From:   "Dik de Heer"  
Date:  Mon Dec 30, 2002  7:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Del Shannon

DEL SHANNON (By Henk Gorter)

Born Charles Weedon Westover, 30 December 1934, Coopersville, Michigan
Died 8 February 1990, Santa Clarita, California

Born Charles Westover, Del knocked five years off his age, once he'd
hit the big time. He grew up listening to country music, and his earliest
heroes were men like Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell. He first began to
play and sing seriously whilst in the US Army, stationed in Stuttgart,
Germany. Upon his demob he returned to Michigan and began working
the local bars and clubs, initially billed as "Charlie Johnson" (late fifties).
He joined - eventually taking over - a popular local group who had a residency
at the Hi-Lo club in Battle Creek, Michigan. He gradually geared them
towards R&R, all the while developing that fearsome falsetto which was
destined to become one of the most potent lead instruments in Rock 'n' Roll.
It was about this time he adopted the DEL SHANNON monicker, taking "Del"
as an abbreviation of Coup DeVille, a Cadillac much appreciated by Del, and
"Shannon" from would-be professional wrestler Mark Shannon, one of the
patrons of the Hi-Lo club.
In 1960 he teamed up with pianist Max Crook, and cut a number of demos,
which they hawked around various local radio stations, eventally attracting
the attentions of dj Ollie McLaughlin from WHRV in nearby Ann Arbor.
McLaughlin introduced them to Irving Micahnik and Harry Balk, who also had
Johnny & the Hurricanes on their books.
Del's first recording session yielded a pair of self penned ballads, but
neither was suitable as an A-side. He was encouraged to come up with
something beatier, which resulted in RUNAWAY, written by Del & Max.
The latter contributed much to this recording with the unforgettable,
fantastic, instrumental break played on his self constructed musitron (a
forerunner to today's synthesizer; check out for Max's "The snake" / "The
wanderer", released as by Maximilian at the same time).
The rest is history. Leased to Big Top, "Runaway" was an instant success,
topping the US charts for a month during spring 1961. His follow-ups, "Hats
off to Larry", "So long baby" and "Hey little girl" made him one of the most
successful artists that year. An album titled "Runaway With Del Shannon"
was hurriedly put together after his first single became the # 1 hit. However,
this LP did not sell very well, although it included an interesting recording
of "His latest flame", which preceded Elvis' version.
He stayed on the charts during 1962/'63 with "The Swiss maid", "Little town
flirt", "Two kinds of teardrops" and "From me to you" (the first Lennon -
McCartney song to reach the US top 100).
After Big Top, Del recorded for Berlee and Amy, where he had some good
sellers with "Handy man", "Do you wanna dance", "Keep searchin'" and
"Stranger in town" (1964/'65). He was backed by The Royaltones (of "Wail" /
"Poor boy" fame), label mates on Amy at that time.
A further contract with Liberty led to a number of 45's and albums, but the
magic was gone. Subsequent sessions for Dunhill and United Artists were
not very successful, but in 1981 he scored again with the help of Tom Petty :
a great version of Phil Phillips' "Sea of love".
Sadly, Del took his own life in 1990. He left behind some great, unique,
recordings.

Recommended listening:
"Runaway with Del Shannon / Hats off to Del Shannon" (UK BGO CD 367, rel.
1997)
"Little town flirt / Handy man" (UK BGO CD 388, rel. 1998)
"Sings Hank Williams / 1661 seconds with Del Shannon" (UK BGO CD 404, rel.
1998)
"This is Del Shannon" (UK Music Club CD 326, rel. 1997)
The first 3 CD's reflect his first 6 UK LP's on London & Stateside,
containing most (but not all) of his Big Top and Amy output.
The Music Club CD is a very good 32 track compilation of Big Top, Berlee and
Amy recordings (mid price), including some tracks not on the the BGO releases.