George “Shadow” Morton was the auteur producer behind the Shangri-Las. Their first record was their greatest: 1964′ “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand).” You can listen to it below and see the group, though the footage is not synced to the song.

Years later Morton produced the New York Dolls’ second album, Too Much Too Soon.

Morton died this year, and in today’s New York Times Magazine, Rob Hoerburger writes about him and that record.

What a strange record it was: a song about a girl who gets a Dear Jane letter, alternately wailed and whispered, with thudding piano chords and a choir of sea gulls. “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand),” released in mid-1964, did something that few pop songs had dared: It overflowed with messy details. There was pathos, passion, wistful reminiscence, the possibility of dire consequences, all conveyed in 2 minutes 18 seconds by four way-too-knowing teenagers from Queens called the Shangri-Las. And it sprang from the mind of a 22-year-old who had never published or produced a song in his life, who just weeks before the record came out was scooping ice cream.

Read the story about “Shadow” Morton here.

“Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)”:

“Leader of the Pack”:

New York Dolls, Too Much Too Soon:

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-