Shangri-Las singles

Walking In The Sand

"He Cried"/"Dressed In Black"

1965: "Give Him a Great Big Kiss"/"Twist And Shout" (U.S. #18)

"Give Him a Great Big Kiss"

Mwah!

Perfect: "What do you MEAN 'is he a good dancer?!!?'"

Heh, I was gonna post a simple "Mwah!" and leave it at that - too late!

Is anything creepier than "Past, Present & Future"?

Is there anything better?

"I Can Never Go Home Anymore."

PP&F is so ahead of it's time its a complete anomaly. The way she goes "Shall we dance?" after saying that, could you?

"He's good bad but he's not evil"

... but no, still Past, Present & Future by a million miles.

"Leader Of The Pack" is an eternal classic, so even if some of the others were great too, there is nothing that can possibly beat the best moment of the entire girl group era.

Fair point, but if you got the greatest hits CD (as I did in Germany), PP&F is the "whoa!" moment.

Probably Remember Walking In The Sand for me. I've never heard (of) the 1st single!

I've got a 7" of Leader Of The Pack, but I think it's some kind of jukebox edit, with certain parts extended, it's a bit of a dodgy edit and not as good as the version on the greatest hits CD I've got, which I assume is the original single version.

Give him a great big kiss MWAH!

Ooof. It's between "Remember" and "Out in the Streets" for me... "Remember" gets the vote though, with that that heavy reverb/echo and the seagulls...

so many great songs.
i chose "remember" cause of it's classiness,but when i think about this electric garagy guitar on the weirdy "matbe" i kinda regret i cant vote again.
"i can never go home" and "past,present" with their pre-nancy sinatra style "horror" atmosphere are also gotta be mentioned as candidates

Have soft spots for 'The Train from Kansas City' 'P,P &F' and 'Out in the Streets' (He don't *rest* hang around *rest* with the gang no more.....)

But it has to be 'Great Big Kiss' '...... dirty fingernails, oh, boy what a prize'

PP&F wins it, but special metion to Long Live Our Love for having the fantastic Sophisticated Boom Boom on the 'b' side.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I still have never seen anyone on ILM that doesn't love the Shangri-Las

I have this thing for "Maybe" but went with the "Pack" anyway.

college radio here in town played "Remember" this morning...the Shangri-La's are like the most permanently welcome sound in the music universe

"right now and not later"/"train from kansas city" - great song on the A side, otherworldly song on the B side. maybe the purest two-sided single in the bunch. plus it has train from kansas city. for fucks sake. the single greatest moment in recorded music is the sudden entry of the biggest snare drum ever recorded in the middle of the last verse. and there aren't too many lines in recorded music better than "i'll be back in the time it takes to break a heart." for fucks sake.

otm. Train From Kansas City might as well be my favourite song of all time.

Has there ever been a "Best Girl Group" poll yet? If not, someone should do one...

Was Never Again not a single? That's probably my favourite Shangri-Las song overall.

"right now and not later"/"train from kansas city" for me too

1966: "He Cried"/"Dressed In Black" (U.S. #65) is my favorite.

1965: "Out in the Streets"/"The Boy" (U.S. #53) would be my second choice.

The problem with the three big singles ("Remember", "Pack", "P, P, F") is that the B-sides are (relatively) weak ("It's Easier To Cry" is the best of them, but it's not one of their top 20 songs IMO.)

that's why i picked he cried/dressed in black. neither are my favorite songs, but they're the strongest pair, imo

oh no... oh no... oh no no no no no no...

REMEMBER!

I also voted for "He Cried/Dressed in Black"; they seemed to have layed the compression extra thick on those tracks, especially on the climax to "He Cried".

college radio here in town played "Remember" this morning...the Shangri-La's are like the most permanently welcome sound in the music universe

-- J0hn D., Friday, January 11, 2008 12:40 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Link

otm!!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

1966: "He Cried"/"Dressed In Black" got my vote

Don't try to touch me.
'cause that will never
happen
again.

For me, a toss-up between "Out in the Streets" and "The Train from Kansas City," even though it's "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" that has the line that I quote all the time.

"right now and not later"/"train from kansas city" - great song on the A side, otherworldly song on the B side. maybe the purest two-sided single in the bunch. plus it has train from kansas city. for fucks sake. the single greatest moment in recorded music is the sudden entry of the biggest snare drum ever recorded in the middle of the last verse. and there aren't too many lines in recorded music better than "i'll be back in the time it takes to break a heart." for fucks sake.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, January 11, 2008 3:05 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

this post otm

Still like "He Cried"/"Dressed In Black" the best of all of them. "He Cried" just slays the Jay & The American's version (and all others as well.)

"I met him at the place, where we always meet.
He put his arms around me, he smiled."

I guess I see three singles with pretty big knockouts on both sides:

"Right Now and Not Later"/"The Train From Kansas City"
"He Cried"/"Dressed In Black"
"Give Us Your Blessings"/"Heaven Only Knows"

(The first of those is my favorite overall.)

"Right Now and Not Later" was their big Motown tune.

out in the streets is my absolute fav