Hats off!

We somehow got into a conversation about Del Shannon, the American singer who I remember hearing on the radio when I was young. We didn’t have a TV and there wasn’t the same ‘pop’ culture as there is now, so I had no idea what he looked like. Popular music wasn’t so universal either; these days people of all ages by music (in many different ways) and are not restricted to genre or type… I have this fear that when I’m in an old folks’ home (many, many years hence) they will still be playing Vera Lynn and Max Bygraves!

Del Shannon was a favourite singer of ours, my sister and I knew the words of his sons which we had just learned by listening, no internet with sites sharing lyrics! I think the only record of his we actually had was ‘Swiss Maid’ which had ‘Ginny in the Mirror’ on the B side. Thee were several things which made me like Del Shannon then; it was his voice, it was the backing, and it was the story in his songs – even when I was little I preferred something with narrative. So having thought about Del, and the other songs which I only ever heard on the radio, ‘Hats off to Larry’, ‘Little Town Flirt’ and ‘His latest Flame’ – later recorded by Elvis Presley, and maybe his most well-known song from 1961, ‘Runaway’.

I realised I didn’t know anything about Del, not even what he looks like, and when I began to investigate I was shocked and sad to find out that he was dead, in fact he died a long time ago, in 1990. he was only fifty-five when he killed himself… tragic. he was born in Michigan in 1934, and his real name was Charles Westover. His first hit was in 1961, ‘Runaway’ which was no.1 in the charts across the world, including the USA, UK and Australia. He didn’t ever have the same success with his subsequent records, and I guess that not many people who didn’t know him when he was popular would know him now.

Here’s a little Del:

So that’s what he looked like!