you cry party if you want to all the time

Occasionally records come into the store that demand contemplation... occasionally raising important instances of inter-connectivity we may have originally overlooked.

This is one:



Now some/most of you are probably familiar with the ditty "It's My Party." It was a fairly big hit when this album came out (in 1963). The songs refrain went (appoximately): 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 to if it happened to you. What I didn't realize until I saw the full length was how chock full of crying songs it was:

Side One

1. It's My Party
2. Cry Me a River
3. Cry
4. Just Let Me Cry
5. Cry and You Cry Alone
6. No More Tears

Side Two

1. Judy's Turn to Cry
2. I Understand
3. I Would
4. Misty
5. What Kind of Fool Am I
6. The Party's Over

This was a seventeen year old in need of mood stabilizing drugs!!!

After the initial belly-filling chuckles wore off I started examining this album in connection with another more recent one-track-minded artist's statement:


Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet (Island 2002)

1. It's Time to Party
2. Party Hard
3. Girls Own Love
4. Ready to Die
5. Take it Off
6. I Love NYC
7. She is Beautiful
8. Party 'Til You Puke
9. Fun Night
10. Got to Do it
11. I Get Wet
12. Don't Stop Living in the Red

At the time folks made a big deal over his preoccupation with partying, which appears in the titles of 3 of the 12 songs. But compared to Miss Gore's singleminded weepiness his focus is kaleidoscopic. Still the similarities are difficult to ignore. Especially given their common bond of "The Party."

So what I propose is a party summit... between the now "amazing 61 year old Lesley Gore" and "unremarkably 28 year old Andrew W.K."



It will, unavoidably, be titled: "It's My Party and I'll Puke if I Want to."