Recently, musician Mickey Leigh quoted a New York Times piece eulogizing Mary Weiss, former lead singer of the Shangri-Las. The article mentioned Mickey's brother, Joey Ramone: "[Weiss] said the greatest compliment she had ever been paid came when she ran into Joey Ramone at the New York punk club CBGB, and he told her, 'Without the Shangri-Las, there would have been no Ramones.' ”
Precisely.
I don't think the Shangri-Las have ever been given proper credit. They've certainly never even been nominated for induction into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, but to hell with that nonsense. The Shangri-Las had unforgettable hits, irresistible deeper tracks, and an enormous influence on '70s punk, especially in New York City. The New York Dolls. Blondie. The Ramones! "New Rose," the debut single from UK punks the Damned, opened with a quote from the Shangri-Las' "Leader Of The Pack:" Is she really going out with him? The Dolls stole from "Give Him A Great Big Kiss"--When I say I'm in love, you best believe I'm in love, L-U-V--in their own song "Looking For A Kiss." When the Shangri-Las attempted a comeback in the '70s, it's said (per Wikipedia, anyway) that Weiss wanted their new recordings to come from the same wrong side of town as Patti Smith. Clueless record labels said they should find somebody new, and the Shangri-Las abandoned their reunion.
Mary Weiss returned to the biz in 2007, working with the Reigning Sound for a fabulous new album called Dangerous Game, released by the visionary Norton Records, a label that understood. It was my favorite album that year, and that album and its attendant singles are the only records Weiss ever released outside of her tenure with the Shangri-Las in the '60s.
Man. I wish there had been more.
But we will keep appreciating--and playing--what we have. This week, we paid humble tribute to the legacy of Mary Weiss, with the A- and B-sides of her two 2007 singles for Norton, tracks from Dangerous Game, and a handful of absolute delights from an underrated, legendary vocal group called the Shangri-Las. We'll be playing more of them in the coming weeks. Through it all, we will continue to do what the Shangri-Las suggested on their very first single in 1964:
REMEMBER!
And that's called "sad."
This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another Sunday night in Syracuse this week.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream, and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio
You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO).
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