Best Of Shangri-Las - Millennium Collection (2002) (Remastered)

The Shangri-Las were among the most engaging and memorable girlgroups of the ’60s for several reasons. First, their bad-girl image was just a notch more outrageous than their contemporaries. Second, their hits were over-the-top symphonies of tragic relationships, dead boyfriends, runaways and other calamities. Third, producer Shadow Morton often underlined the emotional bleakness of the lyrics (both his, and the stellar work of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich) with stark vocals and instrumental touches that stood in contrast to Phil Spector’s reigning Wall of Sound. <br><br> The group’s quartet of top-20 hits, "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)," "Leader of the Pack," "Give Him a Great Big Kiss," and "I Can Never Go Home Again" are as solid as anything the girlgroup era produced, and as defining of the Shangri-Las sound as anything they recorded. In addition to these four essentials, this collection is filled out with excellent lesser-charting tracks, including the haunting "Out in the Streets," and the tragic runaways of "Give Us Your Blessings." Though the latter might have been just-another-teen-death-tune in lesser hands, Mary Weiss’ emotional half-spoken/half-sung vocal, the Shangri-Las’ harmonies, and Shadow Morton’s thundering sound effects create a truly memorable piece of music. <br><br> Weiss’ vocal also turned Jay & The Americans "She Cried" (recast here as "He Cried") from a pop hit into a truly gut-wrenching admission, and Morton’s "Past, Present and Future," with its purely spoken vocal and vamping classical piano, is at once the most over-the-top piece in the Shangri-Las’ catalog, and one of its most affecting. The soulful "Right Now and Not Later," riding a fat bassline, shows the Shangri-Las equally able of invoking the then-emerging Motown sound, as their cover of the Chantels’ "Maybe" shows them capable of classic 1950s girlgroup harmonies. <br><br> Mercury’s "Millennium Collection" provides a concise run-through of core Shangri-Las tracks, as well as one of their latter-day singles for Mercury ("The Sweet Sounds of Summer"), all in glorious mono. What’s missing are the B-sides and non-hit tracks that fully define their career. Those looking for a budget-priced distillation of the Shangri-Las greatness will enjoy this collection; those looking for more intimate detail should seek out Polygram’s 1996 "Best of the Shangri-Las" or RPM’s import " Myrmidons of Melodrama." <br><br> 3-3/4 stars, if buy.com allowed fractional ratings.
 
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