One of the defining girl groups of the 1960s, the Shangri-Las will always be
indelibly associated with the spoken intro to their biggest hit, the
controversial death single “Leader of the Pack.” At a time when female singers
were usually regarded as little more than cute pop puppets of record companies,
the Shangri-Las took an unusually dangerous stance completely at odds with the
image of most of their contemporaries - which was even more extraordinary
considering their age (lead singer Mary Weiss was just 16 when they had their
biggest hits). From a tough neighborhood in Queens...