Del Shannon
Del Shannon (born December 30, 1934 in Grand Rapids , Michigan - † February 8, 1990 in Santa Clarita , California ; real name is Charles Weedon Westover ) was an American singer, composer and lyricist who worked in both the United States in the 1960s as was also successful in Great Britain. His biggest hit was Runaway in 1961.
Life
Westover grew up as the son of a truck driver in the rural small town of Coopersville in the US state of Michigan. Playing the guitar was already his great passion as a student. In 1956 he was drafted into the army and stationed in Stuttgart . During his time in the army he had the opportunity to perfect his guitar playing, he won a talent competition and got his own radio show Ged Up And Go on the Frankfurt army broadcaster AFN . After his discharge from the army in 1958, he returned to Michigan, married his childhood sweetheart Shirley, and settled in Battle Creek , a town of 50,000 in southern Michigan. He worked as a carpet dealer and formed a country rock band with whom he performed in clubs. During this time he adopted the stage name Del Shannon, Del being derived from his favorite car Cadillac Coupe DeVille and Shannon being the name of Westover wrestler Mark Shannon. The black disc jockey and record producer Ollie McLaughin got him a record deal with the New York record company Bigtop . Shannon recorded two titles, but they were never released.
Shannon then wrote his own title, for which his band keyboardist Max Crook provided the music. The song Runaway (German: "Outlier") was recorded on January 24, 1961 in Bell Studios New York and published by Bigtop in February. Shannon's eye-catching falsetto voice and the melancholy lyrics hit the audience's taste, within three weeks Runaway was in the top 100 on Billboard and reached number one on April 24, 1961. At times up to 80,000 records were sold a day. The British record company London also released the track, which also became a No. 1 hit in the UK. Shannon also remained successful with his subsequent recordings, he composed and wrote many of the titles himself, his subjects remained tragic. Although he changed record labels several times, he was regularly among the top 100 in the USA until 1966. With the titles Hats Off to Larry (1961 - 5th) and Keep Searchin (1964 - 9th) he came back into the top 10 on Billboard, and in Great Britain there were also Hey! Little Girl (1961 - 2nd), The Swiss Maid (1962 - 2nd), Little Town Flirt (1962 - 4th) and Two Kinds of Teardrops (1963 - 5th) among the top 10. In 1963, Shannon founded one with BerLee own record company, with which he only released two singles sung by him, of which only Sue's Gotta Be Mine was able to place (USA: 71st, GB: 21st on the London label). Its last chart listing was The Big Hurt , published by Liberty in 1966 , which landed at number 33 on Billboard.
In contrast to many other colleagues, Shannon did not hesitate to face the competition of the beat groups. Rather, he performed together with the Beatles in England and successfully released a cover version of the Beatles title From Me To You in the States. The British singing duo Peter & Gordon ensured another success in Great Britain with the Shannon composition I Go To Pieces . Experiments with the punk rock sound then led to the temporary end of his music career. The move to Liberty in 1966 brought no more success except The Big Hurt . In the late 1960s, Shannon produced for country singer Johnny Carver and worked with the Monkees for a while . He got a good grip as a producer with the discovery of Brian Hyland . The first half of the 1970s brought more or less success with the release of albums, tours and collaborations with other musicians. Increasingly, alcohol addiction had a negative impact on his career. Only when he met producer Tom Petty , who helped the old rock stars back on their feet with modern arrangements in the late 1970s, did Shannon's situation improve. With Petty's help, he released the album Drop Down And Get Me in 1981 , which received excellent reviews and whose extraction Sea Of Love rose to the top 30. Shannon was in demand again and used his new topicality for two years with successful tours through the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Australia. He also achieved recognition among young audiences as the composer of the soundtracks for the films Grease and Street Hero .
In 1984 Shannon went to Nashville , signed a contract with Warner Brothers and tried a new comeback as a country singer. Here, too, he was most successful with his own compositions. His own record In My Arms Again made it into the US Country Charts, the title Cheap Love , sung by Juice Newton, even reached number 10 in 1986. In the same year, Shannon's old hit song Runaway experienced a resurrection as the theme song of the crime series Crime Story . When Roy Orbison died in 1988, Shannon was traded as his successor with the Traveling Wilburys , where he would have worked alongside George Harrison and Bob Dylan , among others . But that never happened because Del Shannon, more and more depressed, shot himself to death on February 8, 1990. His wife attributed the suicide to the antidepressant Prozac , which he had been prescribed just two weeks earlier, and was strict with one Lawsuit against the manufacturer.
In 1998 Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .
Discography
literature
- Howard A. DeWitt: Stranger in Town: The Musical Life of Del Shannon . Kendall / Hunt Publ., Dubuque, Iowa 2001, ISBN 0-7872-8854-3 .
- Irwin Stambler: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd revised edition. St. Martin's Press, New York City 1989, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 , pp. 612f.
- Frank Laufenberg: Rock and Pop Lexicon. Volume 2, Econ Taschenbuch Verlag, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-612-26102-9 , p. 1349.
- Craig Morrison: American Popular Music. Rock and roll . Preface by Kevin J. Holm-Hudson. Checkmark Books, New York City 2006, ISBN 0-8160-6929-8 , pp. 214-216.
Web links
- Biography in English at www.delshannon.com/delbio
- Biography in German at www.evolver.at/stories/Del_Shannon_Portraet
- Full biography in English at /d21c.com/Spacebeagle/delshannon
Individual evidence
- ↑ latimes.com: Widow of Del Shannon Alleges Drug Led to His Suicide, Sues Eli Lilly & Co. Retrieved April 27, 2016.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Shannon, Del |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Westover, Charles Weedon (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American rock and roll singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 30, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Grand Rapids , Michigan , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 8, 1990 |
| Place of death | Santa Clarita , California , United States |