Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} First Four by Shannon by Dell Shannon Imagine Hearing Del Shannon’s ‘Runaway’ in 1961. Shannon’s haunting voice and the mystifying Musitron created a completely new sound. Mar 25 · 3 min read. A Del Shannon record today is as immediately identifiable as when it crackled from a transistor radio 60 years ago. Shannon’s debut single, “Runaway,” was released in February 1961, a year when Billboard ’s top three singles were “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis, “I Fall to Pieces” by Patsy Cline and “Michael” by the Highwaymen. Shannon was born Charles Westover in Grand Rapids, Michigan. By 1958, Shannon sold carpet by day and played guitar by night at a local club, where he met keyboardist Max Crook at a Battle of the Bands contest. Crook, a n electronics geek, recorded some of Shannon’s earliest songs and they began to write together. Shannon’s voice was paired with one of Crook’s inventions: the Musitron, an electric keyboard that pre-dated the Moog synthesizer by three years. The Musitron created one of rock’s most memorable instrumental breaks. “We were playing at the Hi-Lo nightclub in Battle Creek, Michigan, a few nights a week and Del decided he was getting tired of the same-old, same-old blues progression songs. Let’s try something different, Del told me,” Crook recalled in Forbes magazine. “So he started singing random words — some here, some there. Then he told me to play something for the musical bridge in the middle of the song. At that time, I had built a little instrument called the Musitron, and it was sitting alongside the keyboard of the piano. So when the time came to make the bridge, I just played what came out of my head. What you hear on the record is precisely what I came up with on the Musitron, with no changes whatsoever.” Harry Balk of Detroit’s Talent Artists arranged for the pair to record “Runaway” in January 1961 at New York’s Bell Sound Studios with Balk producing. Crook brought his Musitron from Grand Rapids to New York, where he set it up before skeptical engineers at Bell, then one of the first four-track studios in the world. Shannon’s website explains that when Balk returned to Detroit, he felt that Shannon’s singing was flat and should be re- recorded. Instead, Bell engineers sped up Shannon’s vocals to nearly one-and-a-half times its original speed. When Shannon heard the way his voice was manipulated, Balk recalled, he was angry. “He said, ‘Harry, that doesn’t even sound like me!’ I just remember saying, ‘Yeah, but Del, nobody knows what the hell you sound like!’ Two weeks after its release, forget it! It’s selling 50,000. It’s selling 60,000. Eventually, it topped off selling 80,000 records a day. After ‘Runaway’ became a million-seller, Del came in and thanked me for what I had done.” Tom Petty paid tribute to Shannon in 1989’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” Petty sings, “ Trees flew by / Me and Del were singin’ little ‘Runaway’ ” “Runaway” reached №1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1961 and stayed on top of the charts for four weeks. While “Runaway” has been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley to Bonnie Raitt to the Traveling Wilburys, one of the most surprising covers was by Lawrence Welk in 1962. Shannon followed “Runaway” with memorable hits like “Hats Off to Larry,” “Little Town Flirt” and “Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow the Sun).” The hits dried up in the 1970s but in 1981, Shannon reached the Top 40 with “Sea of Love,” which Petty produced. Shannon was plagued by depression and took his own life in 1990. “This business will eat you up,” Shannon said of fleeting success in the music industry. “If it becomes your love and you don’t have humans to love, I think you’re in a lot of trouble.” Shannon was inducted posthumously in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. Frank Mastropolo. Author, Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever (late 2021) & Ghost Signs: Clues to Downtown New York’s Past FB @fillmoreeastnyc @ghostsignsnyc. DEL SHANNON. Two musicians embarked on a wild music industry ride in the late 1950s at a night spot called the Hi-Lo Club, located inside the LaSalle Hotel in downtown Battle Creek, Michigan. Charles Westover , who later came up with the name Del Shannon , played guitar and sang in a crackly tenor that frequently accelerated to a falsetto capable of being heard blocks away. Maxfield Crook , who eventually adopted the stage name Maximilian , was obsessed with electronic experimentation; he played a keyboard instrument he called a "musitron," which he had modified from a clavioline, its trademark being a high-pitched, reverberating "outer space" sound. This unusual partnership achieved fame far beyond the Great Lakes area when Shannon's "Runaway" became the nation's biggest hit in the spring of 1961. Growing up in the farmlands of Coopersville, near Grand Rapids, Westover had little to spark his imagination until his mother gave him a ukulele, which he practiced day and night until he could earn a few dollars to buy his first guitar. Influenced by the harmonies of '40s stars The Ink Spots , he began singing during high school, testing out the echo in the gym's locker room where he often reached that falsetto sweet spot, fascinated by how far his voice would carry. Shortly after graduation he was drafted, splitting four years' service that began in 1954 between Fort Knox, Kentucky and Stuttgart, Germany, performing for several months in the Army's Special Services Division as a member of a group called The Cool Flames . Returning to the states in 1958, Westover moved to Battle Creek, married, and settled into a dullsville routine as, among other things, a carpet salesman. Doug DeMott and his Moonlight Ramblers , a country band with a record release ( "I'm Steppin' Out Tonight" on the Excellent label), were regulars at the Hi-Lo Club; a spot opened up for a guitarist and Charles was hired on a part-time basis. After one too many liquor-fueled incidents, DeMott was fired by the club owner and Westover was tapped to lead the band. He refigured the group as Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Show Band , taking the Johnson name for a short time; of the group's original members, only bassist Loren Dugger remained. Max Crook, who lived in Ann Arbor (due east of Battle Creek near Detroit), showed up one night and was hired to play organ. Ollie McLoughlin , a black deejay at WHRV in Ann Arbor and a friend of Max's, got involved and set out to get Westover and Crook in the door at one of Detroit's record companies. Talent Artists was the name of a Motor City-based agency owned by Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik ; a demo tape of Charles and Max was all Ollie needed to get them signed with the company. They urged the pair to come up with better stage names; Crook became Maximilian and Westover chose Del Shannon ("Del" after the Cadillac Coupe de Ville, a car he hoped to own someday, and "Shannon" after an aspiring Battle Creek wrestler whose name he liked). Before long an arrangement was made with Bigtop Records, a New York label started in 1958 and run by Johnny Bienstock ( Bobby Pedrick, Jr. and Sammy Turner were the label's earliest hitmakers). Two songs Shannon and Crook had written together, "Little Runaway" (later shortened to "Runaway" ) and "Jody," were recorded with Del's vocals (and Crook's musitron) at New York's Bell Sound Studio in January 1961, in addition to a couple of instrumentals to be released under the Maximilian name. Seasoned session guitarist Al Caiola played on the session; Shannon balked at Balk's lack of faith in his own guitar playing skills. The finished take of "Runaway" was quite unlike anything else at the time and became an immediate hit, reaching number one on the national charts in mid-April and staying there until mid-May. Everyone got a piece of the action on the million-selling smash: the single was "An Embee Production" (which stood for Micahnik and Balk's initials) and McLaughlin shared in the publishing royalties. This business arrangement stayed in place for several years. The decision to give up his day job had been a wise one. Del's impact was immediate; second release "Hats Off to Larry," another Shannon- Crook song, took off that summer and made the top ten. Two solo compositions by Del, "So Long Baby" and "Hey! Little Girl," also featuring his tenor-and-falsetto sound and Crook's spacy musitron (with an added bonus, a wacko kazoo break, on the former), were top 40 hits later in the year. Hitmaking instrumental band Johnny and the Hurricanes of Toledo, Ohio, a Harry Balk discovery signed to Bigtop at the time, often backed Shannon and Crook in the studio on these early efforts. Shannon found it impossible to extend his spectacular '61 debut into the next year, at least in America, but in England he had gone top ten with all four singles, leading to an appearance in It's Trad, Dad! , a U.K. feature (titled Ring-A-Ding Rhythm! in the U.S.) directed by Philadelphia-born Richard Lester (who went on make a name as the director of The Beatles ' first fab film A Hard Day's Night ). Gene Vincent, Gary (U.S.) Bonds, The Paris Sisters, Gene McDaniels and Chubby Checke r represented U.S. rock and roll in an otherwise traditional jazz lineup (with a few Brit teen acts thrown in); Shannon's selection in the film, "You Never Talked About Me," wound up on the flip side of "The Swiss Maid," a poignantly melancholy song that was the first of Shannon's singles he didn't compose; it was penned by up-and-coming country singer Roger Miller . Like Del's other releases that year it had a brief chart showing, but ranked among his biggest hits in England, peaking at number two. The instrumental singles by Maximilian (sometimes spelled Maximillian ) didn't catch on in the U.S. but achieved some success in Canada (primarily in Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia); "The Twistin' Ghost" (on Bigtop) and "Greyhound" (on Twirl, a label owned by Balk), were mid-charting hits there in 1962. Del's drought ended in late '62 when he teamed with a new writing partner, Maron McKenzie , for "Little Town Flirt," featuring girl group backing from The Young Sisters , another Balk-managed act coming off a minor seller, "Casanova Brown" on Twirl; "Flirt" was Del's biggest hit since "Hats Off," nearly reaching the top ten in February 1963. Next up: "Two Kinds of Teardrops," another Shannon-McKenzie tune, Del's seventh U.K. top ten. This unexpected popularity overseas, more striking even than his success in the U.S., resulted in a tour of England in the spring of '63 and a fateful appearance at London's Royal Albert Hall on April 18, sharing the stage with Matt Monro, The Springfields and the Beatles, fresh off their second hit, "Please Please Me." Impressed by the group's latest single, "From Me to You" (which put them at number one for the first time a couple of weeks later), Del recorded his own version at West End Studios with arranger Ivor Raymonde before returning home; the John Lennon-Paul McCartney song, released as his very next single, entered the U.S. charts in June, giving it the distinction of being the first version of a Beatles song to chart in America. seven months before the Fab Four mounted their historic no-holds-barred takeover of the U.S. music scene. Del desperately wanted to break away from the control Balk and Micahnik held over his career. He started his own label, Berlee, and released "Sue's Gotta Be Mine," a catchy effort in the same vein as the Bigtop discs (and there was no one to prevent him from playing guitar!), but this and one other single sold poorly and before long he and Max were once again in cahoots with Harry Balk and company, who secured them a new deal with Amy records. A remake of Jimmy Jones ' 1960 hit "Handy Man," an unusual choice but a song well-suited to his urgent falsetto style, returned him to the top 40 late in the summer of '64. Right around this time, Dearborn, Michigan instrumental group The Royaltones (best known for "Poor Boy" in '58) became Del's regular backing band while waxing a few rocking instro discs on sister label Mala. "Do You Want to Dance" fared almost as well for Del as the previous 45 ( Bobby Freeman 's six-year-old smash also provided The Beach Boys with a hit just a few months later; Freeman was back in the spotlight at the time, demonstrating how to dance the "Swim" on TV, in concert and on the charts). The double-top ten success of 1961 was about to be repeated, though with a slight modification. During a tour of Australia with The Searchers and Peter and Gordon in the fall of 1964, Del played a song he had written, "I Go to Pieces," for both acts; the British duo, riding high with their third consecutive Lennon-McCartney-penned hit in a row, decided to mix things up and record the song. Back in the states a month later, Shannon's "Keep Searchin'" ('. if we gotta keep on the run, we'll follow the sun-ah, wee-ooo!') began its climb, peaking in the top ten in January '65. Peter and Gordon's impressive rendition of his song ('. I go to pieces and I almost die, every time my baby passes by') followed right behind, going top ten in February. "Stranger in Town," a cool sequel to "Keep Searchin'" with an unsettling scenario concerning the title antagonist, hit the top 40 in March. Other releases on Amy fell by the wayside and Del toured Britain again, this time with Roy Orbison . He split from Balk and Micahnik for good in 1966 and signed with major Los Angeles label Liberty Records. For the next few years he worked with producers Snuff Garrett and Leon Russell , occasionally producing himself, but aside from a remake of Miss Toni Fisher 's '59 hit "The Big Hurt" (using a "phasing" effect similar to Fisher's original), a brief chart entry in May '66, there was little to distinguish his three years with the label. Disheartened by his lack of success with a company he'd initially felt had the resources to regenerate his career, Shannon nevertheless kept punchin' away. He covered The Rolling Stones ' "Under My Thumb" from the monster '66 album Aftermath ; while not a hit single, the original had already received a great deal of airplay and essentially buried Del's disc. His recording of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart 's "She" came out simultaneous with The Monkees ' version on the their blockbuster sophomore LP More of the Monkees , which was all over radio in '67; again, he had been foiled by an act much hotter than he. The Stones' producer, Andrew Loog Oldham , who was a fan of Del's, met him during yet another U.K. tour and sold him on the idea of updating his signature song. Del resisted but gave in when Oldham assembled a top-notch lineup of British session musicians; the 1967 version of "Runaway," a spectacularly orchestrated production set to a slower tempo than the original, may have been a thrill to make, but it didn't catch on; the original has rightly stood the test of time. After parting with Liberty, Shannon achieved success behind the scenes. He discovered the band Smith (fronted by dynamic singer Gayle McCormick ) playing in a Los Angeles-area club and helped get them a contract with Dunhill Records (a label he had just been signed to), resulting in their rock remake of The Shirelles ' 1962 hit "Baby It's You" landing in the top ten in the fall of 1969. He began working with Brian Hyland that year and, still on an "oldies" kick, produced Hyland's top ten comeback record, "Gypsy Woman" (first recorded by The Impressions in 1962) and its follow-up, "Lonely Teardrops" (the classic '57 Jackie Wilson smash). Remaining with Dunhill until 1972, Del worked for a time with The Robbs at what became the Cherokee Studio, owned and operated by the brother act. Over the course of the decade he recorded for United Artists and Island Records, though with little success. Tom Petty , who counted Del among his main influences, approached him in the early 1980s with the desire to produce an album. Another classic song, Phil Phillips ' "Sea of Love," received the Shannon treatment and hit the top 40 in early 1982, breathing new life into his career. In 1985, he popped up in a surprising category: the Warner Bros. single "In My Arms Again" became his one and only country hit. For most of his life, Del Shannon struggled with his own self-worth, trying to comprehend his purpose in the music career he'd chosen. The mid- 1980s country phase preceded a steep downward spiral, leading to divorce from his wife of more than 30 years and, in 1990, his self-inflicted death at age 55. This last shocking fact can dampen an appreciation of an artist's music, but Del's wonderful recordings overshadow his tragic end. He experienced some amazing things: an explosive emergence in 1961 with one of the decade's most-loved hits, an artistic and commercial resurgence a few years later as a songwriter and singer, and creative satisfaction working with other artists, both promising newcomers and seasoned stars. Overall, it's a body of work to be proud of. First Four by Shannon by Dell Shannon. Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1917 - 1929. Roles Represented in DAHR: Vocal group. Notes: Also listed as Shannon Quartet and Gounod Quartette. After 1922, the group was generally known as the Shannon Quartet until the name was changed again in 1925 to the Revelers. See Also: Shannon Quartet. Recordings (Results 1-25 of 176 records) Citation. Discography of American Historical Recordings , s.v. "Shannon Four," accessed June 18, 2021, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/110236. Shannon Four. (2021). In Discography of American Historical Recordings . Retrieved June 18, 2021, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/110236. "Shannon Four." Discography of American Historical Recordings . UC Santa Barbara Library, 2021. Web. 18 June 2021. South Of Heaven. Songs about lost love are pretty standard in almost any kind of popular music. But Del Shannon was tortured about lost love. Shannon wasn't the typical pop star in pre-Beatles America. He was a little too old (26 at the time of his first hit; for comparison Bobby Rydell was 17 for his). Shannon wrote most of his own songs unlike the teen heart throbs. And he really played guitar. Many of the early rockers like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran were dead and Jerry Lee Lewis was having problems regarding the object of his affection. Shannon, born Charles Westover, got started playing in a rough club in his hometown, Battle Creek, Michigan, with Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Band (he being the "Charlie Johnson" fronting the band). He hired Max Crook as his keyboardist, in part because of the little keyboard Crook had made. You can hear the eerie sound sound in "Runaway" and other early Shannon songs. After a few false starts writing songs Shannon and Crook hit the jackpot. [O]n a Friday night in October of 1960, Crook sat down at his bench and began running riffs on the piano. Shannon jumped, "Max what was that?" Crook simply replied, "an 'A-minor' and a 'G.'" Shannon was tired of hearing what he called "Blue Moon" chords ('C,' 'A Minor,' 'F,' and 'G' progressions), and began playing those two chords over and over again on his guitar yelling "Follow me! Everybody follow me. " "Forget everything you ever heard about 'Runaway,'" said Parker in a 1992 interview. "It was this simple. Max sat down and began tinkling on the piano." Shannon and Crook began playing the lick over and over, humming a few words here and there. "When I saw that the two weren't going to stop," explained Parker, "I jumped in with the drums." The band worked on the song for the next 15 to 20 minutes, as the crowd looked on curiously. Finally, the owner of the club came over to the stage and told them to "Knock it off!" and "Play something else!" T he next morning, Shannon took his guitar with him to work at The Carpet Outlet, where Shannon sold carpets by day. Sitting on a roll of carpets, Del began writing the words to his new song. "As I walk along. " "Runaway" was really nothing like what was being played at the time and had more to do with what would come when the British Invasion of pop music came a few years later. The other thing that set Shannon apart from other acts was his ability to slide into an incredible falsetto. "Runaway," reaching No. 1, was his biggest hit, and everything else after that was measured by his early success. Despite plenty of songs, it was a year later until his next hit, "Little Town Flirt," which some have likened to and believe influenced the writing of Jackie DeShannon's "Needles And Pins." The British band The Searchers picked up that song and using the hard-strumming style of electric guitar playing and touches of falsetto, developed a style that almost certainly had been influenced by Shannon. After minor hits covering Jimmy Jones' "Handy Man" and Bobby Freeeman's "Do You Wanna Dance?" he scored with his song "Keep Searchin' (Follow The Sun)," a song about trying to "find a place to hide" with his baby. This theme became even darker and more paranoid with "Stranger In Town" which told the story of the parents of his girl sending a man after the young couple. "Me and my baby been on the run so very long. Her folks sent a man to get us. they say we done wrong." The chorus went, "Stranger in town, he's out to get me." If Del wasn't singing this, but was talking to a psychiatrist, he probably would have earned a diagnosis. But while his popularity in the U.S. was sinking he was still important in the rest of the English-speaking world. He was actually the first artist to release a Beatles song, "From Me To You," here in the U.S. He picked up the song from playing on the same bill as the Beatles on a gig in London. A year and a half later, playing a show in Sydney, Australia, he got the British duo Peter and Gordon to pick up his song "I Go To Pieces," which became a world-wide hit for them. He also had a big hit in the Philippines with a cover of The Boxtops' "The Letter." The rest of Shannon's career was a long, slow slide, but not because he didn't have fans, mostly on the other side of the Atlantic. He went through a kind of psychedelic period, a Pet Sounds-like period, and covered plenty of different songs that made other people rich, among them a beautiful and remarkable cover of Edwin Starr's "Oh How Happy." Andrew Loog Oldham, a producer for the Rolling Stones, cut an album with him. He made several forays into Nashville too. The next wave of rockers who grew up admiring Shannon tried to resurrect his career. He recorded with Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan guitarist Skunk Baxter, and with members of the Divinyls. In the 1980s Tom Petty produced an album for him, and Jeff Lynne produced songs for him too. In fact, when Roy Orbison passed away there was talk that Shannon would replace him in The Traveling Wilburys, who contained Lynne, Petty, Bob Dylan and George Harrison. Unfortunately, Shannon, who'd been suffering from depression for some time, put a rifle in his mouth and committed suicide in 1990. His wife blamed his recent usage of Prozac, an anti-depressant. Unfortunately, some people who are so depressed and suicidal and have been contemplating suicide use that first relief from the paralyzing depression that anti-depressants give them to kill themselves. Del Shannon's album he recorded with Tom Petty was called "Drop Down And Get Me." The title song was supposed to be about being abducted by a flying saucer, but given Shannon's history and his ultimate end, the lyrics seemed to portend something else: Well, they say that there must be a Heaven. They might be right 'cause I know there's a Hell. I've been living too long without you. Del Shannon. An underrated songwriter and brilliant singer, Del Shannon provided the connection between 1950s rock primitivism and the relative melodic sophistication of the Beatles. Shannon was, in fact, the first American artist ever to record a John Lennon-Paul McCartney composition, releasing “ From Me to You ” in 1963 — well ahead of the so-called British Invasion. Shannon also predated the Beatles in another sense: He was a successful rock performer who wrote the majority of his material. His first and biggest hit, “ Runaway, ” was the musical and emotional model for much of his later work; fully voiced expressions of teen angst would climb Shannon ’ s vocal register until his voice cracked into a paper-thin falsetto, spilling out tortured vignettes of loneliness and romantic loss. Musically, Shannon used minor-to-major key modulations, a technique he learned from listening to country great Hank Williams. According to the Rolling Stone Album Guide, Shannon produced “ quintessential American pop-rock, ” with songs that “ evoked the spirit of their times without sounding like period pieces. ” Since its initial release in 1961, “ Runaway ” has been covered by artists as diverse as “ champagne ” bandleader Lawrence Welk and blues guitarist-chanteuse Bonnie Raitt. Born Charles Weedon Westover in Coopersville, Michigan, Shannon began playing guitar and performing while in high school. After being drafted in 1956, Shannon entertained troops in the Special Services, eventually winning the 7th Army amateur talent contest and earning a spot on the “ Get Up and Go ” radio show in Germany. After returning from the military in 1959, Shannon joined the house band at the HiLo Club in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Known as the Big Little Show Band, the group included keyboardist Max Crook, later Shannon ’ s principal collaborator. Shannon worked as a carpet salesman by day; he picked up his pristine guitar style by watching country guitarists in and around Grand Rapids at night. “ I always wanted to get the old Buck Owens sound that he had on his early records, those ringing, beautiful guitars, ” Shannon would later say. He borrowed his falsetto from the black vocal group the Ink Spots. It was while playing at the HiLo Club that Shannon changed his name. As he later told Creem magazine, “ There was a kid who used to come in the club and say, ’ I wannabe a wrestler and call myself Mark Shannon. ’ I thought Shannon was a great name and the kid never became a wrestler, so I took it. ” His first name was a contraction of the name of his carpet boss ’ s car: Cadillac Coupe de Ville. For the Record … Born Charles Weedon Westover, December 30, 1934, in Coopersville, MI; died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound February 8, 1990, in Santa Clarita Valley, CA; son of Bert and Leone Westover; married Shirley Nash, c. 1960; married second wife, Bonnie, c. 1990; children (first marriage) Craig, Kyra, Jody. Began playing guitar and performing during high school; performer with U.S. Army, 1958-59; carpet salesman, c. 1959-60; member of HiLo Club house band, the Big Little Show Band, Grand Rapids, MI, 1959-60; wrote “ Runaway ” with bandmate keyboardist Max Crook, 1960; signed with Big Top Records, 1960; released first and only Number One hit, “ Runaway, ” 1961; appeared in film It ’ s Trad, Dad, 1962; released Runaway With Del Shannon and Hats Off to Dei Shannon, toured England, recorded Lennon-McCartney composition “ From Me to You, ” and formed own label, Berlee Records, all 1963; signed with Amy Records, 1964; reached Top Ten with “ Keep Searchin ’ ” 1965; signed with Liberty Records, 1966; released Live in England, 1973; reached Number 33 with remake of “ Sea of Love, ” 1982; signed with Warner Bros., 1985; posthumously released Rock On, MCA, 1991. “ Runaway ” Shannon and Crook came up with “ Runaway ” in typical rock and roll confluence — mixing dumb luck, distrustful dramatics, and everything they ’ d heard up to that point. Tired of the basic ’ 50s sound and chord changes, Shannon encouraged Crook to experiment with a musitron, an organ- like proto-synthesizer. As Shannon later recounted, “ One night Max played an A minor and a G at the HiLo Club. I heard it and said ’ Follow me. ’ I went right down the scale. Then I remembered a Hank Williams song called ’ Kaw-Liga, ’ which went from minor to major. I said ’ Kick into A major ’ and sang ’ I ’ m awalkin ’ in the rain. . . . ’ ” In late 1960 Shannon caught the ear of rhythm and blues producer Ollie McLaughlin, then a disc jockey in Ann Arbor. McLaughlin took Shannon to a pair of Detroit entrepreneurs, Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik. Balk and Micahnik quickly signed Shannon to their Embree Productions, which was followed closely by a recording contract with New York City ’ s Big Top Records. Though their first recordings fared poorly, Shannon and Crook went on to record “ Runaway, ” which Big Top released as a single in early 1961. In the fallow musical period between the emergence of Elvis Presley and the dawn of the Beatles, “ Runaway ” was virtually monumental. For a time it sold 80,000 copies a day, staying at Number One for six straight weeks in the spring of 1961. The song ’ s sound and intent, particularly Crook ’ s carnival-like musitron solo and Shannon ’ s tense falsetto, was seminal, influencing young rock bands worldwide. Shannon then released a string of singles — “ Hats Off to Larry, ” “ So Long Baby, ” “ Hey Little Girl ” — that were similar-sounding Top 30 hits. Shannon ’ s rise continued into 1962; that year he had a cameo in a film titled It ’ s Trad, Dad. He also recorded in Nashville with the Jordanaires, a gospel vocal quartet known for their work with Presley. In late 1962, Shannon toured the U.K. for the first time, with burgeoning teen idol Dion as support. Shannon would remain a star in Britain throughout his career. After releasing a version of noted songwriter Roger Miller ’ s “ The Swiss Maid ” — which actually featured Shannon yodeling — he returned to a strict rock style with 1963 ’ s “ Little Town Flirt. ” Two albums, the hasty Runaway With Del Shannon and Hats Off to Del Shannon, followed. Met the Beatles. While in Britain, Shannon played the Royal Albert Hall with the Beatles; he quickly became an ardent fan of the early Fab Four. In what history would prove an extremely ironic move, Shannon suggested to John Lennon that he record a Beatles song in order to give the young British band more exposure in the United States. Shannon charted at #72 with “ From Me to You ” in late 1963. In a year ’ s time, the Beatles would bounce Shannon and his contemporaries from the charts completely. It was at this juncture that Shannon, after several disagreements over finances, severed his ties with Balk and Micahnik and formed his own label, Berlee Records, named for his parents, Bert and Leone Westover. Legal entanglements with Balk and Micahnik would plague Shannon for the next decade. His first release on Berlee was the Four Seasons-like “ Sue ’ s Gotta Be Mine ” ; it reached only #71 in the U.S. After recording “ Mary Jane ” in 1964, Shannon moved to New York ’ s Amy Records. His initial releases for Amy were remakes of R&B standards, such as Jimmy Jones ’ s “ Handy Man ” and Bobby Freeman ’ s “ Do You Want to Dance. ” Shannon rebounded somewhat in 1965, ending a three-year Top Ten absence with the buoyant “ Keep Searchin ’ (Follow the Sun). ” In late 1965 the British duo Peter and Gordon scored a worldwide hit with the Shannon-penned “ I Go to Pieces. ” It was the last time Shannon would know real commercial success. Despite being increasingly out of favor with the counter-cultural climate, Shannon was still writing and recording characteristically unique material. Another 1965 single, the enthralling “ Stranger in Town, ” is possibly one of the most paranoid — and thrilling — performances in all of rock and roll. In 1966 Shannon moved his family — wife Shirley and children Craig, Kyra, and Jody — from Michigan to Los Angeles. After producing some mildly successful work for his new label, Liberty, Shannon flew to England to record with legendary Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. The masters produced in that session waited nearly ten years for release, and Shannon ’ s Liberty years, despite working with gifted producers like Leon Russell and Snuff Garrett, were acutely disappointing. He entered the Hot 100 for the 16th and final time with “ The Big Hurt, ” which peaked at Number 94. With his recording career at a standstill, Shannon turned to producing in the late 1960s and ‘ 70s. The acts with whom he worked included the group Smith and singer Brian Hyland, who scored a Number Three single in 1970 with the Shannon-produced “ Gypsy Woman. ” Oldies Tours and Comeback Attempts. For Shannon, the 1970s brought packaged oldies tours, a pernicious problem with alcohol, and sporadic attempts at a comeback. 1973 ’ s excellent Live in England won good reviews yet sold poorly. Retro-rocker Dave Edmunds produced some new tracks for Shannon in 1974; the result, And the Music Plays On, included the Oldham session work from 1966. Later in the decade, Shannon recorded with Jeff Lynne and his band, ELO, which produced only tepid rock. On February 3, 1979, Shannon headlined a concert commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of bespectacled rock and roll pioneer Buddy Holly; it was held at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa — the site of Holly ’ s final performance. Shannon ’ s best shot at a true comeback, however, came in 1982, when popular rocker Tom Petty produced Drop Down and Get Me, a promising, workmanlike set of songs. Indeed, Shannon enjoyed his first chart success in 15 years, reaching Number 33 with a revival of Phil Phillips ’ s “ Sea of Love. ” Despite some intense attention, Shannon once again quickly vanished from the scene. In 1985 Shannon signed with Warner Bros, and began recording in Nashville, still relying on oldies tours, like those with Bobby Vee, to support himself. Side projects kept him busy; during the late 1980s he rewrote the lyrics to “ Runaway ” for television ’ s highly acclaimed mob drama Crime Story and recorded backing vocals for pop ’ s Smithereens. By 1990 things were looking up; after ending his 30-year marriage, Shannon had remarried and was recording what looked like a genuine comeback vehicle, though according to Shannon ’ s close friend and former manager, Dan Bourgoise, who was quoted in an MCA Records press release, “ [The project] was never looked at as a comeback of any kind. Del just had some songs that he was excited about and wanted to record them with his friends. ” Produced by Lynne and Petty guitarist Mike Campbell, the album was to be titled Rock On. Yet this solid effort, eventually lauded by critics, would be released posthumously. Still beset by alcoholism and afflicted during much of his life by depression, Shannon died on February 8, 1990, at his home in Santa Clarita Valley, California, from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. He was 55. He left no suicide note and, according to observers, had appeared content and lucid that morning. “ Over the years, ” reflected Bourgoise, “ I think he privately became the morose characters in his songs. ” After having heavily influenced rock acts as prodigious as the Beatles, Elton John, and Bruce Springsteen, Del Shannon should in fairness be recalled not as one of many ’ 50s teen idols, but rather as one of the genre ’ s first true artists — a rock and roll natural. Selected discography. Del Shannon: Greatest Hits, Rhino, 1990. Little Town Flirt, 1963, reissued, Rhino, 1990. Del Shannon Sings Hank Williams, 1964, Rhino, 1990. Rock On, MCA, 1991. Del Shannon: The Liberty Years, EMI, 1991. Sources. Books. Gilbert, Bob, and Gary Theroux, The Top Ten 1956-Present, Fireside, 1982. Rees, Dafydd, and Luke Crampton, Rock Movers and Shakers, Billboard, 1991. Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll, edited by Ken Tucker, Ed Ward, and Geoffrey Stokes, Summit, 1986. The Rolling Stone Album Guide, edited by Anthony DeCurtis and James Henke, Random House, 1992. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, edited by Jon Pareles and Patricia Romanowski, Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books, 1983. The Rolling Stone Record Guide, edited by Dave Marsh, Random House, 1979. The Rolling Stone Rock Almanac, Rolling Stone Press, 1983. Periodicals. People, March 3, 1990. Entertainment Weekly, October 25, 1991. Spin, November 1991. Additional information for this profile was obtained from liner notes by Bill Holdship to Del Shannon: Greatest Hits, Rhino Records, 1990, and from an MCA Records press release, 1991. — Stewart Francke. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. MLA Chicago APA. Citation styles. 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