Mary Weiss, the lead singer of the Shangri-Las, achieved fame at 15 with the hit song "Leader of the Pack." Her personal life wasn't easy, though, and she put a lot of her own emotions into the song.

The Shangri-Las had their very first hit in 1964 with "Remember (Walking in the Sand)." Weiss was 14 at the time. By 1968, the group had disbanded amid legal disputes.

The photo of Weiss accompanying this episode was cropped from a group publicity shot taken in 1964 and distributed by Red Bird Records. It's available on Wikipedia.

If you want to hear "Leader of the Pack," you can find a version on YouTube.

Sheldon Zoldan's tribute to Weiss is one of 40 stories that the longtime journalist has written about the music notables who passed away in 2024. He's written these life stories for other years, as well. You can listen to the 2023 tributes on Everyday Creation. We'll have the 2022 tributes available later this year.

Sheldon also is the creator of Song of the Day, a story that he sends by email to a list of subscribers. To get on his subscriber list, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to Everyday Creation, available on YouTube and in podcast directories including Apple, Audible, iHeart and Spotify.