No Hits 5.30.05

Train From Kansas City (mp3) – The Shangri-Las

I came across a Shangri-Las collection (for the can’t-pass-up price of $6.99 at Laurie's Planet of Sound—home of the nicest record store employees in Chicago) this weekend and just had to highlight a single from this fabulous 60s girl group. A quick synopsis from Allmusic:

Along with the Shirelles and the Ronettes, the Shangri-Las were the greatest girl group; if judged solely on the basis of attitude, they were the greatest of them all. They combined an innocent adolescent charm with more than a hint of darkness, singing about dead bikers, teenage runaways, and doomed love affairs as well as ebullient high-school crushes. These could be delivered with either infectious, handclapping harmonies or melodramatic, almost operatic recitatives that were contrived but utterly effective. Tying it all together in the studio was Shadow Morton, a mad genius of a producer who may have been second in eccentric imagination only to Phil Spector in the mid-'60s.

Train From Kansas City was composed by powerhouse songwriting team Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich—also responsible for the Shangri-Las biggest hit, Leader of the Pack, the Dixie Cups’ Chapel of Love, The Ronettes’ Be My Baby, The Crystals' Then He Kissed Me and River Deep, Mountain High performed by Ike and Tina Turner.

As you can imagine, the song's been covered several times. For your downloading pleasure, I’ve got Neko Case’s 2004 version and a pop-punk rendition from Superchunk.

Train From Kansas City (mp3) – Neko Case

Train From Kansas City (mp3) – Superchunk

From The Tigers Have Spoken and Tossing Seeds (Singles 89-91).