Lesley Gore, who died of lung cancer on Monday at the age of 68, is often cited as a proto-feminist pop music heroine, mostly on the strength of her hit "You Don't Own Me," which reached #2 on the charts in 1964 when she was just 17. (Dan Grossi/AP) 
 
 It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to 
 
 Cry if I want to, cry if I want to 
 
 You would cry too if it happened to you 
 
 Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone 
 
 Judy left the same time 
 
 Why was he holding her hand 
 
 When he’s supposed to be mine? Its status has grown in the five decades since it was originally recorded and was only prevented from reaching the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 by The Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand." She's survived by Lois Sasson, her jewelry designer partner of over 30 years. “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 father.” 
 
 Record executive Blake Morgan helped her produce her new album.
– Headlines with singer Lesley Gore's obituary most often link her to the huge 1963 hit "It's My Party." But it's another song of hers from that same year, "You Don't Own Me," that matters far more, writes Amanda Marcotte at Slate. "It's My Party" was a typical entry in the teen-heartbreak genre, but the defiant "You Don't Own Me" was ahead of its time, portraying "a narrator standing up to her controlling, possessive boyfriend." A few years later, songs such as Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walking" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" followed the same path as feminism became popular, writes Marcotte. The song "is a self-empowerment anthem recorded at a time when the roles women were expected to play in pop were more commonly submissive and adoring, as typified by hits like 'He's So Fine' by the Chiffons," writes Dan DeLuca at the Philadelphia Inquirer. No wonder the song has been covered so much over the decades, including a version by the cast in the movie First Wives Club. The song seemed to take on more importance to Gore herself over the years; she never went out of her way to hide her homosexuality in an era when it wasn't as accepted. "It seemed the song had become her personal mantra," writes Lindsey Bever at the Washington Post.