Sharon Sheeley

Sharon Sheeley (born April 4, 1940 in Los Angeles , California ; † May 17, 2002 , ibid) was an American songwriter whose greatest success was Ricky Nelson's number one hit Poor Little Fool . One of her best-known tracks is Somethin 'Else , a rock' n 'roll song that she wrote for her fiancé Eddie Cochran with his brother Bob Cochran.

Life

At the age of 18, Sharon Sheeley, who was then called "Shari", wrote the song Poor Little Fool - allegedly about an affair with the married Don Everly . Sharon Sheeley tried to make the song attractive to Ricky Nelson , in whose neighborhood she now lived in Los Angeles. She told him the song was written by a friend and Elvis Presley was already interested. Ricky Nelson recorded the song in a slower mid-tempo version than that actually written by Sheeley, allegedly because of an idea from his lead guitarist (1958 to 1967) James Burton . Nelson released it as his fifth single in 1958. His first four A-side singles, almost exclusively fast rockabilly songs, had all been hits at the top of the Billboard charts. With “Poor Little Fool” Nelson and Sheeley had their first number one hit on August 4, 1958, which also became the first chart topper on the newly established Billboard Hot 100 . He also made Sharon Sheeley the youngest woman to ever write a US number one hit. Through this great success, she also met Jerry Capeheart in Los Angeles, Eddie Cochran's manager, who also took care of her needs. He had Cochran record her song Love Again , which came out as the B-side of the hit Summertime Blues . The following year she wrote the song Somethin 'Else for Cochran together with his brother , which only reached the lower regions of the charts in the USA, but became a major hit in Great Britain . Cochran went on a ten-week tour of Great Britain with Gene Vincent in the spring of 1960. Because of the great success, the tour was extended and Cochran had Sheeley come for her birthday. On April 16, 1960, Cochran, Vincent and Sheeley had an accident on the way to the airport when a tire burst in their taxi and the car crashed into a lamppost. Cochran died the day after; Vincent and Sheeley got away with broken bones.

Sheeley went back to California where she met Jackie DeShannon . She wrote songs with the musician and singer, including Dum-Dum and Heart in Hand for Brenda Lee and Breakaway for Irma Thomas . She promoted the singing career of James Marcus Smith alias PJ Proby , to whom she gave his stage name - in memory of a former friend of that name. In the mid-1960s she wrote songs for the Searchers and later with their former drummer Chris Curtis , including Night Time for Paul and Barry Ryan . After her marriage to disc jockey and television presenter Jimmy O'Neill was divorced after five years in 1961, she largely withdrew from show business.

1979 Something Else became another hit in the UK in a version of Sid Vicious Sex Pistols ; four years later, Tracey Ullman brought Breakaway back into the top ten . In 2000, a collection of Sheeley's songs was released, recorded in the early 1960s by a group of then-unknown studio musicians - including Glen Campbell , Leon Russell , David Gates (later on Bread ), Hal Blaine and Herb Alpert .

Sharon Sheeley died in Los Angeles in 2002 from complications from a stroke caused by an aneurysm .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography of Shakin Stacks , online version viewed April 2, 2007
2. ↑ Agency report ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Reuters , May 18, 2002, online version on Deathwatch (viewed April 2, 2007) 

Web links

• Literature by and about Sharon Sheeley in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame
• Obituary on the Jackie DeShannon Appreciation Society website