The Shangri-Las’ Golden Hits of the Shangri-Las (2019)

With this 33-1/3 volume I had the impression author Ada Wolin was more interested in researching and writing about girl groups generally, and the Shangri-Las specifically, than anything about any album. One expectation or hope I brought with me is that a best-of in this series would address the ongoing simmering controversy about the validity of best-of collections versus more intentional or “authentic” album releases. Instead, and this surprised me, I found myself once again hearing out arguments about rockism and poptimism. Well, OK, I guess. Golden Hits of the Shangri-Las has the distinction of being the first of many Shangri-Las collections, released in 1966 and marking (amazingly) the de facto end of their career. As Wolin points out, many of them were not even 20 yet in 1966. Golden Hits also has the advantage of being succinct: 32 minutes, 12 songs, not even that many of them genuine top 40 hits. The Shangri-Las are a decidedly strange beast—a girl group, yes, of course, but distinct and apart, somehow anticipating punk-rock convulsions years before impact. Wolin has a number of bones to pick with narrative history and consequences (as do we all, at least those of us suffering under material contrarian instincts). I thought some of those bones contradicted one another. She objects, for example, to the performers in girl groups getting attention only behind the songwriters and producers. More specifically she objects to Shadow Morton getting so much credit for the Shangri-Las. She cites critics—and by name: Saul Austerlitz, Ted Gioia, and others—on their quick dismissals of performers in favor of producers. Yet elsewhere she gives Morton his due, which is not negligible. “Leader of the Pack” was a staple of radio and commercials for decades and even has a certain amount of fatigue attached to it now. “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” and some of the others I know well and still enjoy for various details. The one I love best is the domestic drama “I Can Never Go Home Anymore.” Wolin keeps her distance from it and seems reluctant to credit it as more than sentimental and manipulative, which may be fair enough but left me not entirely trusting her views. But she’s out there fighting for the legitimacy of the Shangri-Las and that’s the good fight.

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over.