When it comes to The Shangri-Las, my knowledge doesn’t stretch much further than their greatest hits, led by the glorious Leader Of The Pack.

So when this song caught my ear in this year’s motorcycle gang movie The Bikeriders, I had to look it up.

Narrated by a girl who’s sad that her boy gave up the gang life for her could have been written for the character played by Jodie Comer, who stars alongside Austin Butler and Tom Hardy.

In fact it was written 60 years earlier for the girl group by the peerless songwriting team of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry who penned all those timeless Phil Spector hits – Da Doo Ron Ron, Be My Baby, Then He Kissed Me…

This, though, w.as produced not by that murderous pop genius but by Shadow Morton, who had written their previous chart topper Leader Of The Pack.

It came out in 1953 and was only a minor hit, which must explain why I hadn’t heard it before, though it was covered by Blondie a decade later (but not released until 1994).

The group consisted was formed at high school in the New York borough of Queens by two pairs of sisters: lead singer Mary Weiss and Elizabeth (aka “Betty”, and identical twins Marguerite (aka “Marge”) and Mary Ann Ganser.

They began playing school shows, talent shows, and teen hops, naming themselves The Shangri-Las after a restaurant in their neighbourhood; their first recording in December 1963 was Simon Says, on which Betty Weiss sang lead.

The girls were aged between 14 and 16 at the time. They also recorded Wishing Well / Hate to Say I Told You So, which became their first release in early 1964, followed by the summer hit Remember (Walking In The Sand), featuring a young session pianist called Billy Joel on their original demo.

By the time they released this in 1965 the girls had performed with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and James Brown… who was surprised to find they were white.