The Styrous® Viewfinder: Del Shannon

Showing posts with label Del Shannon. Show all posts

June 13, 2026

Remembering Bobby Freeman

date & photographer unknown

Today is the birthday of Bobby Freeman, a San Francisco performer I remember from my high school days. He was born on June 13, 1940. We went to different schools, he at Mission High, me at Poly High. Mission High was one of the SF schools that were athletic rivals for my school. I remember during one of the games we played with Mission he performed during the half-time. Years later, he performed at the Condor Club at the corner of Broadway and Columbus Avenue in North Beach, near the Hungri i where I danced (links below).

He is known for his 1958 top ten hit, Do You Want to Dance on Josie Records when he was still only 17. The song was covered by Del Shannon, the Beach Boys, Johnny Rivers, Bette Midler, John Lennon, Cliff Richard with The Shadows, Marc Bolan & T.Rex, the Mamas & The Papas, Bobby Vee and the Ramones. He toured with Fats Domino, the Coasters, Jackie Wilson and 20-year-old Sylvester Stewart, later known as Sly Stone.

Do You Want to Dance was also featured in the George Lucas 1973 film, American Graffiti, which was based on the director’s teenage years growing up in Modesto and sparked the 1950s and ’60s revival that led to the TV series Happy Days and the blockbuster musical Grease.

Bobby Freeman died of natural causes on January 23, 2017, aged 76. He was remembered by SFGate as "the man who became known as San Francisco's first rock 'n' roll star after his song Do You Want to Dance climbed the pop charts in 1958."

Bobby Freeman

date & photographer unknown

Viewfinder links::

the Beach Boys

the Coasters

The Condor Club, Carol Doda, her piano & Theresa Hill

Fats Domino

Bobby Freeman

Grease with a corkscrew & a Duck's Ass

John Lennon

the Mamas & The Papas

Bette Midler

The Poly Math*

the Ramones

Cliff Richard

Johnny Rivers

Del Shannon

Sly Stone

T.Rex

Bobby Vee

Jackie Wilson

Net links:

SF Gate ~ Bobby Freeman, SF’s first rock ’n’ roll star, dies at 76

YouTube links:

Music People

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September 25, 2022

Johnny Depp articles/mentions

mentions:

Li'l Abner & Peter Palmer

Del Shannon ~ Runaway

Johnny Depp

date & photographer unknown

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Movie Articles

Movie People

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December 30, 2021

45 RPMs 68: Del Shannon ~ Runaway & Max Crook's Musitron

Del Shannon ~ Runaway
45 RPM record

photo by Styrous®

Today, December 30th is the birthday of Del Shannon who ran away with the Billboard Hot 100 song, Runaway, sixty years ago in 1961. It was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook and became a major international hit. It was No. 472 on the 2010 version of the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

I was snagged by the song from the first time I heard it. How could you not? The great guitar, piano & bass intro and that squeaky synthesizer played durng the instrumental break by Crook, “The Man From The Musitron", and Shannon's falsetto, totally weird and wonderful!

Del Shannon - 1963

photographer unknown

In 1957, Crook built a monophonic synthesizer, which he called the Musitron, out of a clavioline heavily enhanced with additional resistors, television tubes, and parts from household appliances, old amplifiers, and reel-to-reel tape machines. He was unable to patent the Musitron because most of its components were previously patented products.

Max Crook & his Musitron

date & photographer unknown

When their first recording session for Big Top Records in New York City had ended in failure, their manager Ollie McLaughlin persuaded them to rewrite and re-record an earlier song they had written, Little Runaway, to highlight Crook's unique instrumental sound. On January 21, 1961, they recorded Runaway at the Bell Sound recording studios, with Harry Balk as producer, Fred Weinberg as audio engineer and also session musicians on several sections: session musician Al Caiola on guitar, Moe Wechsler on piano, and Crook playing the central Musitron break. Other musicians on the record included Milt Hinton on bass, and Joe Marshall on drums. Bill Ramall, who was the arranger for the session, also played baritone sax. Al Casamenti and Bucky Pizzarelli were also on guitar (Pizzarelli died last year from COVID-19).

Bucky Pizzarelli

date & photographer unknown

After recording in A minor, producer Balk sped up the recording to pitch just below a B-flat minor. Runaway was released in February 1961 and was immediately successful. On April 10 of that year, Shannon appeared on the Dick Clark American Bandstand, helping to catapult it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for four weeks. Two months later, it reached number one on the UK's Record Retailer chart, spending three weeks in that position. On the Billboard Hot R&B Sides, Runaway peaked at number three.

The song was ranked No. 5 on Billboard's end of year "Hot 100 for 1961 – Top Sides of the Year" and No. 9 on the Cash Box "Top 100 Chart Hits of 1961"

Elvis Presley covered the song live at The International Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, at Midnight on August 24, 1969. His version is not as interesting as Shannon's (link below)!

Elvis Presley - 1969
photographer unknown

My favorite song by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers refers to Runaway in the 1989 tune Petty wrote with Jeff Lynne, Runnin' Down a Dream from his first solo album Full Moon Fever and featured in the 1998 film, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which starred Johnny Depp.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas poster

There are many songs by the title Runaway, none of which have anything to do with the Shannon version but are interesting in one way or another. Aurora has a "New Wave" treatment that is mellow and beautiful in spite of the rather downer lyrics but the one I have found fascinating and quite well done is the rap song by Kanye West, but beware, the lyrics are a bit explicit (links below).

Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Art Alexakis, singer-songwriter and guitarist of the rock band Everclear in 1999.

Del Shannon was born in Coopersville, Michigan, on Dec. 30, 1939. He began playing guitar as a teen-ager and took his stage name from a friend, Mark Shannon. He learned to play the ukulele and guitar and listened to country-and-western music by artists such as Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell. There are some great images of Shannon's life on the History of Rock website (link below).

Shannon committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Santa Clarita, California, home on February 8, 1990 (link below). A .22-caliber rifle with no note was found next to Shannon's body in the den. He was 50 years old. Shannon’s widow would later file a high-profile lawsuit against Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of the antidepressant Prozac, which Shannon had begun taking shortly before his suicide. That suit was eventually dropped, but the case brought early attention to the still-unresolved question of the possible connection between suicidal ideation and SSRIs, the class of drugs to which Prozac belongs.

Del Shannon ~ Jody

45 RPM record

photo by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A - Runaway - 2:20

Side 2:

B - Jody - 2:20

Companies, etc.

    Published By – Vicki Music, Inc.
    Published By – McLaughlin Publishing Co.
    Record Company – EmBee (2)
    Record Company – Bigtop Records, Inc.
    Lacquer Cut at – Bell Sound Studios

Credits:

Written-By Shannon*, Crook*

Notes:

Vicki Music, Inc. BMI
McLaughlin Pub. Co. - BMI

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Rights Society: BMI
    Matrix / Runout (A-side label): BG-1181
    Matrix / Runout (B-side label): BG-1182
    Matrix / Runout (A-Side Runout Etching): BellSound 45-BG-1181-2 2 BT
    Matrix / Runout (B-Side Runout Etching): BellSound 45-BG-1182-2 2 BT

Viewfinder links:

Aurora

Al Caiola

Al Casamenti

Dick Clark

Max Crook

Milt Hinton

Jeff Lynne

Tom Petty

Bucky Pizzarelli
Elvis Presley

Kanye West

Hank Williams