I wrote a song that was really a tribute to two others I’d admired: One, Del Shannon. Del Shannon wrote ‘Runaway’.. When I was a kid at the ‘Fitties’ slot machine arcade, a glass box with wire puppets of The Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Piggies in it could be activated for a penny. For reasons known only to a native of those parts, the song and action activated were ‘Runaway’ by Del Shannon. This 1961 hit engraved itself into my psyche thus.
The story for Del and Runaway is a short one.
Originally from the country, Shannon went to New York seeking a career-boost. Disc Jockey and impresario, Ollie McLaughlin persuaded Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook to rewrite and re-record one of their earlier songs, originally called "Little Runaway", using the Musitron as lead instrument.
On January 21, 1961, they recorded "Runaway", which was released as a single in February 1961, reaching number 1 on the Billboard chart in April. Shannon followed with "Hats Off to Larry", which peaked at number 5 on the Billboard chart and number 2 on the Cashbox chart in 1961, and the less popular "So Long, Baby", another song of breakup bitterness.
"Runaway" and "Hats Off to Larry" were recorded in a day.
Shannon enjoyed continued success in the United Kingdom, where he had always been more popular.
In 1963, he became the first American to record a cover version of a song by the Beatles: his version of "From Me to You" charted in the U.S. before the Beatles' version.
Another homage featured in ‘Hinterland’ is Patrick Michael DiNizio of The Smithereens, who I had the pleasure of seeing at Glastonbury in the eighties. If you listen not to hard, you may hear inflections of ‘Behind the Wall of Sleep’ in the chorus.
Patrick died in 2017 and it jarred with me, as I’d been working on my song at about the same time.
This song is dedicated to Del Shannon and Patrick Di NiZio accordingly...
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