Mary Weiss, the lead vocalist of The Shangri-Las — the Nineteen Sixties pop lady group behind the No. 1 hit “Leader of the Pack” — has died. She was 75.
A consultant for Weiss’ file label, Norton Records, confirmed the information of her loss of life to The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday (Jan. 20). Norton launched Weiss’ solely solo album, Dangerous Game, in 2007.
No explanation for loss of life has been reported.
“I think you’re born with music in you,” Weiss stated at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum occasion in 2007. “I sang from the time I could speak. I was always into music, always. My brother was a lot older than me and had an extensive record collection, and I listened to everything.”
In sixth grade, Weiss noticed The Everly Brothers carry out at a theme park and was impressed by their harmonies. “I always thought they were so underrated as far as what they provided for music and harmony,” she stated.
With her older sister Elizabeth “Betty” Weiss, and associates Marguerite “Marge” and Mary Ann Ganser, twins whom the Weiss sisters met in grammar faculty, the group received collectively within the (*75*) Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York. “We used to sing harmony on the street corner, in bathrooms, in tunnels — Central Park has some great tunnels if you want to sing harmony — and that’s pretty much how we started,” Weiss stated throughout her interview with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Together they carried out at native expertise reveals and faculty occasions, being too younger to seem in golf equipment.
In 1964, when Weiss was simply 14, the group met producer and songwriter George “Shadow” Morton. Working with him, they broke by way of with their recording of “Remember (Walking in the Sand),” launched in 1964 through Red Bird Records, adopted by singles just like the chart-topping “Leader of the Pack” and “Give Him a Great Big Kiss” the identical 12 months, and “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” in 1965.
As Weiss was a minor, her mom signed her contracts. The group launched solely two studio albums earlier than shifting to Mercury Records and disbanding in 1968 amid litigation.
In 2007, Weiss recalled of the group’s busy years within the mid-’60s, “My entire life was a whirlwind … For four or five years, I would go to sleep and not remember what state I was in when I woke up because I would do a TV show in the morning and a radio thing in the afternoon, and be on a plane and be some place else. That was my life.”
“Initially, I loved the music. I didn’t like a lot of the things that came with it. I think it was very, very hard in 1964 to be a woman in the music business,” she stated.
Weiss admitted that her “tough image kept a lot of people away, which was really important for survival.”
“It was very difficult back then because I truly believe that a lot of men were considered ‘artists’ whether or not other people wrote for them. Women were considered products,” Weiss defined. “I always found that difficult to accept.”
The Shangri-Las shared live performance payments with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown and extra famed acts. Weiss recalled the time Brown booked the group for a present in Texas in a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, saying, “When I walked out onstage, I thought he was going to have a coronary. He didn’t realize I was white.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored “Leader of the Pack” in its singles class in 2019.
After her time performing with The Shangri-Las, Weiss went on to pursue a profession as a industrial inside designer and guide in New York City.
Weiss is survived by her husband, Ed, and sister, Liz, who’s the final residing member of The Shangri-Las.
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