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RETURN
OF THE
RUNAWAY
Unfortunately, Liberty Records had no
idea how to promote the album and it sold
poorly. By the end of 1968, Shannon had
been dropped from the label.
The next 12 years proved especially
difficult for Del Shannon. Two singles for
Dunhill Records in 1969 and 1970 failed
to attract any attention and Shannon
released only a handful of records in the
1970s. His popularity persisted in the UK,
where he recorded a live album in 1973 for
United Artists Records and scored a minor
hit single for Island Records in 1975. He
achieved financial security by transitioning
to the talent management field, founding
the music publishing company Bug Music
with his close friend Dan Bourgoise and
performing his early hits in oldies package
shows throughout the 1970s. However, as
the decade wound on, he descended deeper
into depression and alcoholism.
In 1978, after leaving alcohol behind,
Shannon began work on the album Drop
Down And Get Me with Tom Petty & The
Heartbreakers. After its release in 1981,
he spent considerable time in Nashville,
reconnecting with his roots, pitching songs
to artists and recording a country album
for Warner Brothers Records. Although he
scored a minor country hit in 1985 with the
single In My Arms Again, the full album
failed to garner a release.
Finally, as the 80s neared their end,
Shannon’s prospects for a successful
recording career began to brighten.
A revisiting of Runaway with newlyrics became the theme for the NBC TV
programme Crime Story, and he began
working on a new album with Petty and
Jeff Lynne (who had previously recorded
with Shannon in the studio back in the
mid-70s). There was also talk of Shannon
joining Lynne, Petty, Bob Dylan and George
Harrison in the supergroup The Traveling
Wilburys after Roy Orbison’s death in
December 1988.
Although Shannon’s prospects for the
future appeared to be bright, he continued
his struggle with clinical depression.
In late January 1990, his doctor prescribed
a course of the anti-depressant drug Prozac.
Two weeks later, on 8 February, Shannon
was found dead from a self-inflicted
gunshot wound at his home in Santa Clarita,
California. Del Shannon’s final album,
Rock On!, was released in 1991, and he was
inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in 1999.
Throughout his life, Shannon fought an
impassioned battle for artistic control of his
music, recorded some remarkable songs,
and was all too often left crushed by the
fickle and indifferent nature of the music
business. More than once, he pulled himself
back from the brink of the darkness that
constantly threatened to envelope him.
“It’s a shame Del didn’t beat his
depression and stay with us,” Andrew
Loog Oldham observed in a 2012 interview.
“He’d have written a great song about it- a wonderful pop falsetto-novella about
beating the hurt and the pain.” 9
FINALLY, AS THE 80S NEARED THEIR
END, SHANNON’S PROSPECTS FOR A
SUCCESSFUL RECORDING CAREER
BEGAN TO BRIGHTENDel Shannon playing a
Gibson Firebird on stage in
Chicago in February 1982In 1978, a freshly sober Del Shannon was
determined to record a new studio album- his first in over a decade. A suggestion
from rock journalist Harvey Kubernik led
him to Tom Petty. At the time, Petty was
a rising rock star with two critically
acclaimed albums. Petty’s take on rock
was contemporary, while also wearing
his influences (early rock’n’roll, British
Invasion pop and West Coast folk rock)
like a badge of honour.
A meeting was arranged and the two
musicians hit it off, leading quickly to a
demo session that persuaded Al Coury,
president of RSO Records, to sign Del for
an album produced by Petty. Almost
immediately, the plans were thrown off
track as Petty got involved in a contract
dispute with MCA Records. After the
matter was settled, Petty released his
breakout album, Damn The Torpedoes,
which made him a worldwide star. At the
same time, RSO Records fell into legal
disarray, with Coury leaving to launch his
own label, Network Records.
Shannon’s album, Drop Down And Get
Me, took more than two years to
complete as Petty squeezed session time
into his busy schedule. Released in
October 1981, the album garnered critical
praise, along with Shannon’s first US hit
single in over 12 years, Sea of Love.
Shannon would work with Petty again
for what would end up being the
posthumously-released LP, Rock On!