Del Shannon: From Runaway to Runnin’ Down A Dream

Charles Westover, a quiet, introspective kid from Coopersville made a profound impact on the history of rock and roll. After topping the charts with “Runaway,” he recorded another half-dozen top 20 singles and reached the Billboard Hot 100 on 17 occasions.

“He was Del Shannon on stage, but he was Charles Westover immediately when he got off the stage,” said James Popenhagen, who has helped keep the singer-songwriter’s memory alive with the “Del Shannon Show,” a long-running touring tribute show slated to kick off the “Del Shannon Weekend” in Battle Creek at the end of June.

Charles Weedon Westover was born December 30, 1934 in Grand Rapids, the eldest of Bert and Leone’s three children. Charles had two younger sisters, Blanche and Ruth Anne, with whom he remained close throughout his life. His mother played ukulele and taught the instrument to her son. He ordered his first guitar from the Sears catalogue, and as a teen played for orphaned children at the Muskegon Children’s Home.

Charles met Shirley Nash in High School. They wed at age 17 and started a family of their own. In 1956, three years after he graduated, he was drafted into the Army and stationed in Germany, where he performed on Army radio and established a following. After the Army, he took a day job at the Brunswick furniture factory in Kalamazoo and performed regularly at the Hi-Lo Club in Battle Creek. He enlisted Bob Popenhagen (the grandfather of James Popenhagen) as a guitarist. The group took off, and at the suggestion of a manager he changed his name to Del Shannon.

He was the rare pop musician in the early 1960s who wrote most of his own material. His melodic sensibilities and use of minor chords inspired numerous artists, not the least of whom were Jeff Lyne of ELO, Tom Petty, and Elvis Presley. When he toured England one of Shannon’s opening acts was the Beatles, who started as his fans and ended up his friends.

“My dad was funny and always cool to be around,” his son Craig Westover said. “There was a lot of times when I was younger when he was on the road a lot, so our time was really, really special.” In later years, Craig went on tour with his father to England.

In January 1961, Shannon and a team of session musicians recorded “Runaway” at New York’s famed Bell Sound studio. Within weeks the song was a smash hit, selling a reported 80,000 copies a day after Shannon appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. “Runaway” spent a month on top of the Billboard Hot 100 and was one of the top selling singles of 1961.

In late April 1961, he was asked to address the student body at Coopersville High School, but was not allowed to sing “Runaway” for fear that the students would act out. He was supposed to have received the key to the city that day, but the mayor who was to present it was “out of town.” Shannon performed briefly on Main Street that night on the back of a flatbed truck.

In 1962 and 1963, Shannon toured Great Britain, selling out venues. He headlined at London’s Royal Albert Hall with The Beatles as the opening act. They remained admirers for life, opening for him on several occasions. Shannon became the first American to record a Beatles song, “From Me to You,” in 1963.

In 1983, Del Shannon at last received the key to Coopersville and performed a full-on concert.

“He wasn’t an uncle we just knew about. He spent a lot of time with our family,” Brad Erickson said. “Uncle Chuck” and “Aunt Shirley” were particularly close to Erickson’s family, who lived in Ludington. They attended many of Erickson’s baseball games. “He came to the house and said, ‘Hey Brad, I bought this ball glove so that we could play catch,’” Erickson said. “When he left to go back to California, he said ‘I’d like you to have this glove.’ I still have it and it is one of my cherished things.”

In 1988, Tom Petty namechecked his old friend with the lyrics “Me and Del were singing little Runaway” in the hit song “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” At the time, Shannon was working on a new album with Petty and Lynne. The recordings were released posthumously on Rock On, an album that showcased Shannon’s lyrical, vocal, and instrumental acumen.

Sadly, Shannon died tragically in California in 1990. Soon after, a “Del Shannon Classic Car Show” began in Coopersville, blending nostalgia for the great music and automobiles of the 1950s and 1960s. The car show — slated for Aug. 9 and 10, 2024— remains, but his namesake car show will be held June 29, 11–4 p.m. in Battle Creek.