Dressed In Black - Lisa MacKinney

Sisters Mary and Betty Weiss, together with twins Mary Ann and Marguerite Ganser, were schoolgirls when they formed the Shangri- Las in 1963, and had a meteoric rise to fame with songs like ''Leader of the Pack'' and ''Remember (Walking in the Sand).'' Their career was cut short for reasons largely beyond their control, derailed by the machinations of Mafia-linked record executives, and heartbreak and tragedy followed. Historian Lisa MacKinney marshals an impressive array of new evidence to tell the Shangri-Las'' story, dispelling many myths and long-standing mysteries along the way. Equally importantly, Dressed in Black radically rewrites the accepted narrative of the Shangri-Las'' place in rock history. As young women, they were permitted little agency within a male-dominated industry that viewed teenagers as fodder to be manipulated and exploited by producers, songwriters, and label owners. This has long served as an excuse for critics to deny the musical input of the group members, to trivialize the Shangri-Las as a ''girl group,'' and to assign their work a lesser rank in the canon of ''authentic'' rock and roll. MacKinney''s achievement here is to foreground the Shangri-Las'' considerable abilities, and establish the centrality of their performance of their songs to the group''s underappreciated artistic achievement. This is not to deny the critical role in the group''s success of the legendary writer/producer George ''Shadow'' Morton, but MacKinney''s clear-sighted acc
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