LEADER OF THE PACK by THE SHANGRI-LAS

Set the furthest back in time of this Twins series are the Shangri-Las with their iconic "Leader of the Pack."

The 60s US girl group was made up of two sets of sisters - Mary and Betty Weiss and twins Margie and Mary-Ann Ganser. The girls were discovered singing at talent shows and school hops in and around the New York area and with striking angelic faces possessed a hard, piercing nasal sound.

Initial promo photo

Amy Winehouse was infatuated with their sound and once called their 1965 single I Can Never Go Home Anymore “the saddest song in the world”.

Named after a restaurant in Queens, NY, the girls had a string of melodramatic hits in the mid 1960s and their "tough girl" persona set them apart from other girl groups of the period. From a blue collar area of Queens, they were less demure than their contemporaries.

Betty Weiss left the 4-some in 1965 leaving them as a trio. They lost their recording deal and, unable to secure a new one, subsequently disbanded around the end of the 60s.

Shangri-Las as a trio

Sadly only Betty now remains from the original line-up with lead singer sister Mary passing away as recently as January of this year. The twins left us many years ago - Mary-Ann from a drug overdose in 1970 and Margie from cancer in 1996 at age 48.