Tuesday September 29, 2020 “Runaway” Del Shannon
Jumping into the Wayback Machine for another misheard lyric that falls into category a)...just checking to see who read yesterday’s notes.
Del Shannon was an interesting singer/songwriter who began his recording career in the musical hotbed of Battle Creek, MI with a strange sounding instrument called a musitron and a bit of falsetto that created this number one hit. It was the biggest selling single of 1961 in both the US and the UK.
In 1964 Shannon produced a single for a then struggling fellow Michigan singer/songwriter you may have heard of, Bob Seger and Shannon gave that single to American Bandstand host Dick Clark who promptly signed Seger to his Cameo record label.
While Shannon headlined a tour in the UK he connected with an up and coming group known as the Beatles, before beatlemania, recognized their talent and was the first American artist to record one of their songs “From Me to You”. And British duo Peter & Gordon would have a top ten hit with Shannon’s “I Go to Pieces”.
I must admit that growing up with “Runaway” I was a victim of having misunderstood this lyric forever and was surprised when I discovered the actual lyric. I felt a little better when I heard Bonnie Raitt’s version of “Runaway” and found that she too had misheard the lyric exactly as I did...since re recorded.
So what is the errant phrase: “I’m a walking in the rain, to the ball and I feel a pain”. Correct lyrics below.
Stay safe and well...and it really doesn’t matter if you get the words right as long as you are enjoying the song.
