Shangri-Las-65! is the second album by the Shangri-Las. Released in September 1965, it serves as the follow-up album to Leader of the Pack, which was released earlier in the year.[1]
The original pressing of the album contains the singles "Out in the Streets", "Give Us Your Blessings" and "Right Now and Not Later". The second pressing includes the hit single "I Can Never Go Home Anymore", and excludes the album track "The Dum Dum Ditty". The second pressing was later repackaged and re-released as I Can Never Go Home Anymore.[4][5]
Other songs
"The Dum Dum Ditty" and "Sophisticated Boom Boom" had been released first as a single by another American female band, the Goodies, also in 1965, but failed to chart.[6][7] In retrospective reviews, AllMusic called the Shangri-Las version of "Sophisticated Boom Boom" a classic and highlighted its wry humor and "the funky James Brown groove" that permeates the track.[2][8]
Another of the album's songs, "What's a Girl Supposed to Do?", had also been released previously by another artist, Lesley Gore, in 1965. Dave Thompson compared the two versions in AllMusic: "whereas Gore recites the song with becoming innocence, the Shangri-Las sound, characteristically, somewhat raunchier – 'kiss him, hold him, hug him, love him'... and then a silence so suggestive that any further detail seems unnecessary."[9]
Mary Ann Ganser sang the lead vocal on "I'm Blue",[10] which is a cover of the Ikettes' 1961 hit song. "Heaven Only Knows" was the only Shangri-Las song that lead singer Mary Weiss recorded again, 42 years later, for her only solo album, Dangerous Game.[11]
