Evaluating It's My Party

Recently I have been listening a lot to the Lesley Gore hit, It's My Party. I have heard it a hundred times before but I never really paid any attention to the lyrics, except the main chorus, of course.

Well, since I have begun to 'listen' to the actual lyrics, I have become somewhat perplexed and intrigued into the emotional state of this poor girl. On one side, she demonstrates an extraordinary amount of emotional strength when she decides to carry on with her own party, on the other, she displays a tremendous amount of instabilty as she becomes more absorbed with sadness over the loss of 'her man' Johnny to Judy.

"Its my party and I'll cry if want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to. You would cry to if it happened to you."

But on the other side of things her mind is not of the right state of mind. She seems to believe that she was meant to be Johnny's boyfriend or that she is Johnny's boyfriend. It is not quite clear as to what their actual relationship is in the song, but it is clear that she becomes devastated and a bit delusional throughout the progression of her party.

"Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone, but Judy left the same time. Why was he holding her hand, when he's supposed to mine."

Play all my records, keep dancing all night, but leave me alone for awhile. 'Till Johnny's dancing with me, I've got no reason to smile."

Judy and Johnny just walked through the door, like a queen with her king. Oh, what a birthday surprise, Judy's wearing his ring."

There is an enormous sadness to this song, and it seems to be about a girl who celebrated a birthday in order to catch herself a particular man. I give her a lot of credit for carrying on with the show during turbulent times, but it doesn't seem like all of that crying in fron of the other guests will attract Johnny or anyone else for that matter.


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