"She's a Fool" | ||||
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Single by Lesley Gore | ||||
from the album Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts | ||||
B-side | "The Old Crowd" | |||
Released | September 1963 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Recorded | 1963 | |||
Label | Mercury | |||
Songwriter(s) |
Mark Barkan Ben Raleigh |
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Producer(s) | Quincy Jones | |||
Lesley Gore singles chronology | ||||
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"She's a Fool" is a song written by Mark Barkan and Ben Raleigh that was originally recorded by Lesley Gore in 1963. The song appeared as a single and on the album Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts. The song was produced by Quincy Jones. The single reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #26 on Billboard's R&B singles chart. It was Gore's second straight single to reach #5, following "Judy's Turn to Cry." It was also her third of four consecutive singles to reach the Top 5 to start her career, "It's My Party" reaching #1 before "Judy's Turn to Cry" and "You Don't Own Me" following "She's a Fool" and going to #2.
The lyrics of "She's a Fool" tell of a romantic triangle. The singer is upset that the boy she likes is being treated poorly by his current girlfriend.Allmusic critic Richie Unterberger believes that the success of this song was crucial to Gore's career because it was dissimilar lyrically and musically from the two singles with crying themes that preceded it, and thus she was able to avoid being typecast. Unterbeger praises the song as "a good girl-group single," and remarks on the song's "light jazzy swing" and catchy melody. The production incorporates handclaps, tympani, Piano, drums, strings, and female backup singers, as well as what Unterberger describes as "low, grumbled responsive male vocals that followed Gore's declaration of "she's a fool, with the repeated words: "RACK A DO"." The music moves to a higher key by half a step, From B Flat to B for the final verse, as well as again, from B to C, in the final repeat of the Chorus,, Gore sings a wordless counterpoint melody, before the song's fade. in common with many rock songs from the 1960s.