Teen Who Inspired 'It's My Party' Speaks After Lesley Gore's Passing

Following Monday’s sad news about the passing of Lesley Gore, Judy Solash (née Gottlieb)—a woman who, as a teen in 1963, threw a tantrum that inspired her father, a restaurant owning, songwriting hobbyist, to write “It’s My Party”—talked about the party meltdown that led to one of Gore’s biggest radio hits.

In real life, the cause of Solash’s sweet sixteen freakout had nothing to do with a love triangle (and there was no Johnny). What really had her upset was the presence of her grandparents.

Via the New York Daily News:

“My parents insisted that my grandparents had to be invited. I of course, being a bratty teenager, said I didn’t want them there. I burst into tears, and my father said, ‘Don’t cry.’ “

Judy, of course, answered: “It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to.”

Perhaps her father Seymour Gottlieb’s real revenge was naming the song’s antagonist after his own daughter (“Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone/Judy left the same time”), but boatloads of cash heal all wounds. Solash’s momentary brattiness was one of the best things to happen to her family—in that they’re still collecting royalty checks off of “It’s My Party.”