The Shangri-Las – The Shangri-Las (Great Artist Series)

The way I have accumulated most of my collection of old and odd media is by buying hand fulls of things without much care for specifics. But after listening to the Rock N’ Roll Collectors Edition cassettes I was able to give a name to the band that sung Leader of the Pack, a song I recall getting a fair amount of play on the CBC in the ’90s, but I could not tell you why. And here we have it, a collection of some of The Shangi-Las greatest hits (although it is not advertised as such)

The Shangri-Las was released by Audiofidelity Enterprises, Inc., in 1986, on their Greatest Artist Series, catelogue number GAS-783.

There are no bad songs on this compact cassette. Given that its a greatest-hits collection, this is not a surprise, but its still the truth. Stand outs for me are I Can Never go Home Anymore and Give Him a Great Big Kiss, in addition to Leader of the Pack, the song which brought me to this cassette in the first place. The chorus to Remember (Walking in the Sand) also really works for me, but unfortunately the rest of the song less so.

V.V. Brown uses a very similar intro line in her song L.O.V.E. as is used on Give Him a Great Big Kiss, and it is an homage I am into. “When I say I’m in love, you best believe I’m in love, L-U-V!”, vs. “You best believe I’m in love baby!”

My cassette is not of particularly high quality. It has not been mastered with Dolby noise canceling, the tape is type I, its noisy and degraded. Maybe is full of static that almost sound like another sound effect like in Remember or Leader of the Pack, but is sadly just tape degradation. I am happy I found this cassette so I could hear these songs, and now the quest continues to find a more pleasing format to listen to them on.