The Shangri-Las

But I think they came later.

I, I might have my timelines off, but like The Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, I think they were more into the '60s journey.

'60s, yeah.

So, so yeah, I don't...

I really, really loved listening to this.

They talk about girl groups and the Ronettes, of course, within that and the Shangri-Las and how she was blown out by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las when they were supposed to meet.

And process of making back to black and me and mr jones being about nasty confirms that in this interview um which of course we know now but i think at the time amy lyndon was was kind of trying to get the get the scoop on she also talks and this is something that i love to hear because i'm a big jazz fan she talks about jazz being something that she loves and it being she phrases it as her guilty pleasure and we'll listen to that clip in a sec but there's another part of the interview where she mentions a particular album by Duke Ellington, Max Roach, and Charlie Mingus called Money Jungle and how it's her ambition to put together a trio album with the saxophonist Soweto Kinch.

And it's just one of those moments where you're like, I really wish she'd had the time to make that album because, you know, And I love that she's referring to an album that, you know, isn't, it's not like a hugely, it's a famous album, but it's not, you know, she's 23 at the time of this interview.

What about another one that you think, okay, 1960s novelty song almost, but it's not.

Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las.

Yes, I remember it well.

Look, it's a personal favourite of mine as far as sad songs go.

American musician and songwriter Billy Joel is known as The Piano Man and is classically trained.

He started playing the piano when he was four and was sixteen when he performed on the nineteen sixty-five hit Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las.

His greatest hits include Uptown Girl, Just The Way You Are, and Tell Her About It.

"I've been able to make a living as a musician, and that's the greatest blessing of all," he said.

...

when I did the Brill Building documentary, I tracked down Mary from the Shangri-Las, um, and she hadn't done an interview in 20 years at that point.

Wow.

And she hadn't even played, and then after that documentary, she started playing again, and I got Shadow Morton too, who had been their producer, and-

Well, I've got a weird one when you were on the weird stuff.

The Shangri-Las, I can never go home anymore.

The girl follows her boyfriend, she leaves home, and then her mother dies of a broken heart.

Oh.

It is one of...

The Shangri-Las were great at maudlin.

I mean, this is from the... mid 60s but it's just like oh my gosh this is just you kind of laugh because it is so dark and so melodramatic

and it's i

... and Thomas Erdelyi, grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York.

They spent their youth as outsiders who bonded over rock and roll, horror movies, comic books, and trashy pop culture, and were specifically obsessed with The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Who, but also girl groups like The Supremes, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and then of course, later on, as we get close- closer to Ramones D-Day, The Stooges, the MC5, and the New York Dolls.

But in 1974, they were in their early 20s, and John, the future Johnny Ramone, and Douglas, the soon to be Dee Dee Ramone, began playing together with Johnny on guitar and Dee Dee on bass and vocals.

Shortly, they would add Jeffrey, the future Joey Ramone, as their drummer, and Thomas, Tommy Ramone, agreed to help-

Yeah.

So, uh, e- examples are, uh, Teen Angel by Mark Dinning, Tell Laura I Love Her by Ray Peterson, Ebony Eyes by the E- Everly Brothers, Last Kiss by Wayne Cochran, uh, Dead Man's Curve by Jan and Dean, and Leader of the Pack, arguably the best one, by the Shangri-Las.

And most pop historians credit the, the death, uh, [laughs] no pun intended, of the teenage tragedy song to the British Invasion.

[laughs]

One about James Brown, the first time you saw James Brown, the first performance James Brown gave in London.

One about the Shangri-Las.

We always try to get the Shangri-Las in whenever we can.

And the last one about Tyrannosaurus Rex, the former Mark Feld.

And I would just say, you know, anyone listening to this, Um, do read those because they're just fantastic little kind of snapshots of what's happening in, in kind of pop and a flavor of what it was like for you to be this kind of hip young gunslinger in a way in mid sixties, London.