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Pop music and teenage melodrama have always kept close company, but with the Shangri-Las, that kinship arguably reached its apogee. This all-girl quartet from Queens, New York plumbed the dark side of high-school romance. Their emphasis on life’s messier emotions, as well as the hints of racy rock ‘n’ roll attitude in their performance (such as the skin-tight leather outfits they sometimes wore live), set them apart from other 1960s ‘girl groups.’ — Mac Randall