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The Shangri-Las Reviewed on this page: Leader Of The Pack - '65 - Golden Hits Rock and roll's original bad girls. In 1964, George "Shadow" Morton was trying to break into the music business, and told his friends, Brill Building songwriters Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, that he had a ton of great songs. When they called his bluff, he rounded up four high school students from Queens, New York - sisters Mary and Betty Weiss, and identical twins Margie and Mary Ann Ganser - and had them cut a demo for Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller's Red Bird Records. His first production, "Remember (Walking In The Sand)," was a hit, and the group's next single, "Leader Of The Pack," topped the charts. The secret to Morton's success was the subgenre he created: supercompressed two-minute girl-loses-boy-and-somebody-dies mini-operas, with conversational asides, melodramatic spoken passages, and bizarrely loud sound effects. But perhaps the most amazing part is how musical they are: unforgettable melodies, refreshingly spare arrangements, complete instrumentation shifts between sections ("Remember"'s chorus is nearly acapella, with light touches of piano, handclaps, and lots of seagulls) - surpassing even the best contemporaneous pop acts. Lead singer Mary Weiss's voice is too shrill for the raw emoting she does, but even that only fuels the teens-lost-in-an-adult-world aesthetic. The lyrics are maudlin to the point of being laughable, but in September 1964 trivial lyrics were expected in even the best pop songs - that month the Beatles charted "I Feel Fine" while the Beach Boys hit with "Dance, Dance, Dance" - making "Remember" seem profound by comparison. A few more hits followed in the same style, but Morton soon shifted his focus to Janis Ian and Vanilla Fudge, and the group quickly faded. Other than some unreleased 1977 sessions and a one-off 1989 reunion performance, the group hasn't worked together since breaking up circa 1967, and both Gansers have passed away: Mary Ann from encephalitis in 1970, and Margie from cancer in 1996 - avoid the imposter Shangri-Las currently on the oldies circuit. The group's original LPs are hard to find, but if you find The Complete Collection you're all set: it's got the two pre-Morton sides, the final two non-hit singles, and everything in between. And check out this fan page and Mary Weiss's home page. (DBW) Personnel: Mary Weiss, Betty Weiss, Margie Ganser, Mary Ann Ganser, vocals. Usually only three of them turned up at any one function, with the fourth's absence ascribed to "bad habits." In early 1964, the Shangri-Las cut a two-sided single that wasn't released until after they became successful. Both tunes are standard girl group rockers - the A-side "Wishing Well" isn't half-bad, with a terrific lead vocal from Betty and a rockin' early 60s guitar solo; the flip "Hate To Say I Told You So" is less interesting - and both open with spoken vocals, soon to be a trademark. (DBW) Leader Of The Pack (1965) The first two singles are here, "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)" and the title track, and they're the high point not just of the group's career, but of the girl-group era. On the other hand, Morton has no fresh ideas when it comes to more standard girl-group numbers, and too often he just cranks out pat arrangements with cut-rate sound quality - "Bull Dog" sounds like it was recorded in a junior high cafeteria - and those make up the bulk of the album (the primitive "Give Him A Great Big Kiss," the 12/8 "Maybe"). (He does add some bizarre whooshing in the middle of "Twist And Shout," but it doesn't help.) The second half of the album is cover tunes overdubbed with fake crowd noises - perhaps to excuse the shabbiness of the sound - including an amusing version of the Isley Brothers' "Shout," where Mary sounds like a remarkably self-possessed seven-year-old. Greenwich and Barry have co-writes on "Leader," but most of the original tunes are Morton's. The hits are essential; the album cuts are anything but. (DBW) '65! (1965) More effort but less inspiration went into this followup. All the tunes are originals, and the production's more sophisticated: even the 12/8 ballads "You Cheated, You Lied" and "The Boy" (with trademark spoken middle) have precise rhythm arrangements plus softening touches like organ. "The Dum Dum Ditty" is a careful imitation of Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, with booming drums, hovering strings, and lyrics about a "rebel"; "Right Now And Not Later" similarly copies Motown's vibes, honking sax and eighth-note bass, topping it off with Supremes-style backing "oohs." Greenwich and Barry co-wrote many of the tunes, including the hit single "Give Us Your Blessings," another star-crossed-teen lament that opens with a thunderclap and mournful "run run run" refain, and gets darker from there; the out-of-time gong near the end is one of the most insane things I've ever heard. Also deeply strange is Morton's jazzy "Sophisticated Boom Boom," with the guitar and piano unable to stay in sync, and graced with high-pitched scat howling from Mary. But again, most of the disc is sadly routine ("Heaven Only Knows," standard girl-group pablum), and even some of the sound effects are predictable ("The Train From Kansas City" starts with... a train). The album was later beefed up with the addition of their last Top Ten hit, "I Can Never Go Home Anymore," which features all of Morton's trademarks and a small, well-used string section - it's the most Shangri-Lacious song ever. (DBW) Golden Hits (1966) Released on Mercury after Lieber and Stoller had sold Red Bird, this contains the hits from the previous albums plus two non-LP minor hits: the forced, cheery "Long Live Our Love," and Morton's approach taken to its extreme on "Past, Present And Future" with no singing at all, just heartbroken spoken recitation atop a piano waltz copped from Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." Preposterous yet moving; Pete Townshend called it one of the decade's ten best singles. Unfortunately, the label didn't include the classic A-side "He Cried," with a funereal, thumping bass drum and sorrowful orchestra. The rating reflects only the new material - if this were the group's only album it would rate four stars easy. (DBW) Two final singles missed the charts in 1967 - "The Sweet Sounds Of Summer"/"I'll Never Learn" and "Take The Time"/"Footsteps On The Roof." "Sweet Sounds" has the same cheesy organ and "psychedelic" guitar Morton overused with the Vanilla Fudge, and it didn't work any better for the 'Las; "I'll Never Learn" relies on a small string section, but isn't nearly as artful as "Past, Present And Future." The jingoistic "Take The Time" is pleasant enough, basically a rewrite of "Love You More Than Yesterday"; "Footsteps" is another pale imitation of Motown circa 1965, though it does feature a spoken middle. (DBW) In 1977, the group reformed briefly, playing one show at CBGB's and recording for Sire, but nothing from the sessions was ever released. (DBW) Dangerous Game (Mary Weiss: 2007) Forty years after the last Shangri-Las recording, Mary Weiss recorded her first solo album, backed by the Reigning Sound. (DBW) Look out! Look out! Look out!  Main page   New additions   Pop: 00s  90s 80s 70s 60s 50s  Latin/Jazz   Top 20: DBW JA   E-mail