Marge ganser biography of albert

Vocal group

For the Record …

Selected discography

Sources

While most of the popular female vocal groups of the 1960s, including the Shirelles and the Ronettes, sang and danced to bubbly ditties about teenage love, the Shangri-Las’ hits contained a darker sentiment.

They released a number of happy tunes, but the group’s most popular songs were about teenage runaways, teenage death, and tragic love. They scored three top ten hits in the 1960s; one of those hits—“Leader of the Pack,” a dramatic love song about a dying biker—went to number one and became the Shangri-Las’ signature tune.

Group member Mary Weiss was born around 1947 and raised in the tough Cambria Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York.

Her father died when she was an infant, and her mother raised her single-handedly. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Weiss remembered her youth as a struggle for survival and a “hell of a way to g