"I Wonder ... Why ... Why, Why, Why, Why, Why" -- Del Shannon

It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down
I had the radio on, I was drivin'
Trees went by, me and Del were singin' little Runaway
I was flyin'

Yeah, runnin' down a dream that never would come to me
Workin' on a mystery, goin' wherever it leads
Runnin' down a dream

“Runnin' Down a Dream” by Tom Petty

Why did rock and roll innovator Del Shannon commit suicide? He didn't leave a note, so no one really knows what prompted the pop star to shoot himself on Feb. 8, 1990. The question has plagued family, friends and fans,

Shannon's wife, Bonnie, who had been out shopping, returned to their home in the Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles, to find the singer slumped in a chair, a bullet wound in his right temple and a .22 caliber rifle at his feet. There was no suicide note, leaving others to wonder over what dark impulse had taken hold of him. Mike Crowley of the L.A. County Sheriffs Department … 

“Del had gone through bouts of depression. We’re pretty sure it’s a straight suicide.”

Over the last few weeks of his life, Shannon had appeared increasingly lethargic. He’d lost weight and his zest for playing music. He canceled an upcoming tour in England. Shannon reportedly had visited a psychologist two days before his death, was said to be worried about an upcoming IRS audit. He also was suffering from a stubborn sinus infection.

Shannon's longtime manager Dan Bourgoise, said that the singer had been depressed lately, that he was concerned about his new home, and that he had been suffering from the flu for several weeks. Bourgoise insisted Shannon had no financial worries. He says that royalties and concert fees brought the former pop idol well into six figures annually.

Bourgoise said … 

“Over the years, I think he privately became, in a sense, the morose character in his songs.”

At the same time, Del Shannon's career was on the up after a decade-long slump. He'd been working with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne and was rumored to be replacing Roy Orbison, who had died, in the Traveling Wilburys supergroup.

Also, he'd recently played a sell-out show on February 3 at a Buddy Holly tribute concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, before heading back to his new house in California. Dale Hannasch of Watertown, South Dakota, who helped promote the concert, said he could tell something was off. He said Shannon looked sunken and thin. In the middle of the show, Shannon went backstage to tell Hannasch he was too sick to continue, but Hannasch urged him to finish. Shannon did, starting his encore with, of course, “Runaway.”

Later, there were rumors that Shannon had found out that he would not, as he had hoped, be invited to replace the late Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys. (The group later recorded a version of his iconic song “Runaway” in his honor and Petty finished a new album Rock On he and Lynn had been producing for Shannon.)

(Richard Bak. “Del Shannon’s ‘Runaway’ Success Led to His Downfall Hour.” Detroit Magazine. June 30, 2011.)

Around 6:30 P.M. on Feb. 8, Shannon had called his onetime manager and close friend of more than 30 years, Wayne Carter. Carter relates …

“He was depressed, but I’d heard him sound that way many times. I told him we ought to get together for breakfast and rap about what was troubling him.”

The autopsy revealed no alcohol or illegal drugs in Shannon's system. It was said he had procured a prescription for Prozac. In 1991, Shannon’s ex-wife, LeAnne, sued the makers of Prozac, the antidepressant that Shannon was taking, claiming that it was the drug that contributed to his death. That suit was eventually dropped, but the case brought early attention to the still-unresolved question of the possible connection between suicidal ideation and SSRIs, the class of drugs to which Prozac belongs. LeAnne said …

“I watched him turn into somebody who was agitated, pacing, had trembling hands, insomnia, and couldn’t function.”

Bonnie, 36, Shannon's second wife of just two years at the time of his death believed her husband’s death was an accident. She said … 

“Del was too loving, too considerate a person to do something like this. He would never do it, knowing it would hurt those who loved him.”

It was no secret Del Shannon had an alcohol problem. Various attempts to repackage himself as an artist failed, and a nascent drinking problem got out of control. “When I was 20, I was drinking,” Shannon told the Los Angeles Times. “When I was 30, I was drinking more, and at 40, way too much.”

In 1978 Shannon stopped drinking and began work on "Sea of Love", released in 1982 on his album Drop Down and Get Me, produced by Tom Petty. And, in 1986 Shannon rewrote the lyrics to “Runaway” for the TV series Crime Story. He frequently played oldies shows and was in the process of recording another album.

Del Shannon was not just another washed up and forgotten teen idol. First and foremost, he was a rocker. He was one of the few artists to bridge the gap between the early days of rock and roll and the newer styles ushered in by the Beatles and the British Invasion.

Shannon was among the relatively few self-reliant rock and rollers of his era. He wrote his own material, played guitar and sang, and did not project a manufactured image. He also turned out a solid run of hits during the first half of the sixties, including one bonafide classic ("Runaway") and seven more Top Forty singles.

In 1999, Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This came from the essay written by Michael Hill upon Shannon's induction …

“The characters that populated Del Shannon’s songs often could be found, to paraphrase a fellow inductee, in the darkness on the edge of town.

“His haunted heroes were always either leaving or being left  behind, in pursuit or being pursued. For Shannon, there were no happy endings, even though his protagonists already had the girl-in fact, that’s usually where the trouble started.

“Love’s a deadly game,” he sang in one of his later tunes. But if the subject matter was dark, the music was some of the most uplifting rockin’ around.

Whatever the life and legacy of Del Shannon, to his fans he remains immortal for writing and performing “Runaway.” Among other honors, the recording was enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and Rolling Stone named it one of the greatest songs of all time. Airplay and downloads of “Runaway” continue to generate royalties in the low six-figure range each year, a haul that is divided between his heirs and co-writer Max Crook.

Shannon once said he wrote the words to “Runaway” about himself because he was forever running away from relationships – the song told the story of a guy whose girl leaves him, and he is left wondering why it went wrong. A modest man who never claimed he was doing anything original with his vocal, Shannon said the song borrowed from The Ink Spots’ “We Three,” Jimmy Jones’ “Handy Man,” Bobby Darin’s “Dream Lover,” and Dion & The Belmonts’ “I Wonder Why.”

Legend has it that while on stage one night at the Hi-Lo Lounge in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1960, the young and unknown Del Shannon stopped his band mid-song to have his organ player repeat, over and over, an unusual chord sequence he had just adlibbed: A-minor to G.

Note – Charles Westover (Del Shannon) and keyboard player Max Crook performed together as members of "Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Show Band.”

Shannon went to work the next day in his job as a carpet salesman with those chords stuck in his mind, and by the time he took the stage that night, he’d written a song called “Little Runaway” around them—(A-minor) As I walk along I (G) wonder, what went wrong…”

It would be three more months before Shannon and his band could make it to a New York recording studio to record the song that Shannon now saw as his best, and possibly last, shot at stardom.

Note – On January 21, 1961, they recorded "Runaway" at the Bell Sound recording studios, with Harry Balk as producer, Fred Weinberg as audio engineer and also session musician on several sections: session musician Al Caiola on guitar, Moe Wechsler on piano, and Crook playing the central, historical Musitron break. Other musicians on the record included Al Casamenti and Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, and Joe Marshall on drums. Bill Ramall, who was the arranger for the session, also played baritone sax. After recording in A minor, producer Balk sped up the recording to pitch just below a B-flat minor.

As he told Billboard magazine years later, “I just said to myself, if this record isn’t a hit, I’m going back into the carpet business.” Del Shannon sold his last carpet a few months later, as “Runaway” roared up the pop charts on its way to #1 in April 1961.

"Runaway"

As I walk along, I wonder
A-what went wrong with our love
A love that was so strong

And as I still walk on, I think of
The things we've done together
While our hearts were young

I'm a-walkin' in the rain
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain
Wishin' you were here by me
To end this misery

I wonder
I wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder
Why
Why, why, why, why, why
She ran away

And I wonder
Where she will stay
My little runaway
A-run, run, run, run, runaway

I'm a-walkin' in the rain
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain
Wishin' you were here by me
To end this misery

And I wonder
I wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder
Why
Why, why, why, why, why
She ran away

And I wonder
Where she will stay
My little runaway
A-run, run, run, run, runaway
A-run, run, run, run, runaway
A-run, run, run, run, runaway