Death Discs: Leader of the Pack

Lyric Lowdown

The song is about a girl named Betty, who is asked by friends to confirm that she is dating Jimmy, the leader of a motorcycle gang, whose ring they see on Betty's finger. After singing of love at first sight ("(By the way, where'd you meet him?) I met him at the candy store/He turned around and smiled at me/You get the picture?/(Yes, we see) That's when I fell for the Leader of the Pack"), Betty's heart turns to despair as she bemoans her parents' disapproval. The parents claim Jimmy hails from "the wrong side of town" and ask Betty to tell Jimmy goodbye and find someone new. Betty reluctantly does as she is asked, and a crushed and tearful Jimmy speeds off on his motorcycle. Moments later, Jimmy crashes on a rain-slicked surface and dies; Betty's pleas for Jimmy to slow down are in vain.

The Birth of a Classic

The tune of "Leader of the Pack" has been credited to impresario George "Shadow" Morton together with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. Morton has said that he wrote the song for the Goodies (also known as the Bunnies), but instead it was needed as a follow-up to the Shangri-Las hit "Remember (Walking in the Sand)".

Morton claims he didn't know  he was expected to have a second idea ready to follow up "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" until Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller asked him, "Hey, what do you want to do for the second record?"

Morton said he "got a bottle of champagne, two cigars" and "went into the shower, sat down, drank the champagne, smoked the cigars, and wrote the song on a shirt cardboard with my kids crayons."

Legend Says

To add the authentic sound of a motorcycle engine, one was actually driven through the lobby of the hotel and up to the floor of the recording studio. Although no one was arrested, it didn't stop a ticket being issued.

Four decades later, however, Shangri-Las lead singer Mary Weiss claimed the motorcycle sound was taken from an effects record. Hugh Grundy, drummer for The Zombies, recalls revving up a motorcycle backstage when the Shangri-Las performed on a U.S. tour.

Reception

The record was released as a single by Red Bird Records, which was a Leiber and Stoller label, and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on November 28, 1964.

In the United Kingdom, the single was refused airplay by the BBC, probably due to its death theme, although some have speculated that it was considered likely to encourage violence between mods and rockers.

Interestingly, even though the song had been banned by Auntie Beeb, that didn't stop it intruding on a Sunday morning service broadcast by the BBC from the chapel choir at Keele University. The choir had been singing Christ is Our Cornerstone as part of a commemorative service to mark the passing of Winston Churchill, when suddenly Leader of the Pack came blaring into proceedings, played it is said, by a free spirited drama student over the halls PA system in protest to the song being banned. The choir, in an attempt to drown it out, sang louder but it made no difference and the BBC simply faded the choir out and the recording was never repeated or ever completed.

Regardless, it charted three times on the UK Singles Chart: number 11 in 1965; number 3 in 1972 (by which time the BBC ban had been lifted); and once again at number 7 in 1976, when its sales figures as a reissue on two different labels (Charly and Contempo) were combined to arrive at its chart position.

*

Mm--"Is she really going out with him?
"Well, there she is, Let's ask her"
"Betty, is that Jimmy's ring you're wearing?"
"Mm-hm"
"Gee, it must be great riding with him"
"Is he picking you up after school today?"
"Mm-mm"
"By the way, where did you meet him?"

"I met him at the candy store
He turned around and smiled at me
You get the picture
"Yes, we see"
That's when I fell for the leader of the pack

My folks were always putting him down
They said he came from the wrong side of town
They told me he was bad but I knew he was sad
That's why I fell for the leader of the pack

One day my dad said find someone new
I had to tell my Jimmy we're through
He stood there and asked me why, but all I could do was cry
I'm sorry I hurt you, the leader of the pack

He sort of smiled and kissed me good bye
The tears were beginning to show
As he drove away on that rainy night,
I begged him to go slow, whether he heard,
I'll never know Look out! Look out! Look out!

I felt so helpless, what could I do
Remembering all the things we'd been through?
In school they all stop and stare
I can't hide the tears, but I don't care
I'll never forget him, the leader of the pack

Ooh, the leader of the pack now he's gone
the leader of the pack now he's gone
the leader of the pack now he's gone

***

Previous Songs In This Series:

Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton
Endless Sleep - Jody Reynolds

Death Discs: Endless Sleep

Another of my favourite death discs is the 1958 top ten single ‘Endless Sleep’ by Jody Reynolds and is the feature of this Death Discs post.

Jody Reynolds, a singer, guitarist and song writer is considered one of the pioneers of the rockabilly movement and was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1999. Taking up playing the guitar in the mid 1940’s he was later influenced by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins and started on his path to rockabilly in the mid-fifties.

It was while performing in San Diego that he met Herb Montel. It wasn’t until Montel heard Endless Sleep that he got Reynolds signed to Demon Records. Although a very capable guitarist in his own right, the recording of the song features Al Casey and Howard Roberts. And even though ‘Endless Sleep’ had been written solely by Reynolds, the fictitious Dolores Nance was also credited in a bid to make it look as though it had been written by a professional team of songwriters.

‘Endless Sleep’ tells the story of a young man searching desperately for his girlfriend after an argument and who it transpires, has thrown herself into the ocean. A reluctant Reynolds was persuaded to change the lyrics, thus giving the song a happy ending.

With spooky echo laden vocals, the song reached number five on the US Billboard chart, starting a trend in teenage tragedy songs.

"The night was black, rain fallin' down
Looked for my baby, she's nowhere around
Traced her footsteps down to the shore
‘fraid she's gone forever more

I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
“I took your baby from you away.
I heard a voice cryin' in the deep
“Come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.

Why did we quarrel, why did we fight?
Why did I leave her alone tonight?
That's why her footsteps ran into the sea
That's why my baby has gone from me.

I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
“I took your baby from you away.
I heard a voice cryin' in the deep
“Come join me, baby, in my endless sleep.

Ran in the water, heart full of fear
There in the breakers I saw her near
Reached for my darlin', held her to me
Stole her away from the angry sea

I looked at the sea and it seemed to say
“You took your baby from me away.
My heart cried out “she's mine to keep
I saved my baby from an endless sleep."

***

Previous Songs In This Series:

Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton

Death Discs: Johnny Remember Me

In the late fifties and into the early sixties, there was a style of popular ballad, dubbed by DJ’s as Death Discs, Splatter Platters, Tear Jerkers or, The Teenage Tragedy Song.  These songs focused on overemotional death scenarios and were usually sung from the viewpoint of the one left behind when their beloved had left this mortal coil.

The first of these death discs was Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots, written by Leiber and Stoller, released just prior to the death of James Dean; in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, it made its steady way up the charts.

There was a common theme running through these songs: reckless youth, ill-fated lovers, undying devotion, suicide, and despair over lost love teamed with important teen essentials such as dating, motorcycles and cars and the ever relatable, disapproving parents.

One of my absolute favourite songs happens to be of this genre and is the hauntingly atmospheric: Johnny Remember Me. Produced by Joe Meek and becoming his first number one as a producer, it was taken to the number one spot in the charts by John Leyton backed by The Outlaws in 1961.




Joe Meek

The song tells the tale of a young man haunted by his dead lover and is regarded as one of the most famous of the death discs.  It has an eerie quality, helped enormously by Joe Meek’s trademark echoing production sound and the mournful wailing voice of Lissa Gray whose voice carries through the entirety of the track with her haunting lament of Johnny, Remember Me ….

The song was written by Geoff Goddard who woke inspired and sang the song straight into the tape recorder which he kept by the side of his bed.



Geoff Goddard

At the time of recording, John Leyton was acting in the televeision series Harpers West One where he played a rock star named Johnny Saint Cyr. The song was performed in an episode as Saint Cyr is surrounded by adoring fans. It was this exposure that gave the song popularity and assured that it quickly made its way to number one.

 

John Leyton

During its appearance on Juke Box Jury, Spike Milligan dubbed it the son of Ghost Riders in The Sky and predicted it would not be a hit and in 2012, journalist Tom Ewing described it as "the weirdest and most gripping British record to hit the top yet", with Leyton's vocal "clutching at your sleeve, desperate to tell a story of loss and madness. Meek turns the drums into phantom horsemen and fills the record's dark spaces with melodrama – a keening female voice on the chorus rounds the effect off.”

John Leyton

Interestingly, the song was banned by the BBC at the time, along with many other popular death discs.

"When the mist's a-rising and the rain is falling
And the wind is blowing cold across the moor
I hear the voice of my darlin'
The girl I loved and lost a year ago

(Johnny remember me)

Well it's hard to believe I know
But I hear her singing in the sighing of the wind
Blowin' in the tree tops way above me

(Johnny remember me)

Yes I'll always remember
Till the day I die
I'll hear her cry
Johnny remember me

Well some day I guess
I'll find myself another little girl
To take the place of my true love
But as long as I live I know
I'll hear her singing in the sighing of the wind
Blowin' in the tree tops way above me

(Johnny remember me)

Yes I'll always remember
Till the day I die
I'll hear her cry
Johnny remember me

(Johnny remember me)"