The Shangri-Las

One of the quintessential '60s girl groups, the Shangri-Las embodied the image of streetwise glamor, and left a mark on pop history despite a relatively short life and only four major hits. The group comprised two pairs of sisters, Mary and Betty Weiss and identical twins Marge and Mary Ann Ganser. All were Queens natives who began singing together at Andrew Jackson High School. They built an audience through record-hop gigs, and were signed to the Kama Sutra label which released two singles, neither hits. Their breakthrough came in 1964 when producer and impresario George "Shadow" Morton signed the still-teenaged group (lead singer Mary Weiss was just 15) to his Red Bird label. Morton pulled out all the stops for his production of their first Red Bird single, summer 1964's "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" a mini-epic with time changes, beach sound effects, copious echo and a highly emotive vocal from Mary (Billy Joel later claimed he played piano on the session). It was a Top Ten hit and led to an even more dramatic follow-up, "Leader of the Pack"-a teen-tragedy melodrama complete with motorcycle crash effects and more emoting from Mary. Shifting gears, they got romantically lighthearted, but still audibly sexy, on the next hit "Give Him a Great Big Kiss." Each of these records became somewhat iconic, producing some oft-borrowed catchphrases (such as "Leader of the Pack's opening question: "Is she really going out with him?") Their non-hit singles are also beloved by girl-group aficionados, notably "Out in the Street," another heartbreak epic. Most dramatic of all was their final hit, fall 1965's "I Can Never Go Home Anymore," a largely-spoken record in which a tearful Mary tells how she left home to run away with a boy, leaving her mother to die of a broken heart. During their brief heyday the Shangri-Las made numerous TV appearances and toured America with both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Everyone but Mary Weiss briefly left the group at different times, which is why the Shangri-Las are a trio in many of the photos and clips. After more than a year without hits they broke up in 1968. Betty Weiss had a daughter and left music, and the Ganser sisters both died young-Mary Ann of a drug overdose in 1970, and Marge of breast cancer in 1996. Marge and the Weiss sisters cut at least part of a reunion album with producer Andy Paley in 1977 and even played at CBGB, but the sessions were ultimately shelved. Mary Weiss however came out of retirement to make a well-received solo album in 2007, backed by the Asheville, N.C. garage band the Reigning Sound. She played a brief tour behind the album, singing the Shangri-Las songs live for the first time in decades. The tour also served to shut down a bogus group of touring Shangri-Las. Meanwhile numerous significant female rockers, from Patti Smith through the Go-Go's through Sleater-Kinney, acknowledged them as an influence.