ML: When the Shangri-Las first became successful, did neighborhood friends act differently towards you?

MW: It's a catch-22. They act differently towards you and meanwhile, you're still hitting that handball and hanging out, but you don't fit in anymore. It's them that's changed, not you. At the time, you think, "Oh, my God!!"

ML: Were the twins like you? Was there a shared Shangri-Las persona?

MW: Mary Ann and Margie were more assertive, actually, as far as their public persona. Both of them were much gruffer than me. They both had great senses of humor. They were pranksters.

BM: What'd they do?

MW: Mostly stupid stuff. Margie added an apostrophe and an 's' to Marvin Gaye's door and took the 's' off his last name and so his door read "Marvin's Gaye".

ML: Did the twins have similar personalities?

MW: They were very similar personality-wise. Margie was more aggressive than Mary Ann. When my sister wasn't in the group and it was just me and the twins, it was like, "Hello? What do you mean 'majority rules'?!" It was very devastating for Margie when Mary Ann died.

BM: Your sister didn't tour at first, but she still sang on all the records, right?

MW: Yes, the four of us were on the records. Liz is an extremely talented singer. We've been through so much together. Liz looked like Bardot when she was young. She lives near me now and has been happily married for 25 years.

ML: You went straight from playing neighborhood hops to big stages and national TV. Were you terrified?

MW: It didn't faze me much. Maybe it should have! (laughs)

BM: Those Murray The K shows at the Brooklyn Fox must have been brutal.

MW: They were real brutal. From early morning until late at night. Seven sets, back to back. You have a record on the charts - there you are! I did the Cow Palace and I don't know how many big arenas. Right after Remember came out, James Brown hired us to do a Coliseum show in Texas. They had signs put up COLORED GIRLS' and WHITE GIRLS' bathrooms and I got in a huge fight with a cop because I used the black women's bathroom and he drew his gun on me. I was absolutely amazed. This is backstage in a Coliseum and the white bathroom is on the entire other side of the floor. I really had to go and then get onstage!

BM: Is that where the song What's A Girl Supposed To Do got its inspiration?

MW: (laughs) I've never seen anything like that. What surprised me more was the other women in the bathroom looking at me with their mouths open. Earlier, when we did the afternoon sound check, James Brown's mouth fell open! He turned around and looked at me - here's this little blonde girl. He thought we were black. All the other performers were black and we were very nervous because we didn't know how the audience was going to respond. It turned out to be a great show!

BM: That's wild!

MW: We worked with James a few times. I was at his house once. He lived in St. Albans, the next town over from Cambria Heights. He had "JB" on the gate. We were just BS'ing there, basically. I liked him.

BM: There's a story of you putting Murray The K's motorcycle on the roof of the Fox.

MW: Come on, Murray didn't even have a motorcycle.

BM: But you did hit him in the face with a pie onstage at the Fox.

MW: That was long overdue! (laughs) One fun thing that we'd do at the Fox, was if there was a really good group onstage, we'd grab a microphone behind the back curtain and there'd be four part harmony going on like a chorus. It was wonderful!

BM: You played a bunch with the Zombies.

MW: They were great guys. Still are. I just saw them play at B.B. King's. They're still great! I wish them the very best in everything they do.

BM: What other groups did you pal around with?

MW: I didn't get to pal around with anybody. We were so busy. It was very different then. Now these singers say how rough they have it. They don't have a clue. Not a clue. Ride in a bus every night. Sleep every other night. See how that feels. People don't realize how hard it was back then. There were no monitors at the time. Sometimes you were screaming just to hear yourself singing. The Dick Clark Caravans, they were grueling shows. Every other night you'd sleep in a hotel. Sleep on the bus, then you'd have to get up and look perky. It's exhausting. But, there was one great thing at the end of the Dick Clark tours, because he'd have Caravans going all over the country and we'd all meet in one place and they'd have like a Battle of the Bands type thing with all the stars. Those were cool shows. You'd meet up in one arena, do one big show and then we'd all go home.

BM: Sometimes there were four of you and at various times, Liz, Margie and Mary Ann were off the road...

MW: And I was the one constant member. That was it. There's lots of BS written about our group. I've seen it written that we missed concerts, that the other girls did some shows without me. That's simply not true. I never missed a single show. I couldn't take a break. Everyone got exhausted and could take time off. Touring was exhausting. Most of the times when I woke up, I didn't know what state I was in. Too many buses, too many flights. Touring was a blur.

BM: Red Bird was owned by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller and George Goldner. What were your impressions of them?

MW: We were crazy about George Goldner. In fact, at the end of our first year on Red Bird, we bought George a huge television set, at that time, they didn't have them that big everywhere. We gave it to him with a big gold plaque on the front as a thank you present. It said, "George Goldner, Thank You, The Shangri-Las". It was a gesture from us. I don't think he got enough credit for anything at Red Bird. He was a kid who never grew up. Riding around in a Cadillac with the top down. He was like a very large child. I loved him.

BM: And Leiber and Stoller?

MW: Leiber and Stoller are wonderful people. They brought a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to all their artists. I have a lot of respect for them both, but they didn't work with us directly. They worked on songs with George Morton, then he worked with us.