Saturday Morning Soundtrack: "Runaway" by Del Shannon (1961)

Well, we're back to the 60s this week in the Saturday Morning Soundtrack series, and I'm facing my first major challenge of the series. So many great songs to choose from, but I'm going with one of my very favorites.


As always, I'm not alleging that the songs I pick are necessarily the "best" songs from a given year. Just my favorites.  You'll hear some big hits and some B-side buried treasures. If your favorite song gets overlooked, let me know just how wrong I got things in the comments below! Or, even better, consider writing your own Saturday Morning Soundtrack entry for a future post. And, after you read the commentary, keep checking out the Youtube page to play through the entire series playlist seamlessly while you write, work, exercise, or simply rock out!

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Saturday Morning Soundtrack @ Youtube

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"Runaway" -- Del Shannon (1961)

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' "Lttle Runaway,"
I was flyin'

                    ―Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down A Dream”

This song is probably the very first rock song I ever fell in love with. Like most rock-discovery stories, mine starts with a shoe box of my parents' cassette tapes. And though there was a wealth of great music on those tapes (and a number of artists who remain among my favorites), no song caught my attention like Del Shannon's "Runaway" with its offbeat instrumentation and its haunting vocals.

"Runaway" is a song that inspires more questions than answers, and it so wholly invites a listener to join its lead character's psyche that it's hard not to feel an attachment. Who is this guy who's walking in the rain? And who's the runaway? Why did she run? Where is she now? These are the kind of questions novels are based on. And they're questions that our speaker is using to torture himself.

What's interesting to me about this song is its limited point of view. (We only ever break from third-person once, when our speaker slips into direct address to tell his former flame, "[I'm] wishin' you were here by me.") Through this narrow window onto the world of the characters, we can see only a small portion of the story--not enough to know whether we should be siding with our singer or with the girl on the lam.

On one hand, it's possible, that this guy is a dangerous type, the kind of guy who should be run from. And yet, that reading doesn't necessarily block us from empathy. That's the song's great trick. In that sense, it reminds me of my favorite Yusef Komunyakaa poem, "My Father's Love Letters," where a son is tasked with writing desperate, fumbling apologies from his illiterate and abusive father to his runaway mother. The son, seeing the pain Dad is in without Mom around, is torn between feeling bad for his father--a man who has, in his own right, lived a very tough life and who maintains redeeming qualities--and his wish for Mom to stay as far away as possible. The answer, of course, is that the son should feel both emotions because both are simultaneously true (a paradox that we, as human beings, generally have a tremendously difficult time reconciling). Nothing is black and white. Nothing simple.

Of course, this isn't the only possible reading of Shannon's song. Another (perhaps more probable) story goes something like this: A down-on-his-luck sort pines after the one that got away. (After all, there is a tenderness to his final question: "And I wonder where she will stay?" that leads us to believe that maybe this guy ain't so bad).

Ultimately, we don't know enough of the back-story to favor either interpretation. And that's okay. In one of rock's greatest storytelling moves, Shannon has passed the work of imagination from the characters in the song to us, the listener. As a result, the story of the song becomes whatever we want it to be.

The story of  the song is a far different tale, however.

Talented crooner Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook got off to a rocky start as a musical duo, until their manager convinced them to rewrite and re-record one of the earliest songs they had written together. The goal was to highlight Crook's homemade electric keyboard (dubbed "Musitron"). This keyboard was a forerunner to the analog synthesizer, and it used a variety of switches to change the instrument's tone (including adding effects like vibrato). (In fact, we might argue that not only was this an early rock and roll song, but it was also one of the earliest instances of electronic music). You can hear the Musitron featured heavily in "Runaway's" bridge (1:10 to 1:36).

Within weeks of its release, "Runaway" rocketed to the top of the charts, peaking at #1 in both the U.S. and the U.K., where it remained for four weeks. During this time period, "Runaway" was a tremendous hit, selling over 80,000 copies a day. It would be Del Shannon's biggest success, though he would continue to enjoy popularity as a recording artist throughout the 60s and early 70s, largely playing other musicians' numbers. Alcoholism would eventually slow Del Shannon's career and depression would end up taking his life--Shannon committed suicide in 1990. Sadly, at the time of his death, Shannon was making some of the best music of his life with songs like "Walk Away" and "What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am," and he had reportedly been asked to join The Traveling Wilburys.

In the wake of Shannon's death, his friend Tom Lazaros wrote a remarkable spiritual successor to "Runaway" titled "That Runaway Man," which celebrated Shannon's life and mourned his passing. The Traveling Wilbury's also paid homage to Shannon by covering "Runaway" and releasing it as the B-side to their single "She's My Baby" (the only cover song ever released by the Wilburys). In 1999, Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame where he continues to be recognized among the rest of rock's early legends.

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So what do you think? Did I get it right or miss the mark? Please, feel free to weigh in using the comments below. And, if you would like to write a Guest Entry for the "Saturday Morning Soundtrack" series where you creatively respond to one of your favorite rock songs, don't hesitate to contact me with queries.