The Shangri-Las' awe-inspiring girl group sounds aren't easy to anthologize. Many labels have tried and not many have succeeded in producing collections that do the group and the listener justice. Polygram Special Market's 1998 release
Leader of the Pack is one that fails. It is a seemingly randomly selected 11-song collection that manages to only include one of the group's three big hits ("Leader of the Pack"). It does pick up some of their better non-hit singles that have stood the test of time like "Out in the Streets," "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" and "Heaven Only Knows" but far too many of their classics are missing to make this a collection one could recommend to someone looking for an intro to the band. In fact there is pretty much no reason this disc needed to be made at all. ~ Tim Sendra