Mary Weiss brought streetwise realism to the Shangri-Las – and let 60s girl groups flirt with danger | Pop and rock
When the mid-60s oeuvre of the Shangri-Las is discussed, attention often focusses on the input of their producer, George “Shadow” Morton. You can see why. From the moment you dropped the needle on the New York City girl group’s first hit, 1964’s Remember (Walking in the Sand), Morton’s production style was hard to ignore. Working, so he claimed, without any experience or musical ability, he was not a man at home with subtlety or good taste. He drenched everything in echo and slathered on dramatic sound effects: screaming…