Brain Wilson's immortal description of pop — "teenage symphonies to God" — fits the work of few other artists as well as it does the songs recorded by the Shangri-Las in the mid '60s. The Shangri-Las were meaningfully rivaled only by the Ronettes as the preeminent girl group of the era. They had everything: an appearance at once wholesome and somewhat unearthly, an attitude of belligerent sass underpinned by vulnerability, a somewhat eccentric producer/Svengali lurking behind the scenery (in this case George "Shadow" Morton), and a fantastic instinct for melodrama.

It's all there on their best-known hit, the Morton/Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich ballad "Leader of the Pack," with its spoken interludes, weeping strings and motorcycle noises. But everything that makes that guilelessly preposterous record such a joy forever is present throughout this superb collection. The Shangri-Las did most of their recording for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's Red Bird label, and were able to take their pick from some of the best writers of the moment. From this compilation, the highest peaks in a soaring range of gloriously arch pop include Ike Turner's "I'm Blue," the impeccable Boyce/Hart throwaway "The Dum Dum Ditty," the Harry Nilsson/Phil Spector co-write "Paradise" and Morton's own,… read more »