She was the leader of the teen-trauma pack
One of my favorite bits of music commentary came from a 5-year-old.
Out of the blue one day, he said: “Isn’t it amazing that Justin Bieber is a real person?”
That comes to mind now, with word that Mary Weiss, lead singer of the Shangri-Las (shown here, with Weiss at right), died Friday (Jan. 19), at 75.
There was a neatly other-world feeling to her “Leader of the Pack.” In three minutes, it told a complete teen soap opera, from first meeting (in a candy store, no less) to a jolting motorcycle death, with the word “gone” repeated 26 times.
So it’s good to know that behind all that heightened drama was a real person – a 15-year-old who grew up poor, became briefly famous, then retreated into a life that included being an accountant, businesswoman, decorator and comeback singer. Read more…