Lesley Gore
Boys Boys Boys Mercury 1964
Tracks: 1. That's the Way Boys Are / 2. Boys / 3. It's Gotta Be You / 4. Something Wonderful / 5. You Name It / 6. Danny / 7. I Don't Wanna Be a Loser / 8. That's the Way the Ball Bounces / 9. Leave Me Alone / 10. Don't Call Me / 11. I'll Make It Up to You / 12. I'm Coolin', No Foolin'
Comments:
You might want to call Lesley Gore's third album "Boys Boys Boys" from 1964 a concept album; at least the boys theme seen from a teenager's point of view matches several songs on the album. Lesley Gore was about 18 years old at the time of release, and therefore very much a teenager herself.
The music is often very much contemporary girl group style. Gore has strong and versatile vocals and with a talented producer like Quincy Jones with a good ear for the trends of the time, so it is really very much a question of the quality of the individual songs that decides the overall quality the album.
The songwriter team Mark Barkan and Ben Raleigh are behind the two fine singles "The Way the Boys Are" and "I Don't Wanna Be a Loser". Both fresh pop-songs in girl-group style which became top-twenty hits. By the way Mark Barkan is probably better known for writing the Manfred Mann hit ”Pretty Flamingo”
Other strong pop songs are "You Name it", "That's the Way the Ball Bounces" and not least "I’ll Make it Up to You".
Gore herself begins on this album to contribute to the songwriting with the solid and fresh songs "Leave Me Alone" and "I'm Coolin ', No Foolin'".
As a whole, "Boys Boys Boys" is probably one of Gore's most solid albums with fairly consistent songwriting and without any weak tracks.
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