"Remember ", also known as "Remember", is a song written by George "Shadow" Morton. It was originally recorded by the girl group The Shangri-Las, who had a top five hit with it in 1964. A remake by Aerosmith in 1979 was a minor hit. There have been many other versions of the song as well.
The Shangri-Las' version
Background
Morton was looking to break into the music business, and went to the Brill Building in New York City to see an old girlfriend, Ellie Greenwich, who had become a successful pop songwriter. Morton and Greenwich's writing partner, Jeff Barry, took a dislike to one another. Asked what he did for a living, Morton replied "I write songs", although he had never written one. When Barry asked him what kind, Morton retorted, "Hit songs!" Barry said he would love to hear one of Morton's tunes, and invited him to come back the following week with something. Morton hired a teenage group from Queens, The Shangri-Las, to sing. Realizing that he did not have a song yet, he immediately wrote "Remember ". There are several stories as to how it was written. One is that immediately upon his realization of not having a song, he parked next to a beach on Long Island and there wrote the song. The song contains recurring seagulls-and-surf sound effects. He used The Shangri-Las on the demo, which he himself produced. Jeff Barry was impressed and Red Bird Records picked up the song for release and signed Morton and The Shangri-Las to contracts. According to some accounts, the original version was nearly seven minutes long. In order to fit the AM radio format of the time, the song had to be cut in length, but rather than edit it, Morton simply faded it out after 2:10. In another version Morton presents the demo to various Red Bird staffers, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Artie Butler and others and they and some session musicians took the demo into the studio where it became, "a whole other record."
Reception
The song was released as the third single by The Shangri-Las, their first on Red Bird Records, and became a number five hit on the BillboardHot 100, and number nine on the Cashbox R&B chart. It also hit number fourteen on the UK Singles Chart, and became more successful in the UK when reissued on several occasions in the 1970s. As noted above, Billy Joel, an unknown working as a session musician at the time, played piano on the original demo recording of the song and has playfully claimed that Morton failed to pay him his $67 union scale fee for the performance. The Shangri-Las' recording placed #395 on Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list in 2004. Billboard named the song #26 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time. In the early 1970s, Buddah Records released a "Radio Active Gold" oldies 45 containing an undubbed version of the demo. This version is timed at 2:17, and the intro is the "Remember..." chorus without Mary Weiss' lead vocal. This version first appeared on a 1969 Buddah compilation album entitled Incense and Oldies, along with an alternate version of "Give Him a Great Big Kiss".
Aerosmith version
Background
released a more rock oriented version of the song featuring uncredited backing vocals by Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las as a single in 1979. Released on Columbia Records it was taken from the group's sixth studio albumNight in the Ruts and was also included on their Greatest Hits album. Aerosmith's cover was co-produced by Gary Lyons. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 67. It also peaked at number 29 on the Canadian RPM singles chart in March 1980.
