There are voices that you always remember and one of them is Mary Weiss. Formerly of the sixties' girl group The Shangri-Las, her distinctive voice blessed many a hit record. Since then very little has been heard from her but whilst rummaging through the racks in the local vinyl emporium, this LP was found. As is so often the case, it proved impossible to leave the shop without it.
Backed by the Reigning Sound, this is an album of songs that remain true to the girl group genre. "Nobody Knows (But I Do)" is right there in the groove with any of her sixties' releases. Perhaps reflecting on the way that the music business operates by forgetting everything and everyone but the latest thing, she laments the loss of the popular song beaming across the airwaves in "Cry about the Radio". Still, at least she is not stuck back in the days of her youth and the punky "Don't Come Back" gets things back up to speed. Likewise, "Tell Me What You Want Me to Do" continues to give it some sass spiced up with tasty guitar licks. The title track "Dangerous Game", by comparison, varies things somewhat with its cool, almost jazzy feel. There is also a respectful even laconic cover of "Heavenly Only Knows". Well, who else could do that song justice?
It has to be said that the album does kind of lack drama compared to the over the top Shadow Morton productions of the Shangri-Las releases but time passes - oh yes it does - and we all get mellower. So what we have here is a wiser, mellower Mary Weiss and that works just fine for us.
As you would expect of Norton Records, this album has been released on vinyl. It just would not seem right to be listening to Mary Weiss on some cold digital medium. That timeless quality of her voice would have been done a disservice by that. Bluesbunny feels more than a bit sentimental about this release. Having started in the whole record collecting thing with sixties girl groups, Bluesbunny felt all warm inside whilst listening to this album. Mary Weiss is still producing good music even after all this time. Nice one.