The Shangri-Las — американская поп-группа, сформированная в 1963 году в Нью-Йорке. Признание и популярность коллективу принесли как их эмоциональные песни, так и сценические выступления.
Группа была образована в 1963 году в нью-йоркском районе Квинс в Средней школе Эндрю Джексона. В коллектив вошли сёстры Мэри Вайс и Элизабет «Бетти» Вайс, а также близнецы Маргерит «Мардж» Гансер и Мэри Энн Гансер. Группа принимала участие в школьных представлениях и конкурсах талантов, благодаря чему на девушек обратил внимание продюсер Арти Рипп, который помог им заключить контракт с Kama Sutra Records. Первая запись группы, «Simon Says», состоялась в декабре 1963 года и позднее была издана на лейбле Smash. Изначально коллектив выступал без названия, однако после заключения своего первого соглашения начал именоваться The Shangri-Las.
В апреле 1964 года группа подписала контракт с Red Bird Records. С девушками стал работать музыкальный продюсер Джордж Мортон, написавший для них первый хит — Remember (Walking in the Sand). К группе пришёл успех: композиция достигла пятого места в чарте США и 14-го в чарте Великобритании. Следующая песня группы, Leader of the Pack, снабжённая звуками ревущего мотоцикла и шумом бьющегося стекла, вошла в число её главных хитов, добравшись до первого места в американском и до 11-го в британском хит-парадах. The Shangri-Las получили признание к концу 1964 года. Они выступали с The Beatles и гастролировали с The Drifters и Джеймсом Брауном. Поскольку Бетти не участвовала в турах до 1966 года, многие фанаты считали, что группа представляет собой трио.
Образ, созданный The Shangri-Las, отличал группу от подобных женских коллективов: девушки были более раскованны, чем их современники. Выступления группы были очень динамичны, а их песни, преимущественно посвящённые подростковым и молодёжным проблемам, сопровождались специально подобранными танцами.
В 1966 популярность The Shangri-Las начала падать. Кроме того прекратила существование компания Red Bird Records, после чего группа подписала соглашение с Mercury Records. Работе с новой звукозаписывающей компанией не способствовала успех и в 1968 году группа распалась. В 1970-е годы ходили слухи о воссоединении группы. Однако в 1970 году при странных обстоятельствах скончалась Мэри Энн (причинами смерти назывались эпилептический припадок и передозировка наркотиков). В 1996 от рака скончалась её сестра — Маргерит.
В 2007 году Мэри Вайс, бывшая главной вокалисткой в группе, продолжила свою карьеру соло. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
The Shangri-Las were an American pop music girl group of the 60s that became well known for their 'streetwise' image and popular songs about teenage angst, being massively influential among later female vocalists. The group was formed at Andrew Jackson High School, located in Queens, New York, in 1963. It consisted of two sets of sisters: Mary Weiss and Elizabeth "Liz/Betty" Weiss alongside identical twins Marguerite "Marge" and Mary Ann Ganser.
After working together for a bit, Mary Weiss ended up singing lead. In April of 1964, since the girls were still minors, their parents signed for them with Red Bird Records, with their name coming from the title of a mythical place of wonder. Mary was 15, Betty was 17, and the Ganser twins were 16. That same year, they had their first hit with "Remember (Walking in the Sand)". The song, a U.S. #5 and a U.K. #14, was created after producer George "Shadow" Morton hired the band.
Their songs with "Shadow" Morton featured lavish production with heavy orchestration and sound effects. Their biggest hit, the renowned death disc "Leader of the Pack", climaxes with the sounds of roaring motorcycles and breaking glass. A U.S. #1 and U.K. #11 hit, the tune still gets serious airplay to this day.
According to a Biography episode on various 60s 'Brill Building' songwriters, including retrospective interviews with Greenwich, Barry and Morton among others, Barry said that at the time he was suspicious of Morton's overt attention to Greenwich. Disbelieving Morton was really the songwriter he claimed to be, Barry challenged Morton to prove his legitimacy and bring in samples of his recent work (expecting never to hear again from an embarrassed Morton). Morton stated in his interview that, with an empty song portfolio at the time, he felt sufficiently challenged by Barry, whereupon he left the Brill Building and drove his automobile to a Long Island Beach.
Full of both inspiration and desperation, Morton spent the evening writing his first song, while sitting in the dark in his parked car. Entitled "Remember (Walking In The Sand)", Morton then 'rolled the dice' and recorded a demo of his song with a long-shot, unknown girl-group local club act that he admired, The Shangri-Las (according to Morton, with the then-unknown Billy Joel on piano in the demo recording), and offered the demo recording to Jerry Leiber, who was then setting up Red Bird Records. The recording "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" by the Shangri-Las reached #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1964. Considering the scope of this accomplishment, Morton was transformed overnight from a credential-less industry 'wannabe' into a teen recording songwriter and recording producer. According to Steve Kurutz at Allmusic, "Morton's production work, which included brilliant sound effects and inventive percussion, carried the Shangri-Las to girl-group history."
The band continued to have a string of American hit records, mainly on depressing themes such as death, loneliness, and abandonment. Songs included "Past, Present and Future", "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" and "Long Live Our Love".
In 1966, the Shangri-Las' subsequent two releases on Red Bird failed to make the top 50. That same year the band left Red Bird and Morton after the label folded. At the beginning of 1967, Marge decided to leave the group. Despite signing to Mercury Records that year, the group had no further hits. In 1968, they disbanded.
Mary Ann died of a drug overdose in 1970. Marge succumbed to breast cancer on July 28, 1996 at age 48.
The group experienced a small revival in the UK when "Leader Of The Pack" was re-issued twice, reaching #3 in 1972 and #7 in 1976.
The Shangri-La's 1966 hit "Past, Present & Future" was effectively covered in 2004 by ex ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog on her 2004 album, "My Colouring Book".
Since the 1980's, the group has had to deal with a group calling themselves The Shangri Las, but having nothing to do with the original group. The group was put together by Dick Fox.
Discography
Standard albums
* 1964: Leader of the Pack (US #109)
* 1965: Shangri-Las-65!
Compilations
* 1966: Golden Hits of the Shangri-Las
* 1975: The Shangri-Las Sing
* 1996: The Best of the Shangri-Las
Singles
* 1964: "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" (US #5, UK #14)
* 1964: "Leader of the Pack" (US #1, UK #11)
* 1965: "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" (US #18)
* 1965: "Give Us Your Blessings" (US #29)
* 1965: "I Can Never Go Home Anymore" (US #6)
* 1965: "Maybe" (US #91)
* 1965: "Out in the Streets" (US #53)
* 1965: "Right Now and Not Later" (US #99)
* 1966: "He Cried" (US #65)
* 1966: "Long Live Our Love" (US #33)
* 1966: "Past, Present and Future" (US #59)
* 1966: "Take the Time"
* 1967: "Sweet Sounds of Summer"
References
* "Shangri-Las 77!", footnote 4, by Phil X Milstein, Spectropop
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