Leader Of The Pack

The "leader of the pack" is the archetypical bad boy - the guy you definitely don't want your daughter to date. He's head of a motorcycle gang, and in this song, the girl falls for him hard. Her father forbids her from seeing him, so she breaks it off. He gives her one last kiss, then rides off into the rain, meeting his doom when he crashes his bike.

This is a tale of young love, parental disapproval, and death by motorbike. Mary Weiss, the lead vocalist of the Shangri-Las, said in Telegraph magazine, April 14, 2007, "I don't think I would be able to put feeling into the song unless I had really thought about the lyrics. I put a lot of my own pain into that song. I don't think teenage years are all that rosy for a lot of people - they certainly weren't for me. They are the most confusing time of people's lives and there is a tremendous dark side to the record, which I think teenagers related to. The studio was a great place to let the pain out." She went on to comment: "I thought it was amusing when they (British radio and TV stations) banned 'Leader' because of the mod and rocker stuff. When I got off the plane in my leather jacket everyone knew which side I was on."

This was written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and producer Shadow Morton. Morton was looking for a follow-up to the first Shangri-Las' hit, "Remember (Walking in the Sand)." He had a motorcycle and was part of a motorcycle gang in his youth, so he, Greenwich and Barry decided to use that as the theme. Together, they came up with the rather dramatic story, being sure to name the characters in the lyric (Betty and Johnny) so the listener could form an attachment. A hallmark of the song is the spoken dialogue that sets up the story.