On April 21, 1965, three members of the Shangri-Las appeared on ABC’s musical variety show Shindig, their silhouettes faintly visible on the dark stage. With the soft thunk of a bass guitar, one spotlight flickered on to illuminate Mary Weiss, the band’s leader. As she crooned the opening lyrics to “Out in the Streets,” the lights gleamed over her bandmates, Marge and Mary-Ann Ganser, dancing in slow motion. You could practically feel plumes of fog gathering at your heels while listening to Weiss’s vocals tremble with palpable dread. “Out in the Streets”—written, with Phil Spector, by the husband-wife team behind hits such as the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me”—circles familiar romantic territory, albeit with a doomy bent. The song is told from the perspective of a woman who watches the man she’s in love with change—for her sake, she suspects—at the expense of his happiness. With Weiss’s vocal delivery, the tune transforms from a schmaltzy ballad into something stunningly outré and operatic. No singer on earth has ever sounded …