Motorbikes = death. Sudden, heartbreaking death. But cool death. This is what pop music teaches us. I have learnt my lesson well and you can thank my parents' music taste for the fact that I've made it this far in life! Both songs today were released in 1964 and were staples of my childhood. Oh, and the BBC banned them both. Nice work, Beeb!My favourite motorcycle death song is The Shangri-Las' Leader Of The Pack, with its famous spoken introduction and revving sounds. In life, it only takes someone to say, "You get the picture?" and I'm off, singing the whole thing!
There's a certain amount of doubt over the origins of this song. It's credited to George "Shadow" Morton with Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich but Morton claims he only added the others to the credits for business reasons. Even Billy Joel has tried to get in on the act, claiming he played piano on the record, but this has been denied by Greenwich. Anyway, forgetting all that nonsense, here's the song!
The Shangri-Las - Leader Of The Pack mp3 (available for 7 days)
The second song is by Twinkle, possibly the most inappropriately nicknamed singer ever. There's not a whole lot of twinkling going on. Perhaps I'm being unfair, since the only footage I've ever seen of her is when she's singing about being partially responsible for the death of her boyfriend. Fantastic song!
Twinkle - Terry mp3 (available for 7 days)
Ride carefully!
