Cindy Ord/Getty ImagesLesley Gore, best known for the '60s hits "It's My Party" and "You Don't Own Me," has died at age 68.
The singer passed away in a hospital in New York after a battle with cancer, according to her partner, Lois Sasson, Fox News, The New York Daily News and other outlets reported on Monday. Gore is also survived by her mother and brother.
Gore, a New York native who grew up in New Jersey, was 16 years old and a high school junior when she released her now-popular cover of "It's My Party" in 1963. The teen angst anthem, produced by Quincy Jones, has been featured in movies such as Problem Child and Mermaids.
Gore's other feminism-themed hit, "You Don't Own Me," was famously covered by Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn in the 1996 film The First Wives Club.
The latter song was also featured in a 2012 PSA about reproductive rights, which ran ahead of the 2012 presidential election and starred Girls star Lena Dunham. Gore made a cameo in the video.
"I recorded 'You Don't Own Me' in 1964," she said. "It's hard for me to believe, but we're still fighting for the same things we were then."
"You Don't Own Me" PSA from You Don't Own Me on Vimeo.
Despite sweeping the charts, Gore put aside her music career temporarily to pursue a college degree. She studied English and American literature at Sarah Lawrence College, which specializes in women's studies, in New York and graduated in 1968.
"I certainly don't regret going to college, even though it meant sidelining my career," she told the United Press International (UPI) news wire in 1969. "To me, as a human being, it was worth it."
After graduating, she continued to live on her own in an apartment in New York.
"I've had enough of roommates in college," she told UPI.
Gore also released songs such as "Judy's Turn to Cry," "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," ''That's the Way Boys Are" and "Sometimes I Wish I Were A Boy." She and her brother Michael co-wrote the tracks "Hot Lunch Jam" and "Out Here on My Own" for the 1980 now-cult film Fame. The latter song was nominated for an Oscar.
She also dabbled in acting, playing Pussycat, Catwoman's sidekick, in two episodes of the live-action series Batman in the 1967 and portrayed Bo Peep in the 1968 TV movie The Pied Piper of Astroworld. In 1999, she also starred in the Broadway musical Smokey Joe's Cafe.
In 2005, Gore released her 11th studio album, Ever Since, which marked her first major record since the 1982 album The Canvas Can Do Miracles.
Gore and her partner have been together for 33 years. The singer came out publicly the early '00s when she hosted an episode of the In the Life LGBT news series on public television.
"I did that really as a result of meeting a lot of young gay people in the Midwest who really had nothing to relate to," she told The New York Times in 2005. "At least I felt this program is presenting them with some options."
She also talked to the newspaper about her views on contemporary music (she praises Eminem but is more of a Norah Jones fan) and her own singing and songwriting career.
"I have to say that when I first started singing, I didn't think it was a very noble profession," she said. "I worked for people like Robert Kennedy and I thought: 'Wow, that's what it's about. That's how you change the world.' And then I watched that disintegrate in front of my eyes, and it was very discouraging."
"But I have found over 43 years that I really rather love what I do," she said. "And it really does keep me in touch with people, in a way that a lot of people don't get a chance to be in touch with people. So I have a newfound love and respect for my career," she said, adding, "If I've learned anything in this business...how stupid would it be not to do 'It's My Party' when people come to hear it?"