ROGER THAT
Among the canon of 60s girl groups, the Shangri-Las were the sole Caucasian entity worth mentioning in the same breath as the Ronettes, the Supremes, the Crystals, or the Shirelles. Fronted by Mary Weiss, they were closest in spirit to the Ronettes with a street-savvy New Yorker spunk that later formed the heartbeat of punk. Their biker outfits and morbid lyrics further underscored their grit. While many of the death discs of the era are datedly cheesy, Weiss’s emotional delivery gave genuine sadness to the melodrama in “Leader of the Pack” and “I Can Never Go Home Anymore”. The similarly melancholic “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” was their finest hour, and they were just as convincing conveying sheer joy on “Give Him a Great Big Kiss”.
And if you were thinking I used this space to write about a legend, sadly never a DDP pick, to avoid having to write about a corrupt killer cop, you were right. I hear Roger Rogerson was bad. Hmm, he’s good-bad, but he’s not evil. Actually, he was evil. He was 83 and a pick for 20 Random Guys Part 3.
Roger Rogerson
3 January 1941 – 21 January 2024, aged 83
💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 10 POINTS