The Shaggs were an American rock band formed in Fremont, New Hampshire, in 1965. They comprised the sisters Dorothy "Dot" Wiggin (vocals, lead guitar), Betty Wiggin (vocals, rhythm guitar), Helen Wiggin (drums) and, later, Rachel Wiggin (bass guitar). The Shaggs wrote seemingly simple and bizarre songs using untuned guitars, erratic rhythms, wandering melodies and rudimentary lyrics. Their only album, Philosophy of the World (1969), has been described as both among the worst of all time and as a work of unintentional brilliance.
The Shaggs formed at the insistence of their father, Austin Wiggin, who believed that his mother had predicted their rise to fame. For several years, he made them practice every day and perform weekly at the Fremont town hall. The girls had no interest in becoming musicians and never became proficient in songwriting or performing. In 1969, Austin paid for them to record their debut album, which was distributed in limited quantities in 1969 by a local record label. The Shaggs disbanded in 1975 after Austin's death.
Over the decades, Philosophy of the World circulated among musicians and found fans such as Frank Zappa, Lester Bangs, and Kurt Cobain. A 1980 reissue on Rounder Records received enthusiastic reviews for its uniqueness in Rolling Stone and The Village Voice. According to Rolling Stone, the sisters sang like "lobotomized Trapp Family Singers", while the musician Terry Adams compared their music to the free jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman. A compilation of unreleased material, Shaggs' Own Thing, was released in 1982.
The Shaggs are important to the history of outsider music (music created by self-taught or naïve musicians). They became the subject of fascination in the 1990s, when interest grew in outsider music, and they are credited with influencing twee pop. Dot and Betty reunited for shows in 1999 and 2017; Helen died in 2006. In 2013, Dot released an album as the Dot Wiggin Band, containing previously unrecorded Shaggs songs.
History
1965–1968: Formation and first years
The Shaggs were formed in 1965 by the teenage sisters Dorothy ("Dot"), Betty, and Helen Wiggin in the small town of Fremont, New Hampshire. Dot wrote the songs, played lead guitar and sang; Betty, the youngest, played rhythm guitar and sang; and Helen, the eldest, played drums. He did not allow the girls to attend concerts or have social lives, friends, or boyfriends. She said Austin had no interest in music and only created the band to fulfill the prediction. Their mother, Anne, supported their father and did not express her feelings.
Austin withdrew his daughters from school, bought them instruments and arranged for them to receive music and vocal lessons.
1969: Philosophy of the World
In March 1969, Austin took the Shaggs to record an album, Philosophy of the World, at Fleetwood Studios in Revere, Massachusetts. The studio was mainly used to record local rock groups and school marching bands. One producer, Bobby Herne, recalled that the studio staff shut the control room doors and "rolled on the floor laughing" after they performed. with fans including Frank Zappa, Patti Smith, Bonnie Raitt, Jonathan Richman, Carla Bley and Terry Adams of NRBQ. Tracks were played by the Boston radio station WBCN-FM. According to the filmmaker Ken Kwapis, who later made a documentary about the Shaggs, Adams became their archivist. In another Rolling Stone review that year, Chris Connelly suggested it was the worst album ever recorded. Rolling Stone awarded it their "Comeback of the Year" honor. In The Village Voice, Lester Bangs wrote: "How do they sound? Perfect! They can't play a lick! But mainly they got the right attitude, which is all rock 'n' roll's ever been about from day one." He wrote that Philosophy of the World could stand with albums by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as "one of the landmarks of rock 'n' roll history". In 2004, Pitchfork observed that the Shaggs had been "embraced by the exact opposite audience Austin desired: the longhaired avant-garde intellectuals". The title track is a duet between Austin and his eldest son, Robert. Pitchfork described it as "particularly disturbing" and unintentionally oedipal, noting that Austin sings of catching another man, his son, "doin' it" with "his girl".
1990s: media attention and first reunion
In the 1990s, interest grew in outsider music (music created by self-taught or naïve musicians). The Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain named the Shaggs as a favorite band. Soon after it was published, the actor Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner optioned Orlean's article for a film.
As of 1999, Dot was working as a cleaner, Betty was a school janitor and a warehouse employee and Helen was living on disability benefits with severe depression. The performance was attended by fans from around the world. Dot said later it was the first time she realized the following the Shaggs had amassed. Reviewing the performance for The Village Voice, Eric Weisbard wrote that Dot seemed comfortable in front of the audience but that Betty appeared nervous. A stage musical about the Shaggs, Philosophy of the World, opened in New York City in 2011 in a co-production between Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop. The New York Times described it as "quirky but dreary" and "hamstrung by tonal uncertainty", with the girls' lack of talent made clear but the script hesitant to "turn their lives into a loopy joke". and toured in support of Neutral Milk Hotel in April 2015. Dot said she had not been interested in recording and was only motivated by royalties. Dot was disappointed that Krakow did not correct the mistakes in the music, but acknowledged that "everybody seems to like it the way it was". It received positive reviews in The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Stage. As of 2026, Dot was no longer performing. She said she would not repeat her music career given the choice, but was proud of what it had become and the following it had attracted. Asked what their father would think of the film, Betty replied: "I told you so." while Wise identified elements of surf music, girl group pop, rockabilly, lo-fi music and garage rock.
After recording Philosophy of the World, the Shaggs' technique improved, though they never mastered their instruments. Moreland argued that the Shaggs were not outsider musicians, as outsider music "is meant to come from an undisturbed place". She quoted the art brut founder, Jean Dubuffet, who said: "[In outsider art] we are witness to the artistic operation in its pristine form, something unadulterated, something reinvented from scratch at all stages by its maker, who draws solely upon his private impulses." By contrast, Moreland noted that the Shaggs were forced to make music by their father. She identified a claustrophobia and trauma in their music that she argued was negated by calling them outsiders.
Tribute albums
- Better than the Beatles (2001)
Various artists compilations
- Songs in the Key of Z – The Curious Universe of Outsider Music (2000)