keyser soze wrote:
...has died aged 75.
I guess many younger people won't even have heard of them. And many of my age and older might dismiss them as some sort of novelty act or whatever. But that's so wide of the truth it's unreal. As was/is often the case, creative work made by women has to fight hard to gain it's proper place and that's certainly true of The Shangri-Las and their lead singer Mary Weiss. At the peak of their success, the main consumers of records in the USA was teenage girls and The Shangri-Las made records by girls, for girls. But they did it in the context of an industry owned and run by middle-aged men, with men of all ages claiming credit for things they didn't deserve actually invent (I'm looking at you, Shadow Morton). And they did it brilliantly.
Hugely influential (go see their wiki page, all you punk/indie types) and glorious pop fun.
RIP Mary.
The Mary Chain freely admit to being in thrall to them and other girl groups of a similar vintage, listen to
Just Like Honey if any further evidence required. The Shangri-Las were a brilliant proposition, and obviously The Leader Of The Pack is an outstanding record. A complete miniseries in two and a half minutes.