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psychicdeath

Member
Jan 21, 2015
955
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Dave's Song of the Day

Runaway – Del Shannon

Friday song of the day: Today’s song was salvaged from an earlier failed recording session.




From 1958 to 1960, Charles Westover fronted a band called “Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Show Band,” with Westover using the pseudonym Charlie Johnson. When that band broke up, Westover went solo, under the new stage name Del Shannon. The keyboard player from the band, Max Crook, assisted Shannon in songwriting and recording.

His first recording sessions for BigTop records failed to produce anything deemed releasable. His manager suggested that he and Crook rewrite one of the songs, Little Runaway, and add a break with Crook playing an electronic keyboard instrument he had constructed called a Musitron. The resulting song, retitled simply Runaway, was recorded on January 21st, 1961 and released as a single less than a month later, on February 18th. The single was released in mono, but a different take from the same session was recorded in stereo and used on various albums and compilations over the years. The song immediately sold well, and aided by an appearance on the TV music show American Bandstand, Runaway eventually made it to the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It stayed atop the charts for four straight weeks.

Runaway is about a failed relationship, with the singer wondering what happened to cause the breakup, and what the girl he lost was now doing. It has since become a classic and has been covered by numerous artists. Del Shannon himself covered Runaway in in 1967, and again in 1986 when it was used as the theme song for the TV series Crime Story. For Crime Story, the lyrics were re-written somewhat to better fit with the gritty nature of the police drama.

Del Shannon had several more hits – most of them fairly minor – in the early 1960s, but his recording career slowed down after that. Shannon suffered from alcoholism and depression, and despite a career resurgence in the late 1980s, he committed suicide in February 1990. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Mono, 1961


View: https://youtu.be/EnCzX-b3UFo


Stereo, 1961


View: https://youtu.be/ziLagAgoPCE


Re-recorded for Crime Story, 1986


View: https://youtu.be/y0oorwyJlv4


Tomorrow: We don’t have the time for psychological romance
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
i was just thinking about the Jerry Reed version while listening to my favorite version


View: https://youtu.be/wBcKrM7g6Fo?t=120



imagine the balls it takes to be the lead singer of a legendary alt/punk band, and just stroll out on MTV with an acoustic guitar and bust off a Bob Dylan song. Don't forget the eye-liner and the work shirt.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rTbInqWC54
 
4

4459

Guest
I listen to old music. Mainly classic rock, old country ,or 90's gangsta rap Hell, I even like Norteno music when spending time with my wife's family in South Texas.
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
On a blues kick recently. Jeff Healy was a canadian gem. Shame his supporting band members were trash.

Great gig he did hanging with SRV

View: https://youtu.be/2HmLFyvFxTc


For those that don't know, Jeff Healey was blind, from cancer when he was a year old. Talented guitar player who died far too young at 41.


View: https://youtu.be/8H0gvJPwf90
Jazz Wizards were not trash, FWIW. Dive down on his later jazz stuff, if you haven't...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9DhNBf9g9o
 

Filthy

Iowa Wrestling Champion
Jun 28, 2016
27,507
29,834
Never listened to anything from the wizards. To be completely honest I never knew they were a thing. Will definitely check it out..
I was specifically speaking the Jeff Healey band.
IIRC, those were a bunch of friends from grade school or something.
 

ShatsBassoon

Throwing bombs & banging moms
First 100
Jan 14, 2015
18,555
33,607
IIRC, those were a bunch of friends from grade school or something.
Any success they had came from riding his coattails. Jeff had a tough go in life, early adoption, eye cancer (had his eyes surgically removed), died young at 41 due to lung cancer. What a hell of a talent though.
 

SongExotic2

ATM 3 CHAMPION OF THE WORLD. #FREECAIN
First 100
Jan 16, 2015
39,772
53,672
ThatOneDude @ThatOneDude did I tell you about the time I was in San Diego and my mum and brother came to visit? Me and my brother went for some beers at the house of blues there and while there I realized, by posters still up, that I missed bone thugs n harmony by 1 day. They was the night Before.