Lisa MacKinney in conversation

The Readings Podcast

In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of historian Lisa MacKinney’s book, Dressed in Black: The Shangri-Las and Their Recorded Legacy. MacKinney marshals an impressive array of new evidence to tell the story of the Shangri-Las, one of the most significant-and most misunderstood-pop groups of the 1960s. 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. 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 manipulat-ed and exploited by producers, songwriters, and label owners. For decades, this has 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 great achievement here is to foreground the Shangri-Las' considerable abilities and musicality, and establish the centrality of their performance of their songs to the group's underappreciated artistic achievement.