Best of [Import]

Shangri-Las | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 14, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Polygram UK
• ASIN: B000008220
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,363 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #91 in Music > Pop > Oldies > Girl Groups

Track Listings

1. Remember (Walking In The Sand)

2. Leader Of The Pack

3. What Is Love?

4. Give Him A Great Big Kiss

5. Maybe

6. Out In The Streets

7. Give Us Your Blessings

8. Heaven Only Knows

9. Never Again

10. What's A Girl Supposed To Do?

11. Dum Dum Ditty

12. Right Now And Not Later

13. Train From Kansas City

14. I Can Never Go Home Anymore

15. Long Live Our Love

16. Sophisticated Boom Boom

17. He Cried

18. Dressed In Black

19. Past, Present, And Future

20. Paradise

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Budget price collection featuring 25 tracks from one of the greatest girl groups, including 'Leader Of The Pack', 'Give Him A Great Big Kiss', 'Sophisticated Boom Boom' & many more. Karussell. 1997.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, But All Mono, February 21, 2007

By 

Marc Wielage (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

This 1996 collection of 25 of the Shangri-Las' hits, B-sides, and album tracks was originally released on the Mercury Chronicles label [Mercury 314-528 171-2], but for some unknown reason, all that's available now is this similarly-priced import. Note that this CD is 100% mono. Collectors might prefer the Varese compiliaton "The Girl Group Sound: 25 All-Time Greatest Hits from Red Bird Records," which has more stereo (and somewhat better sound quality), as well as the UK compilation "The Red Bird Story" from Charly Records.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Two-Year Blaze Of Glory, September 29, 2007

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

I have to go along with the reviewer who gve this 5 stars and akso assign the top rating allowable. OK, so it doesn't include stereo versions, but this is the way most of us remember the original Red Bird 45s, and as an added bonus, without the hiss and pop. It also provides all eleven hit singles they had between 1964's Remember (Walkin' In The Sand), # 5 Billboard Pop Hot 100 that summer, and mid-1966's Past, Present And Future, # 59 Hot 100, along with six B-sides.

The liner notes contain a complete discography of the contents along with four pages of background information written in 1996 by Don Charles, and some wonderful photographs of the group, including one showing Liz Weiss, the sister of lead singer Mary Weiss, who did not always appear with the group, either on record or in person.

These two students at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York were joined by twins Mary Ann and Marge Ganser, and were singing semi-professionally when discovered by disc-jockey Babalu [Bob Lewis] who brought them to the attention of producer George "Shadow" Morton. And, for two glorious years, they combined to put out records which can only be described as theatrical in their intensity, easily rivaling Phil Spector's Wall of Sound.

When the Red Bird label folded its tent in 1966, the group also disbanded. Sadly, the Ganser twins are no longer with us, Mary Ann having died of encephalitis in 1971 and Marge from breast cancer in 1996 at age 48.

A marvelously complete collection by one of the so-called "Girl Groups" which you will enjoy from beginning to end.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the best of the best for that "girl group" sound, January 1, 2011

By 

Scott B. Saul "opinionated, yet truthful, mu... (COOPER CITY, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

I'm a hard core rock, funk, jazz and folk guy and yet I love "girl group" music. That "in between Elvis and the Beatles" sound is fantastic. Anybody who is anybody that is/was cool in music also digs the genre. Beatles, Stones, Springsteen,,Aerosmith, Twisted Sister, Billy Joel, N.Y. Dolls, Ramones (heck, all the punk groups loved this stuff).

In 1979 I was searching the record bin at "Wax Trax" records in Chicago looking for cool stuff. All of a sudden Poison Ivy and Lux Interior from The Cramps walk in and ask where The Shangri-las records were. Is there anything cooler than a cutting edge, raw band demanding to buy this girl group stuff? I was in shock and as a 16 year old kid had to examine what was fueling these punk stars.

This is great stuff. Dramatic mini-operas sang in a faux, tough girl, New Yaaaaawk accent. THere are a lot of songs on this compilation with not all of them being hits yet the hits are here and boy do they sound sweet. "Walking in the Sand" is so great! How dare Aeromith cover this! "Leader of the Pack" sounds so great re-mastered and played in high fidelity. "Give him a great big kiss" is wonderful."Past, Present and Future" is so corny, so cinematic, so pretentious yet so GREAT! My favorite is "Heaven only knows" which is a perfect pop song (it was re-made when Shangra La's member Mary Weiss made a recent solo record but in a rock vein...this version is better).

I feel that the Shangra Las and Ronnettes best examplify this genre, because they produced substantial material and complimented their music with a great "bad girl: look and it is timeless and deserving to be placed into the "rock and roll" category.