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45s.com -- Recording Artist Information: Del Shannon
Date Born December 30, 1934 Location Coopersville, Michigan Deceased February 8, 1990 - suicide Music Rock singer, songwriter Charted Pop/Rock Hits 17 Period Active March 6, 1961 to 1966 Biggest Hits Runaway; Hats Off To Larry; Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow The Sun). Music List and Data Search Music List Notable Information Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. Other Names Born Charles Westover Other Web Sites Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. The following information was obtained from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:
Del Shannon is an important transitional figure in rock and roll's passage from the Fifties to Sixties. As music historian Dave Marsh noted, "Shannon was one of the genuinely great rockers of the interregnum between Elvis and the Beatles." Among other things, Shannon was among the relatively few self-reliant rock and rollers of the Teen Idol era. He wrote his own material, played guitar and sang, did not sound derivative, and did not project an image manufactured for him by managers or moguls. Beyond all that, Shannon turned out a terrific run of rock and roll hits during the first half of the Sixties, including one bonafide classic ("Runaway") and seven other Top Ten singles. He also gave and received influence from the up-and-coming bands of the British Invasion.
He was born Charles Westover on December 30, 1939, in Coopersville, Michigan. An early fan of Hank Williams, he picked up the guitar in his pre-teen years, while he derived vocal inspiration by singing along to Ink Spots records. After serving out an army stint in Germany, he returned home and formed his first band, the Midnight Ramblers, who became regulars at the Hi-Lo Club in Battle Creek. It was here that Westover adopted the pseudonym Del Shannon and worked up his first and most famous hit, "Runaway." This minor-keyed classic from 1961 - which occupied the Number One spot for four weeks and has been covered by more than 200 other artists - possessed two distinctive qualities that became signatures of Shannon's sound: his frequent use of a forceful falsetto and bandmate/cowriter Max Crook's solo on the "musitron," a high-pitched electric organ. "Runaway" made an overnight star of Shannon, who suddenly found himself performing on package tours with the likes of Jackie Wilson and Dion.
Shannon followed "Runaway" with memorable pop-rockers like "Hats Off to Larry" (#5), "Little Town Flirt" (often cited as an influence on Britain's Merseybeat bands) and inspired covers of "Handy Man" and "Do You Wanna Dance" (released five weeks before the Beach Boys' better-known hit version). He also rates a solid footnote in Beatles history by virtue of having cut "From Me To You" in 1963. This made him the first American artist to record a Lennon-McCartney tune, and the single became the first Lennon-McCartney song to enter the U.S. charts. Shannon's version of "From Me to You" reached #77 in Billboard in the summer of 1963 and beat the Beatles' own American chart debut ("I Want to Hold Your Hand") by half a year. Shannon had learned the song while touring England. In a sense he returned the favor, as the British pop duo Peter and Gordon had a Top Ten hit with their recording of Shannon's "I Go to Pieces," which they learned from him while touring Australia in early 1965.
Two more Top Forty hits - "Keep Searchin' (We'll Follow the Sun)" and "Stranger in Town" - came in 1965, and then Shannon's career cooled off as musical tastes changed in the latter half of the Sixties. He remained active, cutting a tribute album to a professed influence, Del Shannon Sings Hank Williams, and recording an album's worth of material with Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham in 1967. However, that album, Home and Away, was deemed too progressive by his record label, and the material remained unreleased in America until its inclusion on a 1991 compilation CD, Del Shannon: The Liberty Years.
Subsequently, Shannon produced hit singles for Brian Hyland ("Gypsy Woman") and Smith ("Baby It's You"). With assistance from such fellow musicians and fans as Jeff Lynne (of ELO), Dave Edmunds and Tom Petty, Shannon recorded sporadically in the Seventies and Eighties. The Petty-produced Drop Down and Get Me (1981) yielded a Top Forty hit - Shannon's first since 1965 - with his cover of Phil Phillips' "Sea of Love." After having worked steadily on the oldies circuit while moving more in a country direction, Shannon recorded the Jeff-Lynne produced Rock On!, with musical accompaniment by Petty and the Heartbreakers, among others. With the album nearly completed, Shannon - who'd suffered bouts of depression and alcoholism in his life - committed suicide on February 8, 1990.
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