discography2.html) |
| Chart peak | No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1964, held off No. 1 by the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand"[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130) |
| First chart appearance | December 28, 1963 on the US Billboard chart[5](https://www.nowmusicwiki.com/index.php/Lesley_Gore_-_You_Don%27t_Own_Me) |
| Musical form | Minor-key verses shifting to a major-key chorus, in 3/4 time[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/) |
| Later hits | The Blow Monkeys' 1987 version for *Dirty Dancing*; SAYGRACE's 2015 cover featuring G-Eazy from the *Suicide Squad* soundtrack[6](https://www.whosampled.com/The-Blow-Monkeys/You-Don%27t-Own-Me/) • [7](https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/2023-03-28/from-you-dont-own-me-to-survivor-a-history-of-anthems-that-empower-women/) |
| Cover count | About 80 registered covers listed in one licensing database[8](https://www.easysong.com/search/songs/song-copyright-holder-information.aspx?s=29371) |
## Writing the song
Madara and White set out, in Madara's words, to write a song "about a woman telling a guy off": "We always hear about guys saying things about girls, and girls pleading their cases. How about a song about a girl coming from her point of view?"[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/) The pair were frustrated by how much music written for female singers in the early 1960s centered on mooning over men[9](https://www.ourboox.com/b/1087295/you-dont-own-me/). They initially composed it with the Philadelphia singer Maureen Gray in mind; Gray later described it as a "sideways" variation on [Dionne Warwick](https://www.edgepedia.org/dionne-warwick)'s "Don't Make Me Over," another declaration of self-worth. The songwriters never recorded it with Gray, and instead played it for Quincy Jones, who urged them to take it to Lesley Gore[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/). A 1996 Los Angeles Times profile states the song was first recorded by Maureen Gray[10](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-19-ca-58119-story.html).
At a record company retreat in the Catskills, the two songwriters approached Gore at poolside and sang the song to her, one of them playing a baritone ukulele; they then performed it again on piano inside the resort. Gore was eager to record it, and White and Madara were invited to the New York studio session[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/). Madara, who grew up in Philadelphia during the civil rights movement, later framed the song's message as reaching beyond feminism toward a broader theme of empathy and being treated as a full person[3](https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-lesley-gores-feminist-civil-rights-anthem-you-dont-own-me/). Gore herself described it that way: "When I heard that song at the age of 17, it felt like a humanist song to me. I could see a guy singing that to a young woman as easily as I could see a young woman singing it to her boyfriend or her father."[11](https://time.com/3711333/lesley-gore-best-songs/)
## The recording
SecondHandSongs dates the first recording of the song by Gore to September 21, 1963, with a release on her November 1963 album *Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts*; the single, backed with "Run Bobby, Run," followed on Mercury in December[12](https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/2819) • [4](https://www.lesleygorefanclub.com/discography2.html).
**The arrangement.** Jones produced, employing the arranger Claus Ogerman for the strings[13](https://time.com/3711716/lesley-gore-remembrance-obit/). Performed over an ominous minor-key arrangement in 3/4 time, the verse almost whispers its opening lines; the chorus then shifts abruptly to an exultant major key[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/). AllMusic's review calls out the descending, quasi-classical piano introduction as among the most ominous openings any pop hit has had, and describes the melodramatically orchestrated Jones production as adventurous for a big hit single[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130).
## Chart success and immediate aftermath
The single first appeared on the Billboard chart on December 28, 1963[5](https://www.nowmusicwiki.com/index.php/Lesley_Gore_-_You_Don%27t_Own_Me) and rose to No. 2 in early 1964, behind the Beatles' first American chart-topper, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130). Aside from "It's My Party," it was Gore's biggest single[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130), and her fourth consecutive hit in four months after her 1963 debut[14](https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lesley-gore-20150217-story.html). She never returned to the top 10 after it; the peak became, in one retrospective, a marker of the passing of her teen-pop moment[13](https://time.com/3711716/lesley-gore-remembrance-obit/).
The song also reshaped how her other records were read.
## Meaning and reception
The song's lyric is a direct assertion of autonomy: the singer refuses to be told what to do or say, refuses to be put on display, and declares herself free to live her life as she pleases[1](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130). It appeared at a moment when almost every song written for female voices was lyrically subservient, and when female pop singers had rarely been so bold about declaring independence[2](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/). NPR's American Anthem series devoted an episode to the song, calling it a feminist anthem with civil rights roots that is "all about empathy"[15](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/93bd2e79-b478-420a-951c-5bf3a7c93a9d/download).
The anthem's audience broadened beyond feminism. Between its release and the 1980s it became a standard among gay listeners as well, and its use as a cultural weapon of self-defense made it available for borrowing by performers of many kinds[16](https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/you-dont-own-me).
## Covers and later life
The song has been covered repeatedly across six decades. [Dusty Springfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/dusty-springfield) recorded it in 1964 for the album *A Girl Called Dusty*[17](https://www.whosampled.com/sample/69707/3-Amigos-Sadat-X-You-Don%27t-Own-Me-Dusty-Springfield-You-Don%27t-Own-Me/). [Klaus Nomi](https://www.edgepedia.org/klaus-nomi) recorded a version in 1981[16](https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/you-dont-own-me), and NPR music critic Ann Powers dates the song's growing anthem status in her own youth to [Joan Jett](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-jett)'s early 1980s cover[7](https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/2023-03-28/from-you-dont-own-me-to-survivor-a-history-of-anthems-that-empower-women/). The Blow Monkeys covered it for the 1987 film *Dirty Dancing*, produced by Peter Wilson and released on RCA[6](https://www.whosampled.com/The-Blow-Monkeys/You-Don%27t-Own-Me/). In 1996, Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hawn sang it in *The First Wives Club* as a celebration of their characters' divorces[7](https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/2023-03-28/from-you-dont-own-me-to-survivor-a-history-of-anthems-that-empower-women/).
In 2015 the Australian singer SAYGRACE, with G-Eazy, took the song back up the charts for the *Suicide Squad* soundtrack, repeating the phrase "you don't own me" while G-Eazy's verse ties independence to economic self-sufficiency[7](https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/2023-03-28/from-you-dont-own-me-to-survivor-a-history-of-anthems-that-empower-women/) • [18](https://engl3880ggc.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/you-dont-own-me-comparative-review/). In 2005, after coming out as a lesbian, she rerecorded it in what Powers calls a torchy version[7](https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/2023-03-28/from-you-dont-own-me-to-survivor-a-history-of-anthems-that-empower-women/). Gore died of lung cancer in 2015 at 68[14](https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lesley-gore-20150217-story.html); David White died in 2019[3](https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-lesley-gores-feminist-civil-rights-anthem-you-dont-own-me/). A licensing database lists roughly 80 covers of the song in total[8](https://www.easysong.com/search/songs/song-copyright-holder-information.aspx?s=29371).
## References
1. [You Don't Own Me – Lesley Gore, song review by Richie Unterberger, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/song/you-dont-own-me-mt0010652130)
2. [How 1960s Pop Songs Helped Young Women Find Their Own Voices in a Time of Social Change, TIME](https://time.com/5482790/teen-pop-song-feminism/)
3. [Behind the Song Lyrics: Lesley Gore's Feminist, Civil Rights Anthem "You Don't Own Me", American Songwriter](https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-lesley-gores-feminist-civil-rights-anthem-you-dont-own-me/)
4. [Lesley Gore Discography, Lesley Gore International Fan Club](https://www.lesleygorefanclub.com/discography2.html)
5. [Lesley Gore – You Don't Own Me, Now That's What I Call Music Wiki](https://www.nowmusicwiki.com/index.php/Lesley_Gore_-_You_Don%27t_Own_Me)
6. [You Don't Own Me by The Blow Monkeys, WhoSampled](https://www.whosampled.com/The-Blow-Monkeys/You-Don%27t-Own-Me/)
7. [From 'You Don't Own Me' to 'Survivor': A history of anthems that empower women, VPM/NPR](https://www.vpm.org/npr-news/2023-03-28/from-you-dont-own-me-to-survivor-a-history-of-anthems-that-empower-women/)
8. ["You Don't Own Me" song copyright information, Easy Song](https://www.easysong.com/search/songs/song-copyright-holder-information.aspx?s=29371)
9. [You Don't Own Me, Ourboox](https://www.ourboox.com/b/1087295/you-dont-own-me/)
10. [A Product of His 'Own' Creation, Los Angeles Times (1996)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-10-19-ca-58119-story.html)
11. ['It's My Party' Singer Lesley Gore Dies at 68, TIME](https://time.com/3711333/lesley-gore-best-songs/)
12. [You Don't Own Me by Lesley Gore, SecondHandSongs](https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/2819)
13. [Remembering Lesley Gore, a '60s Queen of Teen Angst, TIME](https://time.com/3711716/lesley-gore-remembrance-obit/)
14. [Lesley Gore dies at 68, Los Angeles Times obituary (2015)](https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lesley-gore-20150217-story.html)
15. [Painting towards a new feminine noise, Massey University thesis (citing NPR's American Anthem)](https://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstreams/93bd2e79-b478-420a-951c-5bf3a7c93a9d/download)
16. [You Don't Own Me, Libertarianism.org](https://www.libertarianism.org/publications/essays/you-dont-own-me)
17. [Dusty Springfield's You Don't Own Me sampling record, WhoSampled](https://www.whosampled.com/sample/69707/3-Amigos-Sadat-X-You-Don%27t-Own-Me-Dusty-Springfield-You-Don%27t-Own-Me/)
18. ["You Don't Own Me" Comparative Review, Georgia Gwinnett College](https://engl3880ggc.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/you-dont-own-me-comparative-review/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Compositions and songs › Standard and pre-rock popular songs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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