Leader of the Pack
| Leader of the Pack | |
|---|---|
| The Shangri-Las | |
| publication | 1964 |
| length | 2:48 |
| Genre (s) | pop |
| Author (s) | Jeff Barry / Ellie Greenwich / George Morton |
| Publisher (s) | Tender Tunes / Trio Music Co. |
Leader of the Pack is a pop song by the girls group The Shangri-Las from 1964. The piece is described by critics as "one of the greatest mini-operas in pop music ", "an unforgettable classic" and "an absolute masterpiece of a teenage anthem". The title reached number one on the US pop charts and is number 180 on the Songs of the Century list .
Emergence
With the song Remember (Walking in the Sand) , the Shangri-Las had their first record success in the British and US charts in September 1964. With the subsequent recording Leader of the Pack (about: leader of the gang ) the group managed to create its own characteristic niche in pop music. Written by Jeff Barry , Ellie Greenwich and George “Shadow” Morton , this was an archetypal rocker melodrama from a female point of view compressed to 2:48 minutes and thus “single-brevity”: “A girl meets a boy, falls in love with him , the boy dies in a motorcycle accident ”.
The author Ellie Greenwich reported about the creation of the song:
“The piece was meant completely seriously. There was always that bad boy every girl wanted to date, but no - Mum and Dad would never have allowed that. And then there was the motorcycle. If you started making money in the 60s, you bought a motorcycle. So we picked up on this trend, made a love story and then a somewhat macabre element. And that's how a little soap opera came about. "
Her husband and co-writer Jeff Barry added about the recording sessions:
“16-year-old Mary Weiss was supposed to let her emotions run free - and she cried when she was taken. You can hear it on the record. "
content
The song begins with a spoken, only minimally instrumental conversation between friends:
“Is she really going with him?
Oh, there she comes - let's ask her.
Betty, is your ring from Jimmy?
[affirmative] ahm
God, it must be great to ride with him!
Will he pick you up after school?
[negative] m-mm
Where did you actually meet him? "
At this point the protagonist falls into an orchestral chant:
“I met him in the candy store;
he turned and smiled at me - can you imagine that?
[Chorus replies:] Yes, we see it before us.
That's when I fell in love with the leader of the motorcycle gang. "
The sound effect of the last movement is the repeated opening and closing of a motorcycle throttle. The middle section shows the young girl's demarcation from her parents ("They always say he's bad, but I know he's just sad."), Who have forbidden her to interact with Jimmy. The third verse describes the situation immediately after she informed him of the forced end of her friendship: in front of her plaintive background song you can hear the sound of a motorcycle again, this time with screeching brakes, to which she repeatedly shouts "Watch out!" Noise of a vehicle collision goes down.
success
On November 28, 1964, the single had made it to number 1 in the United States ; the song also took first place in Australia. In January 1965 the piece also reached the British charts and climbed to number eleven there. In 1972 and 1976 the title made it into the British charts again; both times he reached the top ten this time. It has been sold 1.2 million times worldwide.
In 2004 Rolling Stone chose the title at number 447 in its list of the 500 best songs of all time .
Further use
1984 was Broadway - musical Leader of the Pack premiered, based on the songs of Ellie Greenwich. The song can also be heard in the opening scene of the first Duisburg Tatort episode with Götz George . In 1990 the title was used in the soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas .
The song has been covered several times , including by Bette Midler and the hard rock band Twisted Sister . By the end of 1964 had The Detergents (Washing) under the title Leader of the Laundromat ( leader of the launderette ) published a parody of this hit, which also make it into the US top ten 1965th As The Hog brought the Crazy Girls 1965 a German-language version on the market. Another text was later presented by Udo Lindenberg ( Der Boss von der Gang , 1978).
The intro question "Is she really going out with him?" Was quoted by the Damned in the intro of their first single New Rose from 1976 as an homage to Leader of the Pack .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Richard Williams, author of Melody Maker , in his record cover text on Golden Hits Of The Shangri-Las , Deutsche Philips 6336 215 (1966)
- ↑ a b c Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Billboard Publications, New York NY 1992, ISBN 0-8230-8298-9 , p. 160
- ↑ Charlotte Greig: Will you still love me tomorrow? Girl bands from the 50s to today. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-499-18854-6 , p. 99
- ^ Barry Graves, Siegfried Schmidt-Joos, Bernward Halbscheffel: Rock-Lexikon. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2003 (one-volume special edition), ISBN 3-499-61588-6 , p. 830
- ↑ Charlotte Greig: Will you still love me tomorrow? Girl bands from the 50s to today. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1991, ISBN 3-499-18854-6 , p. 100
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 198
- ↑ cf. www. readysteadygirls. eu / # / crazy-girls / 4524654318: The Crazy Girls at Ready Steady Girls! (Spam filter)
- ↑ Mike Shallcross, The Damned's Dave Vanian on what 40 years of punk has taught him , in GQ online November 23, 2019, accessed December 5, 2019