100 Songs That Have Moved Me | Song #008: "Runaway" (1961)

[luxken27]

Title: "Runaway"
Artist: Del Shannon
Composers: Del Shannon, Max Crook
Producer: Harry Balk
Release Date: February 1961
Peak Chart Position: #1 (Hot 100)
Album: Runaway (1961)

Rolling Stone metadata:

Rank: #472

Blurb: As a kid, Shannon got his first guitar for $5. His truck-driver dad wasn't too happy about it. "'You get that goddamn guitar outta here' — that's the exact words my father used," Shannon recalled. "However, my ma said, 'It's OK, son. You can sing for me.'" He sang this hit with raw emotion; co-writer Crook played the solo on an early electronic keyboard called the Musitron. (Source)

Words from the artist:

(Source)


"Forget everything you ever heard about 'Runaway,'" said [Dick] Parker [drummer] in a 1992 interview. "It was this simple. Max sat down and began tinkling on the piano." Shannon and Crook began playing the lick over and over, humming a few words here and there. "When I saw that the two weren't going to stop," explained Parker, "I jumped in with the drums." The band worked on the song for the next 15 to 20 minutes, as the crowd looked on curiously. Finally, the owner of the club came over to the stage and told them to "Knock it off!" and "Play something else!"

The next morning, Shannon took his guitar with him to work at The Carpet Outlet, where Shannon sold carpets by day. Sitting on a roll of carpets, Del began writing the words to his new song. "As I walk along..."

Wes Kilbourne, a friend to Shannon whom he had met while both were employed at a local Brunswick factory months earlier, stopped by to visit with the singer and watched as the first lyrics to "Runaway" took shape that one Saturday morning. "I recall Del's original title of the song was 'Little 'Runaway.' He was working out lyrics like 'I'm a-walkin' in the storm' and 'I'm a-walkin' beneath the clouds.' Things like that. In fact, he had an entire second verse that he wrote but totally scrapped it off because it didn't fit in as well as the first verse. 'Something something something, I see the image of my love, I'm a-walkin' in the rain...'"

Shannon finished the song by lunch and telephoned Crook. "Max, bring your tape recorder with you to the club tonight. I've finished our song. It's called 'Little Runaway.'"


Shannon and bandmates performed the song that night for the first time before a live crowd. Before they began playing the song Shannon said, "Max, when I point to you, play something." What Crook played on his Musitron is now considered one of the most famous instrumental breaks in rock 'n' roll history. Parker threw his drumsticks in the air and exclaimed, "Boy! I can't believe what a great song you guys just wrote!" Crook remembers that is was requested quite often, and that they would sometimes play it four or five times a night. "The crowd really enjoyed it," says Crook today, "We did Runaway and I'll Always Love You over and over and over and over."

Parker recently explained when asked about the event, "You know eventually, if you throw enough (stuff) against the wall, some of it sticks, and good things can happen. You can't explain it, you don't expect it, but some things are just meant to be." It was meant to be, yet there was an incident where "Runaway" came close to never getting published. Crook and Shannon were laying down about 10 or 12 songs for deejay McLaughlin to play for Balk and Micahnik in Detroit. None of the songs appealed to the record executives. Then, McLaughlin and the EmBee Productions team heard a small portion of the live "Runaway" in between where one song had ended, and another song began. What had happened was that Crook somehow accidently covered up most of the song on tape with these other demos. McLaughlin brought it to Crook's attention, and asked that he and Shannon re-record the song as it sparked some interest.


[Producers] Micahnik and Balk listened to the song. Their initial comments were, "You know the problem with this song is that it sounds like three different songs trying to come together. We don't know how commercially valuable this song may be, but it sounds like there is too much going on in this song." In reply, McLaughlin boasted, "I'm tellin' ya, you're missin' it, if you don't record this song!" McLaughlin's assurance and confidence that "This will work!" eventually convinced Micahnik and Balk to throw in "Runaway" with the next batch of songs. In a March 1994 interview, Harry Balk recalled, "Okay, we decided to give Del another shot. But I loved that organ of Max's. To be honest, I didn't care much for Del's voice, but I really wanted to do something with Max Crook and that organ!"


Crook recalls, "A special feature that the studio had integrated into their phone system was a direct hook-up from their mixer board, so that record executives could play the just-recorded tunes via telephone with reasonable fidelity to distributors around the country. Before 'Runaway' was fully mixed, there were pre-orders for over 90,000 copies!" (Source)

How this song moves me:

This song is a true piece of pure pop perfection. Its genius lies in its relative simplicity - one verse, one bridge/chorus, and one game-changing instrumental solo smack dab in the middle of it all. The original producer was right, in that Del Shannon's vocals aren't extraordinary, though he does have a very impressive falsetto. Even the lyrical content is fairly tame and pedestrian as pop songs go - mourning the loss of a presumably serious lover, given that he sings plaintively of wondering "where she will stay" now that they've separated.

No, what makes this song special is its instrumentation. Whenever I hear that opening strum of the guitar (as evidenced more clearly in the second video I've embedded here), I just get goosebumps. I love that there's a fingered-strum style to these first few chords, and how beautifully it parallels the piano-based Musitron that kicks in a few bars later. Its a clever bit to set up the solo that takes the place of the second verse. The Musitron itself sounds like a proto-synthesizer, pretty damn cool for the early 60s, and definitely a game-changer in every sense of the word.

This song is simple, yet elegant, and lends itself to karaoke and covers quite easily. (It's been covered a lot, in fact.) The original is still my favorite, though, and for some reason is very evocative of summer for me. Maybe its the tempo, maybe its the references to walking in the rain, maybe its the soft spot I have for breakup songs in general - I can't explain it. All I know is that when I hear this song, I immediately stop and smile and bop along in my seat or the car or wherever, and just enjoy this bite-sized morsel of awesome ♥