Gig #86: Sampler: Shadow Morton & The Shangri-Las (1964 – 1966)

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Past, Present And Future
‘In April 1964, when the members of The Shangri-Las were still minors, their parents signed with Red Bird Records; Mary was 15, Betty was 17, and the Ganser twins 16. Having been hired by record producer George “Shadow” Morton, they had their first success with the summer hit, “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” (U.S. #5, UK #14). Billy Joel, a then-unknown working as a session musician, played on the demo of “Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand)”.[7] The demo was nearly seven minutes long, too long for Top 40 radio. Morton had hired the group to perform on the demo, but Red Bird released a re-recorded version. Morton faded the new version out around 2:16. The recordings for Morton featured lavish production with heavy orchestration and sound effects, and their next and biggest hit, “Leader of the Pack” (U.S. #1, UK #11), climaxes with roaring motorcycles and breaking glass. UK re-issues peaked at #3 in 1972 and #7 in 1976. The song epitomized the “death disc”.’ — collaged

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Leader Of The Pack
‘The streetwise image of The Shangri-Las—initially a promotional device for “Leader of the Pack” — contrasted with other “girl groups” of the 1960s, and they were cited as an influence by 1970s punk rock-era acts such as the New York Dolls and Blondie, who twice covered “Out in the Streets”, and Aerosmith, who covered “Remember (Walking in the Sand)”. The Go-Go’s, since their early punk rock days in Los Angeles clubs, have been performing live “Remember (Walking in the Sand)”. In 1972, “Leader of the Pack” was performed by Bette Midler on her debut album The Divine Miss M. The opening from “Leader of the Pack”—”Is she really going out with him?”—was recycled both as the opening lines of 1976’s “New Rose” by the Damned, the first British punk rock single, and of “Kill” by the parody punk group Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, as well as the title of the 1979 hit song by Joe Jackson.’ — collaged

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I Can Never Go Home Anymore
‘Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain cited The Shangri-Las as an early influence. In 1985, the band’s guitarist William Reid stated: “We all love The Shangri-Las, and one day we’re going to make Shangri-Las records.” Twisted Sister covered, “Leader of the Pack” on their 1985 album, Come Out and Play, that went Gold. The Shangri-Las’ “Past, Present and Future” was covered in 2004 by ex-ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog on her album, My Colouring Book. The Johnny Thunders / Patti Palladin album Copy Cats (1988) features a strong version of “He Cried”. Australian artist Rowland S. Howard recorded “He Cried” as “She Cried”.’ — collaged

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Give Him a Great Big Kiss
‘The line from “Give Him a Great Big Kiss”—”When I say I’m in love, you best believe I’m in love, L-U-V”—was used by the New York Dolls on their 1973 recording “Looking for a Kiss”. It is also used by the English pop trio SOHO in the beginning of their song “Nuthin On My Mind” from their album, Goddess. The New York Dolls’ guitarist Johnny Thunders included a cover of “…Great Big Kiss” on his first solo album So Alone. Ian Svenonius also used the line at the beginning of “Today I Met the Girl I’m Going to Marry” by his band Nation of Ulysses on the album 13-Point Program to Destroy America. More recently, Ryan Adams (and the Cardinals) paid homage to that line in their song “Beautiful Sorta” off the album Cold Roses, but they changed it to “When I say L-U-V, you better believe me L-U-V. Give me a beer!” In 2005, Julian Cope parodied the famous line in “Dying to Meet You” from his album Citizen Cain’d. He’s heard to say “When I say I’m dead you best believe I’m dead, D-E-A-D” during the outro. In an outtake of “Careless” from their album Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, The Replacements opened with the line “When I say I’m in debt, you best believe I’m in debt, D-E-T!”‘ — collaged

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Out In The Streets
‘Atlanta, Georgia band Black Lips called their 2007 album Good Bad Not Evil, after the line in “Give Him a Great Big Kiss”. Sonic Youth referenced the “very, very close” lyric of “Give Him a Great Big Kiss” on the Kim Gordon/Kim Deal duet “Little Trouble Girl” in 1995. Early punk band The Slits also refe
rence the song in “Love Und Romance” on the 1979 album Cut. The Bat for Lashes song “What’s a Girl to Do?” has been widely acknowledged as a Shangri Las pastiche.’ — collaged

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Heaven Only Knows
‘The Shangri-Las appeared as a quartet to promote “Remember” starting with their stint on the 1964 Labor Day Murray The K show in September. Shortly before the Shangri-Las went to the UK for the aforementioned promotional tour in Oct. 1964, Betty Weiss dropped out temporarily, leaving the group as a trio. She still is featured on the recording for “Leader Of The Pack” which was recorded prior to the release of “Remember”. The remaining trio went on to tour the US and also appeared on many TV shows including Hullabaloo, Shindig!, Hollywood A-Go-Go, and Lloyd Thaxton. Many TV clips and photos of the group taken at this time (just Mary Weiss and the twins) circulated at the group’s peak in popularity and beyond, which led many to recall the group being only a trio. Betty then rejoined the group in mid-1965 (her first return appearance with the Shangri-las was listed as a June 1965 Hollywood A-Go-Go Show episode hosted by Cousin Brucie in NYC), and the group appeared as a quartet once again until the start of 1966 when they permanently became a trio again (MaryAnn and Margie left at different times replacing each other until the demise of the group).’ — collaged

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Dressed in Black
‘Kathleen Hanna of the electropunk group Le Tigre has mentioned that the “one girl calling another” motif and the opening sound of seagulls on the track “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes?” were inspired by The Shangri-Las. The Detergents had hits with “Leader of the Laundromat” and “I Can Never Eat Home Any More”, both of which parodied The Shangri-Las. Giddle Partridge and Boyd Rice recently covered “Past, Present, and Future”. Alex Chilton often played it in concert. Brooklyn band Vivian Girls cite The Shangri-Las as one of their influences. Finnish rock band HIM is using “Dressed in Black” as an intro song for their current tour promoting their latest album Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice. Marianne Faithfull released a cover of “Past, Present and Future” on her 2011 album Horses and High Heels.’ — collaged

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Paradise
‘The Shangri-Las alternated between touring with their own band and local bands. Among the latter were the Sonics, as well as the Iguanas, featuring a young Iggy Pop. They also appeared as headliners on package tours such as Dick Clark’s Caravan Of Stars and as stated previously, tours with R & B acts like the Orlons and Joe Tex. Later in their career, the Shangri-Las did lots of college dates with bands like The Young Rascals, The Animals, and Vanilla Fudge. The group appeared on several TV shows and continued to tour the US, but in 1966 two of three releases on Red Bird failed to crack the U.S. top 50, although the group remained popular in England and Japan. Mary Ann Ganser left, but returned early in 1967 when Marge — the most outspoken member, sometimes considered the leader — left. Red Bird Records had folded. The group recorded more tracks with Shadow Morton producing (some of which remain unreleased) and signed with Mercury Records. However, Morton had begun working with Janis Ian and Vanilla Fudge, and Mercury had little enthusiasm for the group. During their Mercury stint the Shangri-Las had no further hits, and in 1968 they disbanded, amid litigation.’ — collaged

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Give Us Your Blessing
‘With “Remember” riding high on the charts, a strong follow-up was needed. Now employed at Red Bird Records, Shadow Morton enlisted the help of Greenwich and Barry and the end result was “Leader of the Pack.” Social mores change with the times and looking back from today’s vantage point, a song like this seems rather tame to us now. Yet 1964 wasn’t that far removed from the McCarthy Era. Take the ’50s fears of juvenile delinquency and teen violence, add in the conservative family values of Donna Reed, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver, shake well and the result is a cultural stalemate and, inevitably, a virtually unrecordable song. Yet, Shadow Morton would not be dissuaded and “Leader of the Pack” was finally released after much tinkering and hand wringing. Though many radio stations eventually refused to play it and parts of the UK banned it, the kids loved it and the song exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations, rocketing to number 1, beating out The Beatles for a time. The Shangri-Las were getting a reputation for the teenage “soap opera” type of song and the public just ate it up.’ — collaged

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Long Live Our Love
‘Peering down from the apex of the Archival Age – an era in which untold highway-lengths of tape have been unleashed from long-locked crypts; in which trunkloads of unexamined demos have been battled over as if they were pirate booty; in which theme restaurants and halls of fame have been erected to enshrine industry-anointed artistes; in which seemingly every concert and recording session that has ever taken place in the history of humankind has been identified, catalogued and scrutinized as if it were an Article of the Faith – it is becoming clear that, in spite of all such intensity of investigation, there yet remain some conspicuous imbalances in the otherwise increasingly stable architecture of Pop History. So it is despite such productions of documentary evidence that the four holy Shangri-Las – St. Mary, St. Mary Ann, St. Marguerite and St. Elizabeth, of Queens – have remained the most underexamined major act of rock’s adolescent years.’ — Phil Milstein

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I’ll Never Learn
‘Over the years articles written on music and groups of the 1960s easily number in the thousands, but it is puzzling how The Shangri-Las place in that era have been overlooked so many times for so many years. Most articles written about this time period always gravitate to the usual buzzwords, spitting out names such as; Hendrix, Beatles, Doors, Joplin, Dylan, Supremes and the like. Taking nothing away from these artists’ accomplishments, and going outside the extremely narrow tunnel vision of many music historians, we must recognize that among those top artists who helped shape music were the Shangri-Las. With 99 percent of the girls’ tracks cut between 1964 to 1967, all done in multi-track, it is also very puzzling why collections on the girls in the now re-mastering, re-packaging conscious industry, no one has taken the time to re-master ALL of these previously released tracks in STEREO–34 tracks including the non-live s
tudio tracks from their first LP, excluding the Spokane and Smash tracks. If ever that were done, it would truly be an essential collection.’ — collaged

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Train From Kansas City
‘Although most covers and remakes of The Shangri-Las material focus on the hit singles, some express the group’s influence on them by recording songs from The Shangri-Las which were never released as singles by the group. Among these, the Los Angeles rock group Redd Kross covered “Heaven Only Knows,” an album cut from The Shangri-Las second album Shangri-Las ’65, and Superchunk, Belle and Sebastian, The Shop Assistants and Neko Case recorded versions of “The Train from Kansas City”, which was a b-side, and an album cut from The Shangri-Las debut album, Leader of the Pack. British singer Amy Winehouse cited The Shangri-Las as an influence and occasionally integrated the hook lyrics from “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)” into the bridge of her song “Back to Black” during live performances.’ — collaged

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He Cried
‘Faris Badwan of The Horrors has listed The Shangri-Las as an influence in The Horrors’ sound and lyrics, and had added a reworked version of “He Cried” to “She Cried” into The Horrors’ song, “Who Can Say,” using the lines, “And when I told her I didn’t love her anymore, she cried/and when I told her, her kisses were not like before, she cried/and when I told her another girl had caught my eye, she cried/and I kissed her, with a kiss that could only mean goodbye,” in spoken-word with a drum beat similar to that The Shangri-Las used. The song is also originally, “She Cried” by Jay and the Americans, another (if slight) influence over The Horrors.’ — collaged

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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Lucky you to have seen S&R.; As a Halloween fanatic and diehard, I think the WeHo stuff doesn’t even qualify as Halloween. That’s just Halloween used as an excuse to do the same-old in more garb than usual. ** Conan Tobias, Hi. Oh, thank you and apologies for my neglect and/or ignorance. I’ll add the credits to the post straight away. ** Weaklings Project, Hi, Chris! I was out all afternoon and evening yesterday, and I only saw your email this morning when half-awake, but I’ll read it and you’ll hear from me pronto post-this. I did read Maddy Costa’s reports this morning through my heavy lids. Fascinating. And funny how scared she is of my blog. To me, I mean. I feel like this place is a ton more about amusement parks and other nerdy shit than it is about scary and/or sexy stuff. But it’s been said before that I tend to underestimate my output’s creepiness. Anyway, it’s really great to read what’s going on. Everyone, should you be curious about how the making of Chris Goode’s in-progress and soon to premiere theater work ‘Weaklings’, which is inspired by this very blog, as I imagine you know, is going, construction- and other-wise, one member of the ‘Weaklings’ team is posting dispatches from the rehearsals, and they’re very, very interesting, and you can read them right here. Happy countdown to you! Oh, no, no chance of early peaking for me, although Halloween hasn’t been about the 31st itself since the sad day that I outgrew my chance at the spoils that night has to offer. By the 31st. I’ve usually hit every spooky house there is, and I’m ready to … well, start all over again, to be honest. Christmas ain’t bad, it’s true. Email soon and love until then and, of course, afterwards and eternally. ** Steevee, Hi. Yeah, like I said to David, the West Village and WeHo parades are just an encroachment on Halloween’s generous bounty and an overly predictable sideshow as far as I’m concerned. Oh, good, I get to read your thoughts on that Gere homeless movie in full. Everyone, Steevee and his well-established, high critical mind have weighed in on ‘Time Out of Mind’, that new movie about homelessness starring Richard Gere. Intrigued as to his take? Go here. Weird about the fucked up test, but good news. Obviously interested to hear what ‘Stonewall’ actually is in reality through your fine mind and wordage. I’m curious about the De Palma doc. Huh, interesting. That makes total sense. ** James, Yay indeed! I quadruple your yay! No, I infinitize it! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi. Oh, sure, no doubt. Thomas, sir, buddy, you must know that I would be ‘over the moon’, as my grandma used to say, if you wanted to do a Halloween-timed EIF! I mean … consider that a plaintive plea from me even. Thank you! Ooh, intriguing about your novel. Please say when you can say! ** Juan molina, Hi, Juanfer! Really nice to see you again, my newish friend! If you keep an eye on this blog for the next six or whatever weeks, you will be allowed only rare chances to forget it’s Halloween season, I’m afraid, ha ha. Oh, yeah, I was massively in love with Halloween as a kid and teen. I grew up in this big house that had a giant basement, and almost every year my friends and I would turn the basement into an elaborate haunted house, and we would charge people in the neighborhood to go through it. We would take turns leaving ‘work’ long enough to go out trick-or-treating. It’s been my dream time of the year ever since. ‘LCTG’ has gotten a really good response so far. We’re really happy. It’ll come out on DVD early-ish next year sometime, although the actual date hasn’t been set yet. Cool, I’m really glad you came inside. I hope everything is great with you! ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi Ben. Ah, you’re one of those. Yeah, you know, I fully expect that I’ll get the Verhoeven thing one of these days. I’ll check out that music list. The favorite band of the guy who was the Obama administration’s official spokesperson for most of his tenure is Guided by Voices, which always made me very surprised and happy. To the point where, when he have his final press conference at the White House before leaving the job, they played GbV’s ‘Motor Away’ as his entrance music. ** Derek McCormack, Yay, Derek! I got to celebrate you twice this week! It’s been such a good week! Mega-love, me. ** Keaton, Whoa, you’re Keaton again! I feel like I’m on acid! What a spectacular story! What a spectacular boy and presumably lay! Boo, ha ha! ** Misanthrope, G-ster. I wonder why too. Fear of some sort, I guess? Well, soon-to-be headless slave, at least. ** H, Hi. Glad you liked Derek’s alphabet. I get the Xmas love. I think it’s more like a crush on Xmas for me. ** Okay. Let’s see … oh, right. When I first heard the incredible music concocted by auteur/producer Shadow Morton and The Shangri-Las back in the early 70s, I thought it was one of the most genius bodies of pop music ever, and I still think so to this very day. And I went on a listening jag re: them the other afternoon and thought I’d foist my love of their sublime stuff on you, and I have. See you tomorrow.