Remember (Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las)
Remembering some songs that walked in the sand after her
I’ve always loved the Shangri-Las. You might think of “Leader of the Pack,” their most famous song, as an over-the-top joke; I don’t. Listening to it has made me cry. The class prejudice the song depicts is real, the details in the lyric are vivid and poignant, and the Shangri-Las sing it amazingly, especially lead singer Mary Weiss, who died yesterday at age 75. She was 15 when “Leader of the Pack” reached the top of the country’s music charts. Mary’s sister Betty was one of the backup singers; the other two were twins, Marge and Mary Ann Ganser — all of them students at Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York when they started.
“Leader of the Pack” was their second and biggest hit. Their first had been almost as big. Earlier in 1964 they’d hit the Top 5 with “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand),” another belter of a number, this one a love lament featuring meter shifts between a heavy 6/8 and a lighter 4/4*, great vocals from the group, and the sound of seagulls crying, evoking that beach where the protagonist remembers walkin’.
And rockers remembered the song. People borrowed from it for decades. The Beatles may have been rememberin’ it when they added seagull cries to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the last song on their 1966 album Revolver. I remember “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sang)” whenever I hear the bass-register, heavy, minor-key 6/8 riff of the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” (from 1969’s Abbey Road) — they’re not identical, but the vibe is similar.
Remember! Betty, Mary Anne, and Marge had sung, “Remember,” and Mary had answered, “Walkin’ in the sand.”
Remember!
“Walkin’ hand in hand.”
The B-52’s remembered. Fifteen years later, on their 1979 self-titled debut, Cindy Wilson opened the third song (“Dance This Mess Around”) with questions. “Remember when you held my hand? Say, you remember when you were my man?” She paused between “remember” and the rest of the lines — just as Mary had done, answering her group mates.
We know — know! — that the Beatles regarded the song highly, because when the three surviving members convened in 1994 to finish some demos by the late John Lennon, who had died in 1980, Paul McCartney quoted the song directly, music and lyrics.
Mary sang, opening the second verse, “Whatever happened to / The boy that I once knew?”
Lennon’s song didn’t have a bridge, so Paul . . . borrowed one from the Shangri-Las. The meter wasn’t 6/8, but the tune was very close for the first two lines, and so were the words. “Whatever happened to / The life that we once knew?”
Mary continues, “Oh what will happen to / The life I gave to you? / What will I do with it now?”
Paul: “Can we really live without each other?”
When George sings the bridge later, he truncates it. “Whatever happened to / The love that we once knew? / Always made me feel so free.”
It was only after my elder son pointed out the similarity between the two songs that I noticed other songs “remembering” the Shangri-Las’ classic.
George “Shadow” Morton wrote the Shangri-Las’ two biggest hits, their second one (“Leader”) in collaboration with the Brill Building titans Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. They wouldn’t have been hits without the great singing, though, especially that of the lead singer, the great Mary Weiss, who held nothing back. RIP.
Footnote.
* The rhythmic shift between 6/8 and 4/4 is subtle and clever. If you hear the 6/8 as a 2/2 with each half of the measure divided into triplets, the heavy, tripletted 2/2 is temporally equal to the lighter 4/4. Probably other songs do this too, and I’d just never stopped to measure the measures. It’s great.
Also: Thanks to my son Nat for the original insight.
Links.
"Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)". One of the great, great records. Dig the seagulls.
"Tomorrow Never Knows", written by Lennon and McCartney. So great. Dig the seagulls.
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)". Also by Lennon and McCartney. Not is the parenthetical subtitle reminiscent, and not only is the heavy, bass-register, minor-key riff in 6/8, but the meter shifts too. Still — a stretcher that I might not have thought of without the example of “Free as a Bird.”
"Dance This Mess Around." One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite groups. Cindy Wilson does Mary Weiss proud. Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider sing great too. Written by Wilson, Pierson, Schneider, guitarist Ricky Wilson (Cindy’s brother — another sibling act!), and drummer Keith Strickland.
"Free As a Bird." Credited to and original unfinished demo recorded by John Lennon. Song finished by McCartney, Harrison, and drummer Ringo Starr. George’s guitar solo over the Beatle-y backing vocals wows me. More birds!