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InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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The Shangri-Las
Charted: #5 in September 1964
On practically all of their hit records, the Shangri-Las and producer George “Shadow” Morton took the inherent dramas and insecurities of female teenage life and exaggerated them beyond any reasonable proportion. Everything about this record is overdone, from the melodramatic howls of the harmonies to the shifting dynamics of the instrumentation. Even the seagull sound effects are exaggerated to the extreme; if I ever came across that many screaming birds while walking on the beach, I’d run for my life (or at least be very careful where I stepped). The towel-wringing sobbing of the lyrics is a bit over the edge, as well.
The Shangri-Las consisted of two pairs of sisters, Maryann and Margie Ganser and twins Betty and Mary Weiss. Their tough appearance was consistent with their hometown of Queens, which had a tendency for breeding teenagers with thick accents who smoked and/or chewed a lot of gum. Morton produced them and recorded the original seven-minute demo version of his composition, “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand).” Songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich heard the song and loved it, but thought it needed a little editing. The final version was released on Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s Red Bird Records and reached #5.
The blithe innocence portrayed by earlier girl groups was chewed up and spat out by this group of greaser girls. This wasn’t a song about dreaming or unattainable love; it was real life in the form of a teenage soap opera. While other girl groups may have imagined what it was like to date such-and-such a boy, the Shangri-Las were determined to know firsthand. On “Remember,” lead singer Maryann Ganser finds out the hard way when she is unceremoniously dumped. She is out of her mind with grief, and then those damned birds start attacking her. What is a lovelorn teenager to do? Morton and the Shangri-Las were only getting started. They would soon perfect their combination of camp and drama. Future songs would leave a trail of dead bodies and disaster longer than a late summer hurricane, and somehow it would all be in the name of good, clean fun.
 
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