Shangri-Las
Shangri-Las !!!! / Lilith 2009
Tracks: 1. Leader Of The Pack / 2. What Is Love? / 3. Remember (Walking In The Sand) / 4. Wishing Well / 5. Hate To Say I Told You So / 6. It's Easier To Cry / 7. Simon Says / 8. Simon Speaks / 9. So Much In Love / 10. Goodnight My Love, Pleasant Dreams / 11. Right Now And Not Later / 12. Never Again / 13. Give Us Your Blessings / 14. Sophisticated Boom Boom / 15. I'm Blue / 16. Heaven Only Knows / 17. I Can Never Go Home Anymore / 18. Give Him A Great Big Kiss // 1. The Train From Kansas City / 2. Out In The Streets / 3. What's A Girl Supposed To Do / 4. The Dum Dum Ditty / 5. You Cheated, You Lied / 6. The Boy / 7. Twist And Shout / 8. Shout / 9. Love You More Than Yesterday / 10. Maybe / 11. Bull Dog / 12. Past, Present And Future / 13. Long Live Our Love / 14. He Cried / 15. Dressed In Black / 16. Paradise / 17. Give Him A Great Big Kiss (Alternate Version)
Comments:
This collection is adorned with a cover that is almost identical to The Shangri-Las's excellent second album "Shangri-Las 65!"; Here, however, the digits are replaced by three extra exclamation marks.
If this second album was the one you were looking for, you will hardly be disappointed with the purchase of this 2 CD collection. All songs from this album are to be found and they sound really good. However, they are spread out on the two CDs, so that the first six are to be found midway on CD 1 (in the original order); while the six numbers from side 2 open CD2.
"Shangri-Las 65!", as mentioned, is a really great and overlooked album, which, through fine songwriting (eg Barry / Greenwich on five tracks), fine vocals and really great production make it the most fully-formed girls-group album released in the 1960’s.
The group's debut album "The Leader of the Pack" is represented by 11 tracks, meaning one ("You Can Sit Down") is missing. This album is quite uneven in several ways; especially on the production side, where the majority of the numbers sound rather raw. Whether these numbers have always sounded like this or if they are taken from inferior sources, I dare not say. Fortunately, the three singles from "The Leader of the Pack" ("Remember Walking in the Sand", "The Leader of the Pack" and "Give Him a Big Kiss" all sound really good, and they are also clearly the best on that album.
The group released almost twenty singles in the 1960s and apart from the two put out on Mercury Records in 1967, they are all here - both A and B sides. Again, the earliest have a somewhat raw sound.
Unless the mentioned raw-sounding tracks are available in better versions, I think this could be the ultimate Shangri-Las collection. The two Mercury singles, which by the way are not particularly good, you will have to find elsewhere. Also you could miss more information about the group and the songs on the very thin 4-page booklet that comes with this double CD.
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