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Hi folks! What’s going on? It’s been another fun filled week here at Sorry State Industries. We’ve been buying some good used records, including a nice collection of hip-hop records that will hit the bins this week and next. There have been a bunch of new arrivals and restocks from some of our favorite labels. Then there has been the legendary North Carolina weather. From pipe freezing temperatures in the teens to short sleeves and 70s within a couple of days. Nice.
I’ve been dealing with the struggles of life recently and it’s been affecting my mood. Thankfully, I have work, music, and football to keep my mind occupied and distracted. That always does the trick. There’s never a dull moment here at SSR and my Reds are still top of the league and have already booked a trip to Wembley for a cup final in what will now be our manager Jurgen Klopp’s final season. However, this past week, the news of two music legends passing saddened me. In case you didn’t hear, we lost soul and jazz singer Marlena Shaw and lead singer from sixties girl group legends The Shangri-Las, Mary Weiss. Both ladies are cultural icons and their contribution to popular music cannot be overstated.
Marlena Shaw recorded for the Chicago based Cadet/Chess label in the late sixties, releasing the classic The Spice Of Life album in 1969, a Charles Stepney and Richard Evans production that has her great version of California Soul on it and the immortal Woman Of The Ghetto among others. Sounds that hip-hop producers would use years later. In the 70s, Shaw switched to Blue Note and released a series of credible and entertaining jazz-funk records before moving labels again to Columbia where she recorded some good disco influenced albums. Marlena continued to record and perform throughout the 80s and 90s and her live album from 1987 helped relaunch the new era of Verve Records. Like a lot of people of my generation, I discovered her music through samples in hip-hop. When DJ Blue Boy had a hit with Remember Me in the late 90s, everyone knew Marlena Shaw’s name. That record sampled her singing from the original Cadet record and a later live recording captured at Montreaux.
I’ve found most of her records in the wild over the years, including the Spice Of Life album and the key singles from it. There is still one of the 70s Blue Note albums I need though. Fingers crossed it will find its way to me soon. Fingers also crossed I can find the copies of the records that I do have. My storage has gotten a bit out of hand recently and finding records I know I have has become a problem. I couldn’t find all my Marlena records, but they’re there someplace.
Mary Weiss’s career in music began as a teenager in Queens, New York in the early 60s, where with her sister Betty and friends, twin sisters, Margie and Mary Ann Ganser, they formed the Shangri-Las. With the help of Brill Building songwriters and producers like Shadow Morton, they notched up a series of hits between 1964 and 1966 on Red Bird Records. Songs like Leader Of The Pack, Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand) and Give Him A Great Big Kiss literally helped define the Girl Group sound. They switched labels in 1966 to Mercury and continued with lesser success until 1968, when they broke up. The musical landscape was changing so fast in the 1960s and successful formulas dated very quickly. Not that the Girl Group sound and the legacy of the Shangri-Las ever diminished. The music is timeless, and it doesn’t matter what age you are, these teenage melodramas about love are still relevant.
After the breakup of the group, Mary Weiss, still barely out of her teens, switched gears and professions. Through her husband she got into interior design and industrial furnishing, something that she made a successful career at. There were a couple of one-off reunions over the years, but essentially from 1989, Mary did not sing at all. As she herself said, not even to the radio in the car. Then, a few years into the new millennium, she was coaxed out of retirement, resulting in 2007’s Dangerous Game album that was released on Norton Records, the perfect label for her comeback. On the album she is backed by The Reigning Sound and main man Greg Cartwright contributes on song writing duties also. Respectfully keeping an authentic “retro” feel to proceedings, the resulting album is a real treasure and a terrific comeback. Despite not having performed for years, Mary sounds fantastic, and the record not only has The Reigning Sound backing her but also features Miriam Linna and Billy Miller on some backing vocals. It was on Norton after all.
I was still living in New York then and remember the excitement surrounding this record coming out. For fans of the Shangri-Las and the girl group sound, it was a big deal having Mary back. I recall going to one of the early shows, which may or may not have been at the awesome venue Magnetic Field. My memory is a little foggy. I left the city shortly after, but will always associate this record with my living there and my experiences, especially with it being on Norton, a label dear to the hearts of all record collectors of a certain disposition. The album serves as a love letter from a previous time.
I’ll admit it had been a while since I last played the album, but I’ve listened to it a few times this week, including twice here in the store where it received a thumbs up from both Jeff and John Scott. So, if you don’t trust my cloth ears you might take their word for it. LoL.
As always, thank you for reading and thank you for your support.
Cheers, Dom