Heavy weight vinyl reissue of the seminal New York girl group’s debut album produced by George ‘Shadow’ Morton for Red Bird Records
Few girl groups of the 1960s can lay claim to being as influential as The Shangri-Las. Eschewing the glitz’n’glamour of their Motown contemporaries, the group’s melodramatic songs and tough girl image X often at odds with lead singer Mary’s tremulous vocals – have resonated across the decades in the recordings of Blondie, Amy Winehouse and, latterly, Bat For Lashes. Comprising sisters Betty and Mary Weiss and twins Marge and Mary Ann Ganser, the group formed in high school in Queens, NYC in 1963 and made their Red Bird debut with producer ‘Shadow’ Morton’s opus ‘Remember (Walking In The Sand)’. Between 1964 and 1966 they charted 11 US Hot 100 singles.
Recorded to capitalise on their US No.1 death disc classic ‘Leader Of The Pack’ (penned by Ellie Greenwich Jeff Barry), Side 1 of this mono 12-tracker brings The Shangs’ distinctive sound and penchant for tear-stained heartbreak to the fore with tracks such as ‘Easier To Cry’ and ‘What Is Love?’, while Side 2 includes rough’n’ready live recordings of the Isley Brothers’ ‘Twist And Shout’, the Phil Upchurch stomper ‘You Can’t Sit Down’ and, harking back to their high school roots, The Chantels’ ‘Maybe’. The album’s opener, ‘Give Him A Great Big Kiss’, was immediately spun off as a single, peaking at US No.18 in early 1965.