(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please refer to the "Poor Little Fool" post)
The Shangri-Las - "Leader of the Pack"
Hit Number 1: November 28, 1964
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
1964 has to be one of the greatest years in the history of music. Two of the best musical acts of all time in the Beatles and the Supremes were getting their start, and along with the Beatles, the British Invasion was bringing a new and exciting sound that the public were losing their minds for. However, something that had pretty much gone away all together were "teen tragedy" songs, where songs about true love would turn into a song about either the narrator or another character in the song dying in the most random ways. I have never been a fan of these songs. I don't see the point in them. I don't understand why people felt it was necessary to take a nice enough love song, and turn it into a damn tragedy. I thought I was past all of that crap, and it was long since in the rearview mirror, but unfortunately I was wrong, cause "Leader of the Pack" somehow hit #1 in the midst of all this amazing music.
The song was co-written by the familiar team of Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich who also wrote "Chapel of Love" that hit #1 earlier in 1964. However, George "Shadow" Morton has probably the biggest contribution in the writing of the song, and he had a group called the Goodies in mind to record it, but it was instead passed down to the Shangri-Las who needed a follow up single to their #5 hit "Remember (Walking in the Sand)". (That song is a 5) After Morton was approached by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller (co-owners of Red Bird Records), they asked him what he had in store for the next record, but he didn't know he was supposed to have one ready on the spot. He says that he "got a bottle of champagne, two cigars, went into the shower, sat down, drank the champagne, smoked the cigars, and wrote the song on a shirt cardboard with my kid's crayons".
Apparently, the instrumental track took 63 takes before Morton was finally satisfied. If they were going to put so much time and effort into a song, you would think that the product would be amazing. The product is not amazing. The song's story tells of a girl named Betty who apparently meets some rebel guy named Jimmy at a candy store (the last place you'd expect to find someone like that), and takes a liking to him, then they get together. Her friends are intrigued by that, and all seems like it's going fairly well. But then Betty's parents tell her that Jimmy's from "the wrong side of town" and that he's no good, so they request that she breaks up with him. She reluctantly does, and Jimmy tears up and drives away recklessly on his motorcycle. Betty yells at him to "LOOK OUT!" but it doesn't matter, cause he crashes and dies. Betty is obviously devastated by that, and that's the song.
The story is obviously ridiculous, and it's kind of like a mixture of "Teen Angel" and "He's a Rebel". But those songs aren't as BAD as "Leader of the Pack". They threw a bunch of unnecessary crap into it. The backup "singers" are so monotone, and they sound like they hate being there in the studio. The repetitive motorcycle revving sound, along with the crashing sound towards the end, is annoying as all hell and makes me want to slam by head into a brick wall. The worst part might be when lead singer Mary Weiss yells "LOOK OUT!" at Jimmy, cause that mixed with the crashing sound of the motorcycle is a whirlwind of annoying sounds that do nothing but irritate me. On a side note, do they really have to kill the guy at the end? Maybe he could've been injured instead? Honestly, screw the teen tragedy songs. I thought we were done with this crap! I just don't understand how this even happened. I'll chalk it up to WAY too much champagne being drank by Morton. Screw "Leader of the Pack".
GRADE: 1/10
10 ALERT!!!:
A tragedy in and of itself, the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" peaked at #7 behind "Leader of the Pack". It's a 10, and way better than the piece of garbage at #1 at that time.
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