Mary Weiss Shangri La's Singer RIP
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Mary Weiss, who has died aged 75, was the lead singer of the Shangri-Las, who created a string of unique and influential hits in the mid-1960sincluding Remember (Walking in the Sand), I Can Never Go Home Anymore and, above all, their US chart-topper Leader of the Pack, the acme of tragic teenage angst.
Mary’s voice brought a streetwise yet vulnerable timbre to their sound, which was exploited to full effect by their inspired songwriter and producer George “Shadow” Morton.
Remember (Walking in the Sand), from 1964, was their first collaboration with Morton. Even though it was supposedly the first song he ever wrote, his skills were evident not just in the song’s doomed-romance lyrics but also in its sepulchral piano, panoramic vocal harmonies and twittering seagull sound effects.
Remember reached No 5 in the US (where the chart was now being colonised by the Beatles and other British invaders), and 14 in the UK.
The group followed it up with their biggest hit and only US No 1, Leader of the Pack. Co-written by Morton, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, its unforgettable opening line - “Is she really going out with him?” - launched a heartstring-tearing mini-opera which told the story of Betty’s tragic love affair with Jimmy, the leader of a motorcycle gang.
The sound of a revving motorbike engine and squealing tyres added to its aura of romantic intensity. It also reached 11 in the UK, despite being banned by several radio stations.
Give Him a Great Big Kiss gave them another Top 20 hit in 1964, and the Shangri-Las were becoming a major attraction. They shared a bill with the Beatles and toured with the Rolling Stones, visited the UK and were hired by James Brown for a major show in Texas, at which Brown was staggered to discover that the group were not black, as he had assumed.
It was also there that Weiss was involved in an altercation with a police officer, who pulled a gun on her when she entered the washroom reserved for “coloured women”.
Life on the road was not easy, often playing cattle-call shows on gruelling package tours such as Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars.
Greenwich said of them: “They were kind of crude, with their gestures and language and chewing gum and the stockings ripped up their leg.” After an intruder tried to break into her hotel room, Weiss bought herself a Derringer pistol for protection, but handed it over to the authorities after a warning from the FBI.
However, the group’s success was not destined to last.
Out in the Streets and Right Now and Not Later did not break into the Top 50, though they did reach No 6 with I Can Never Go Home Anymore (1965). This was another of Morton’s overripe emotional bombshells, this time casting Weiss as a heartbroken teen describing how her mother had forbidden her to see the boy she loved. After she left home, her mother was so lonely that “angels picked her for a friend”.
But perhaps Morton overdid the anguish in Past, Present and Future (1966), in which, over a ghostly rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata, Weiss narrated a chilling soliloquy about the death of love and, possibly, sexual abuse (though Weiss denied the latter interpretation). It was an extraordinary piece of work, but only reached No 59. Marianne Faithfull covered the song on her 2011 album Horses and High Heels.
At Jackson high, Mary, then 15, and Betty, two years older, joined with the 16-year-old twins Mary Ann and Marge (Marguerite) Ganser to form a singing group (an all-Jewish one) and they began performing at nightclubs and talent shows.
They took their name from a Long Island restaurant called Shangri-La. They released their first single, Simon Says, on the Smash label in 1963, then moved to the Spokane label for Wishing Well.
Betty Weiss sang lead on both of these, but it was not until they had been picked up by the Red Bird label (owned by the songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and their partner George Goldner) that they hit the charts with Remember (Walking in the Sand).
The Shangri-Las split in 1968, not least because of legal disputes arising from unfavourable contracts they had signed at the start of their career.
“When we started, it was all about music,” Weiss commented. “By the time it ended, it was all about litigation.” She also said that “my mother kind of signed my life away when I was 14”.
After the Shangri-Las’ final performance in 1989, Weiss reinvented herself as an interior designer and became involved with interior design and building projects.
In 2007, she recorded her solitary solo album, Dangerous Games, on Norton Records, where she was backed by the Memphis-based band Reigning Sound. “Dangerous Game is her comeback and it’s a darn good one,” commented AllMusic.
Mary Weiss, singer and interior designer, born 28 December 1948; died 19 January 2024
Rest in peace Mary Weiss. Love the shangrais las
❤❤❤❤❤❤
RIP Mary Weiss, leader of the pack!
Mary,thanks for all your hard work and gifts.😎
Will miss her RIP leader of the pack Played that tune thousands of times
We shall always remember Mary Weiss ❤
They were Catholic, not Jewish.
Stop saying that.
Is Wikipedia ever wrong?
@@JayKitchensbeard: YES!
Get off the Jewish angle.
I heard you mentioned it twice, while smultaneously knowing it to be at best, a false truth.
I do believe you are wrong based on my research.
Wow how do we find out