Del Shannon should not be confused with Dell Shannon, the pseudonym under which Elizabeth Linington wrote police procedurals for 26 years.
Del Shannon ( December 30, 1934– February 8, 1990) (born Charles Weedon Westover in Coopersville, Michigan) was an American rock and roller who launched into fame with the No. 1 hit " Runaway" ( 1961) which introduced the "musitron", an early form of the synthesizer played by "Runaway" co-writer and keyboard player Max Crook.
Shannon followed up with "Hats Off to Larry", another big hit, and the less popular "So Long, Baby", another song of breakup bitterness. "Little Town Flirt", released in 1962 reached #12 in 1963 as did the album of the same name. After these hits, Shannon was unable to keep his momentum in the US, but became a sensation in England. In 1963, he became the first American artist to record a cover version of a Beatles song with "From Me to You".
Shannon returned to the charts in 1964 with "Handy Man"," Do You Wanna Dance", "Keep Searchin'", and "Stranger in Town" ( 1965), with the latter two songs themed about flight from pursuit in a dangerous world. In the late 1960s after a dry spell of hits, he turned to production. In 1969 he discovered a group called Smith and arranged their hit "Baby It's You". He then produced his friend Brian Hyland's million seller "Gypsy Woman" in 1970.
In the 1970s, Shannon's career slowed down greatly; the hates and fears he had turned into art in his earlier songs were turning into full-blown mental illness, and he was self-medicating with alcohol. He finally put the bottle down in 1978, and he was able to return to mainstream audiences with "Sea of Love" in the early 1980s from the album "Drop Down And Get Me" produced by Tom Petty.