Rocktober '60s Song #3: "Runaway" by Del Shannon (1961)

The five-year period between February 1959 and February 1964 is generally considered one of the worst periods in rock and roll history.  On February 3, 1959, three of rock and roll's budding stars, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper, died in a plane crash in Iowa.  Elvis was in the army from 1958 to 1960, and then generally focused on acting in horrible movies when he returned.  Until the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, changing music forever and saving rock and roll, the early '60s were plagued by bubblegum pop and cheesy teen crooners, like Bobby Vee, Fabian, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Vinton, and the like.  That's not to say all the music being put out at the time was bad -- just that there was a whole lotta schmaltz and pop being played on the radio, and not much rock and roll.

One of the exceptions was Del Shannon's 1961 smash hit "Runaway."  Shannon co-wrote the song with Max Crook, who had recently invented his own take on the electronic keyboard called the Musitron, which is featured heavily in "Runaway."  The song itself is about a guy whose girlfriend left him, leaving him to wonder, in a magnificent falsetto "why why why why why she ran away."  

The song shot up to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late April 1961, and it stayed at #1 for four weeks.  It also hit #1 in five other countries and Top 5 in a few others.  Shannon would never hit #1 again, but he did continue to be successful throughout the early '60s, scoring 7 more Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1961 and 1965, including two more Top 10 songs.  He was also very popular in the UK, where, after "Runaway," he had 13 songs crack the UK Top 40, including 7 that went Top 10.

Unfortunately, he battled alcoholism and eventually killed himself in 1990, nine years before he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In addition to being a great early '60s rock and roll song, "Runaway" is mentioned in Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream" ("Me and Del were singing / A little 'Runaway' / I was a-flyin'").