Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las had us believe that they were two pairs of misunderstood teenage sisters with homework, unsuitable boyfriends and angst-ridden parental relationships, their lurid tales of adolescent woe seemingly torn directly from discarded romance comics. Under the guiding hand of lauded producer George ‘Shadow’ Morton, the group pumped out a series of punchy three-minute slices of emotionally draining suburban pop that couldn’t fail to resonate. Tragically, singer Mary Ann Ganser’s own life was as short and dramatic as a Shangri-Las mini epic.
Mary Ann and Margie (Marguerite) Ganser were two of five children born to a middle-class New York physician and his nightclub-singer wife, twins who sadly lost their father when still young. They lived just one block from Andrew Jackson High School colleagues Mary and Liz ‘Betty’ Weiss, and the two pairs of sisters became firm friends in 1963, when a mutual love of singing pulled their worlds together. Honing a nasal-sounding harmonic style (Mary Weiss took lead), The Shangri-Las were playing the hops before the high-school year was out. Artie Ripp – sinisterly named head honcho at Kama Sutra – was quick to sign the group after witnessing an early performance: rock ‘n’ roll may still have been young, but girl groups were very much ‘happening’. A few minor recordings were made before producer/writer George ‘Shadow’ Morton appeared on the scene with the cool, disquieting ‘Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)’ (1964) – which would change the girls’ lives and fortunes for ever. The Shangri-Las (who had now joined the shortlived Red Bird label as minors, their contracts signed by their parents) found themselves with an unexpected Top Five hit. This was followed by an undisputed classic, ‘Leader of the Pack’, which, by the end of the fall, saw The Shangri-Las dramatically displace The Supremes at the top of the US charts. For a time, the US was hip to The Shangri-Las’ groove and a series of ‘teen angst’ vignettes followed ( The Death Toll #1).
Inevitably, after a unique moment like ‘Leader’, it was to be downhill for the group. The less-successful further songs prompted a ‘tougher’ image for The Shangri-Las, the flouncy dresses and sequins abandoned for catsuits or jeans, but their moment rapidly appeared to be over. Although they moved to the much larger Mercury label, The Shangri-Las’ record sales continued to fall while early contract mishandling meant that the girls saw little of the money due to them from the bigger hits of yore. Margie quit the band in 1966 for this reason (and her group’s incessant partying); The Shangri-Las – bar the odd reissue – were a spent brand by 1969.
The facts behind Mary Ann’s sudden death in 1970 still, to this day, divide her fans, friends and family. For a long time, it was believed that she might have suffered from encephalitis brought on by a malignant mosquito bite, and that she died following an untreated seizure while visiting a friend. Others – including, allegedly, the Gansers’ mother – suggest that Mary Ann had battled heroin addiction for the last two years of her life, an overdose of barbiturates causing her death at just twenty-two.
See also Margie Ganser Dorste ( July 1996)
Monday 16
Tammi Terrell
(Thomasina Montgomery - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 29 April 1945)
The tale of soul vocalist Tammi Terrell is almost as tragic for her lack of real recognition during her short life as for her early death. A regular talentshow victor as a girl, the young Tammy Montgomery moved her audiences with a series of sublime, sensual performances and a voice that could melt the hardest heart touring with the prestigious James Brown Revue during the early sixties. Tammi Montgomery somehow still found time for her studies and, although romantically linked to Brown (and also to Temptation David Ruffin), she was believed to have married boxer Ernie Terrell (whose sister Jean
The Shangri-Las had us believe that they were two pairs of misunderstood teenage sisters with homework, unsuitable boyfriends and angst-ridden parental relationships, their lurid tales of adolescent woe seemingly torn directly from discarded romance comics. Under the guiding hand of lauded producer George ‘Shadow’ Morton, the group pumped out a series of punchy three-minute slices of emotionally draining suburban pop that couldn’t fail to resonate. Tragically, singer Mary Ann Ganser’s own life was as short and dramatic as a Shangri-Las mini epic.
Mary Ann and Margie (Marguerite) Ganser were two of five children born to a middle-class New York physician and his nightclub-singer wife, twins who sadly lost their father when still young. They lived just one block from Andrew Jackson High School colleagues Mary and Liz ‘Betty’ Weiss, and the two pairs of sisters became firm friends in 1963, when a mutual love of singing pulled their worlds together. Honing a nasal-sounding harmonic style (Mary Weiss took lead), The Shangri-Las were playing the hops before the high-school year was out. Artie Ripp – sinisterly named head honcho at Kama Sutra – was quick to sign the group after witnessing an early performance: rock ‘n’ roll may still have been young, but girl groups were very much ‘happening’. A few minor recordings were made before producer/writer George ‘Shadow’ Morton appeared on the scene with the cool, disquieting ‘Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)’ (1964) – which would change the girls’ lives and fortunes for ever. The Shangri-Las (who had now joined the shortlived Red Bird label as minors, their contracts signed by their parents) found themselves with an unexpected Top Five hit. This was followed by an undisputed classic, ‘Leader of the Pack’, which, by the end of the fall, saw The Shangri-Las dramatically displace The Supremes at the top of the US charts. For a time, the US was hip to The Shangri-Las’ groove and a series of ‘teen angst’ vignettes followed ( The Death Toll #1).
Inevitably, after a unique moment like ‘Leader’, it was to be downhill for the group. The less-successful further songs prompted a ‘tougher’ image for The Shangri-Las, the flouncy dresses and sequins abandoned for catsuits or jeans, but their moment rapidly appeared to be over. Although they moved to the much larger Mercury label, The Shangri-Las’ record sales continued to fall while early contract mishandling meant that the girls saw little of the money due to them from the bigger hits of yore. Margie quit the band in 1966 for this reason (and her group’s incessant partying); The Shangri-Las – bar the odd reissue – were a spent brand by 1969.
The facts behind Mary Ann’s sudden death in 1970 still, to this day, divide her fans, friends and family. For a long time, it was believed that she might have suffered from encephalitis brought on by a malignant mosquito bite, and that she died following an untreated seizure while visiting a friend. Others – including, allegedly, the Gansers’ mother – suggest that Mary Ann had battled heroin addiction for the last two years of her life, an overdose of barbiturates causing her death at just twenty-two.
See also Margie Ganser Dorste ( July 1996)
Monday 16
Tammi Terrell
(Thomasina Montgomery - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 29 April 1945)
The tale of soul vocalist Tammi Terrell is almost as tragic for her lack of real recognition during her short life as for her early death. A regular talentshow victor as a girl, the young Tammy Montgomery moved her audiences with a series of sublime, sensual performances and a voice that could melt the hardest heart touring with the prestigious James Brown Revue during the early sixties. Tammi Montgomery somehow still found time for her studies and, although romantically linked to Brown (and also to Temptation David Ruffin), she was believed to have married boxer Ernie Terrell (whose sister Jean
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