Jackie DeShannon ~ 'Cold Kentucky Rain'
Jackie DeShannon was born Sharon Lee Myers on August 21, 1941 in Hazel, Kentucky. Her parents, Sandra Jean Myers and James Erwin Myers, were farmers who played music. The family moved to Aurora, Illinois where DeShannon's father worked as a barber. She ran a segment on the radio show 'Breakfast Melodies' from a very young age and appeared on Pee Wee King's television show 'Country And Western Television Show'.
"Jackie DeShannon entered 1963 as a 21-year-old singer who had released fifteen singles, every one a flop! Hundreds of artists who had been more successful had come and gone during that time, yet her record company at the time, Liberty Records, kept with her. This would seem to be both a sign of her talent and a sign of the intelligence of the decision-makers at Liberty for sticking with her for so long."
- Neal Umphred, Medium
'Splendor In The Grass' - Jackie DeShannon & The Byrds
DeShannon performed and recorded under a variety of different names in her formative years, including Sherry Lee, Jackie Dee, Judy Free and Jackie Shannon. Her early "teen-torment", rockabilly recordings caught the attention of musician Eddie Cochran who arranged for DeShannon to move to California where she formed a songwriting partnership with Cochran's girlfriend, Sharon Sheeley. Together the two of them penned hits for Brenda Lee and Irma Thomas.
"I was lucky enough to first meet Elvis (Presley) at his house in Bel Air and he used to invite different artists, singers and musicians, to come and jam with him at his house. And in the lower room, we had a jukebox and just played records and sang together and just had a great time."
- Jackie DeShannon, Elvis Australia : Official Elvis Presley Fan Club
"Female songwriters were almost unknown before the rock'n'roll era, and Sharon Sheeley and Jackie DeShannon were the first female songwriting team to have any success. In 1958, Sheeley became the first female writer to compose an American No 1 – "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson – without any help from a male partner."
- Spencer Leigh, The Independent
"He was very, very encouraging. He reminded me a lot of James Dean. He said, 'If you really want to get somewhere, you've got to come to California.'"
- Jackie DeShannon remembers Eddie Cochran, 'Finding Her Voice - The Saga Of Women In Country Music'
Bobby Vee & Jackie DeShannon in 'C'mon, Let's Live A Little' (1967)
Jackie DeShannon in 'Surf Party' (1964)
DeShannon gained a solid footing as a solo artist in 1963. Her songs had been offered to other artists to record, so she entertained the idea of recording a covers album consisting of songs written by folk poet Bob Dylan, an idea her record label rejected. Undeterred, DeShannon scored a moderate chart success with her rendition of the song 'Needles And Pins', which was written by Sonny Bono and arranger Jack Nitzsche, and then another with her own composition 'When You Walk In The Room'.
"Ry Cooder’s infatuation with gospel music and spirituals goes back to his teenage years. “In the early ’60s, stuff became available on records that had not been available before,” he said. “Santa Monica, where I have always lived, is not a town where you will find storefront Church of God in Christ churches. So, the whole idea of gospel quartet singing is something I never knew existed, until I began to hear it on record. I liked it then, and it’s still my favorite kind of music.”
A turning point for the budding record collector was hearing a 1952 Folkways LP by Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee and Coyal McMahan titled Get On Board : Negro Folksongs By The Folkmasters. “They do ‘In His Care’ and ‘I Shall Not Be Moved’ on there, and it just grabbed me,” he recalled. “I wanted to hear more of it, understand it a little bit more.”
Around the time of his gospel epiphany, the Ash Grove in Los Angeles began booking groups like the Staples Singers and the Chambers Brothers (before they went psychedelic). “It was amazing to hear them singing just eight feet away onstage,” Cooder recalled. “When you hear that live for the first time in your life, it’s an unbelievable impact. I was just spellbound. It’s something that you walk away from going, ‘I feel like I’m a different person having heard this.’”
Cooder — who would eventually play the Ash Grove himself in 1963, backing singer Jackie DeShannon as a 16-year-old fingerpicking wunderkind — now credits records for putting him on his current path : “If it hadn’t been for record people like Ralph Peer, the Chess brothers and Alan Lomax, then life would’ve been unbelievably dull, and I would’ve been sacking groceries somewhere, and probably at this point running a little 7-Eleven down by the airport.”
- Bill Milkowski, Downbeat
"Elvis was, at least the times I was around him, Elvis was a practical joker. He was always, had some little mischievous something going. And I know I laughed an awful lot. It was an interesting time because he made it so interesting. He would get the Jordanaires. He would get, again, as I say, these different people would come up. He was extremely down to earth. He really set the standard, Elvis set the standard as far as I'm concerned on how a star should act. He was the first star. He will always be the king. He will always be the biggest star there is. No one can ever take his place, and what he got across was that spirit, that generous spirit. He was generous with the artists that he worked with and I always felt kinda special because he's very picky about his singers. So I felt very honored to be there and to be a part of that special time.
He used to call me Jacqueline, Jacqueline Child of God. I don't know why but that was one of his nicknames. And I sent him a turtle once. We were talking about turtles. He said, 'Oh, I don't have a turtle'. So I sent him a turtle. I forgot the name of the turtle, though. Just lost it for a moment. But just something so simple like that or I had an opening night or I was working, he would send me a little note, very sweet."
- Jackie DeShannon remembers Elvis Presley
'When You Walk In The Room' - Jackie DeShannon
During this time, DeShannon toured with The Beatles (she later recorded her own version of Paul McCartney's composition 'Things We Said Today') and hung out with The Hollies. She also picked up a second songwriting partner, pianist Randy Newman. Two of their joint compositions appear on DeShannon's album 'Breakin' It Up On The Beatles Tour!' (1964) and Newman wrote the song 'Just Like In The Movies' for her album 'Don't Turn Your Back On Me' (1964).
"I fought for everything - hard," Jackie De Shannon begins. "I may have been this tiny blonde teenager from the midwest, but I always had my bow and arrow with me." However, De Shannon didn't always win her fights. Her biggest regret is failing to convince her record company to let her make an album of Bob Dylan cover versions in 1963. "The first time I saw him, his songs made my hair go up like alfalfa, but my record company thought they'd never catch on." She raises her eyebrows, recalling how Dylan would send her demos by post, and speak to her on the phone. "I've had to live with that - the idea that that album could have been piece of my history, that I was ahead of the curve, and the world hadn't caught up."
- Jude Rogers, The Guardian
"Her own songs have been covered by countless artists, and as one of the first, most successful pop female singer-songwriters, she became a true pioneer in the entertainment industry. But one of the artists she influenced is rather unexpected : Bruce Springsteen.
Forty years ago, when he was starting out in the business, The Boss made a pilgrimage with buddy "Miami Steve" Van Zandt to the home of Ms. DeShannon, who played them tapes of unreleased songs she had composed with Van Morrison. A few years later, at his crucial Bottom Line gigs in August 1975, Springsteen performed a version of “When You Walk in the Room” that was every bit the equal of DeShannon’s original (not to mention the one that became a hit for the British group, The Searchers).
The Boss, obviously, knew a great song when he heard one. So does Ms. DeShannon : In her own 2001 Bottom Line appearance, she returned the favor to her long-ago admirer by playing a cover of Springsteen’s “Hungry Heart” as the final song of her well-received set."
- Mike T, Song Lyric Of The Day
Jackie DeShannon playing Monopoly with George Harrison
With her recording career in full flow, DeShannon co-starred and sang with Bobby Vinton in the surf movie 'Surf Party (1964) which features performances from The Astronauts and The Routers. She also acted in the political crime drama 'Intimacy' (1966) and headlined David Butler's final film, 'C'mon, Let's Live A Little' (1967), which co-stars Bobby Vee and Kim Carnes; DeShannon would later offer her 1975 song 'Bette Davis Eyes' (from the album 'New Arrangement') to Carnes who scored a global hit with it.
"The world of 'Surf Party' is a world of long ago. It's a world where teenagers look as if they are going on 30 and the guys dress in casual shirts and slacks. The girls wear their hair in elaborate styles even when they are - decorously - in bed. At parties you drink coke or - if you are very daring - beer, and the music is provided by groups of four or five polite looking boys playing guitar, drums and saxophone and bobbing up and down in a most stilted manner. And it's a world where actors and actresses who are playing teens with a yen for surfing, do not allow themselves to be seen dripping wet, but are filmed from the waist upwards gently swaying against a background of the sea. And it's a world of black and white - strictly no colour.
Surf Party is a relatively short movie of little more than 60 minutes. The plot is comfortably simple - three nice gals from Phoenix drive to California, to see the brother of one of the girls and to have a good time by the sea. The brother is the leader of a bad gang of surfers - bad in the sense that they swear (not on screen) and make a lot of noise, surf the wrong side of the pier, and are followed around a lot by an officious policeman. Other guys are nice but dim (Bobby Vinton) or nice but wimpish (the guy who ends up with Jackie DeShannon). Someone gets hurt while surfing; there's a fight; the gals fall in and out of love; and then they go home to Phoenix, wiser and all a tad more experienced.
Sex? None to speak of, although there's some pretty radical full-on lip kissing. Surfing? A little, in the distance. Scenery? Well, the black and white beach could be anywhere - looks to me a bit like Llandudno (that's a place in Wales for you non-UK readers).
But actually it's a simple, harmless and fun movie. Jackie plays a character called Junior. She doesn't get a lot of acting to do but does what she has to do, quite nicely. She puts loads of energy into Glory Wave, the only known gospel-surfing song as someone once said, and the musical highlight of the film. She falls out of her hammock convincingly and looks cute in a black one-piece swimming costume. She kisses the wimpish blond guy and at one point wears a most peculiar hat. Other people in the film are Bobby Vinton, Patricia Morrow, Kenny Miller, Lory Patrick, the Astronauts and the Routers. Bobby Vinton's song is very corny and he looks quite embarrassed, which is to his credit.
And that's all I can say. I've waited 36 years to see it since it appeared in 1965, and I'm pleased to have found it at long last. Jackie DeShannon's fans will want to own it."
- Peter Lerner, The Video Beat'
'Put A Little Love In Your Heart' - Jackie DeShannon
Marianne Faithfull recorded DeShannon's composition 'Come And Stay With Me' as the first song on her debut album 'Marianne Faithfull' (1965). As the decade progressed, DeShannon explored different musical styles. Her friendship with guitarist Jimmy Page of The Yardbirds led him to write a song about her. The song 'Knowing That I'm Losing You' was later developed into 'Tangerine', a song recorded by Page's later group Led Zeppelin for their third studio album, 'Led Zeppelin III' (1970).
Together, DeShannon and Page co-composed the song 'In My Time Of Sorrow' which Faithfull also recorded for her debut album. The song's title was reflected back at it years later when Led Zeppelin came to record 'In My Time Of Dying', an epic rock 'n' roll deconstruction of Blind Willie Johnson's take on a gospel blues standard with mysterious origins, 'Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed'.
"It would be impossible to write about the period 1963 to 1965 without mentioning the rise of English pop music and particularly Mersey Beat. This time was crucial to Jackie DeShannon’s career and caused it to change direction. The credit for this must go to the Liverpool beat group The Searchers, who first of all picked up on Needles and Pins, then took When You Walk In the Room into the British charts, both versions highly dependent upon the guitar sound originated by Jackie and Jack Nitzsche. From that point onwards, Liverpool groups were falling over themselves to find and record DeShannon compositions, among them the Fourmost, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Ian and the Zodiacs, and solo performer Beryl Marsden. The Liverpudlians were followed by other regional English singers and bands, among them Dave Berry, the Hellions, and the Paramounts. Although the Fab Four themselves never recorded a DeShannon song, they always recognised and credited talent from the USA, and did Jackie the honour of asking her to perform as a support act on their first US tour, in early 1964.
Posterity does not appear to have recorded how well Jackie performed, and it is likely that not a word was heard above the deafening screams of the teenyboppers. Nevertheless, the tour brought Jackie to prominence, and caused the ever opportunistic Liberty Records to throw together an album, Breakin’ It Up On the Beatles Tour, now highly collectable, consisting largely of older recordings, but decent enough for all that. One “first” for Jackie at this time, was her decision to record three Buddy Holly songs in a Beatles-ish style, notably Oh Boy!, possibly the first time Holly’s work had been revived after his death. An amusing footnote to this era is the single of How Do You Do It, recorded by Jackie with girl group The Murmaids on the Chattahoochee label, as the LadyBugs. It’s hard to tell whether the ladies were being entirely serious, but you can see why Gerry and the Pacemakers had the hit.
Making the most of the English connection, Jackie shortly afterwards came across to the UK, to promote her own career, and her songs. She recorded a song in London, arranged by Charles Blackwell, specifically for the British market, and although Don’t Turn You Back On Me did not make the charts, it was much played on the pirate radio ships, and Jackie also performed it live on the trendy TV show Ready Steady Go! This song mixed a certain folksiness with the jangly guitar, which her earlier records had originated, and the energy, which went into this performance, is phenomenal. The guitar player on the session was Jimmy Page. Jackie certainly made the most of her time in England. She made friends with the newly popular Marianne Faithfull, and gave Marianne one of her most commercial compositions, Come and Stay With Me. Faithfull subsequently recorded a number of other DeShannon songs. Jackie also co-wrote some excellent and unusual songs with Jimmy Page, which repay searching out. She also sang on an elusive Fontana single – although credited to Jimmy Page, the voice on Keep Moving is Jackie’s.
As another footnote to this period, we shouldn’t neglect the remarkable series of recordings that Jackie produced for her friend Delaney Bramlett on LA’s GNP-Crescendo label, notable a storming Heartbreak Hotel, a brilliantly commercial version of Dominic Behan’s Liverpool Lou, and Jackie’s own beaty You Have No Choice – all startlingly original and demonstrating previously unknown depth’s to Jackie’s talents, within the confines and structures of the day’s sounds."
- Peter Lerner, The Story Of Jackie DeShannon
"Most of the time I sit down with my guitar or at the piano, and I play for awhile until I get a new riff or groove that I like a lot. Then I'll concentrate on building around that line of thought by adding words and textures. At first I'm only trying to please myself, and hopefully what I like will appeal to others."
- Jackie DeShannon, Swingin' Chicks Of The 60s
Jimmy Page studying Jackie DeShannon's guitar technique
DeShannon's singer-songwriter status was regularly inspiring others. Having never forgotten her roots in Kentucky, she could now see Tennesseean (neighbour state) singer-songwriter Dolly Parton making waves, as a new cycle of introspective folk-tinged, country-infused Americana albums permeated the rock 'n' roll scene.
DeShannon was invited by Van Morrison, a songwriter she admired greatly, to sing on his album 'Hard Nose The Highway' (1973). She'd recorded several songs written by Morrison while preparing her own album 'Jackie' (1972), for which he worked overtime in the production booth; a song they co-wrote together, 'Sante Fe', was used on 'Jackie', and then recorded again by Morrison for his album 'Wavelength' (1978).
“My first impression of Van Morrison, was that he was a terrific singer. No, I take that back. I thought he was a really dirty singer. Everything he did had a real big pair of balls to it.”
- Jimmy Page, Creem
"I’m such a Van Morrison fan, all the way from 'Astral Weeks' on down. He’s awesome."
- Jackie DeShannon, Cinematic Passions
'Laurel Canyon' - Jackie DeShannon
In the mid-1970s, DeShannon formed a new songwriting partnership with Donna Weiss (who'd later work as a backing vocalist for Kim Carnes). Drawing inspiration from France Gall, she combined light disco grooves with europop rhythms on her album 'You're The Only Dancer' (1977) which featured several classical ballads, yet despite rating highly among over-45 radio listeners, album sales stalled. 'Quick Touches' (1978) followed, but DeShannon was about ready to take a break and she chose to explore different creative avenues in the coming years.
"With hindsight and the gradual reissue of her catalogue, it seems clearer that Jackie DeShannon was among the preeminent American singer-songwriters of the '60s, comparable in some ways to the greatest British singer of the period, Dusty Springfield. The generic sweep of DeShannon's music is at least the equal of Springfield's, and she was a songwriter to boot. But unlike Springfield, DeShannon's versatility led to an inconsistency which may have crippled her commercial prospects. Although she scored two big hits as a singer ("What the World Needs Now Is Love" and "Put a Little Love In Your Heart") and wrote countless hits for others (notably "When You Walk In the Room", a hit for the Searchers, who also covered “Needles and Pins” after hearing her version), her other records are considerably less well-known, and she never made an album of the magnitude of Dusty In Memphis. Despite consistent critical acclaim and regular opportunities to make records, she would never see the upper reaches of the charts again. Indeed, the general audience probably knows DeShannon less for her '60s heyday than for her authorship of "Bette Davis Eyes”, Kim Carnes' monster hit from 1981.
Although she's had several compilations released by EMI, Rhino, Raven, and others, was featured twice on Rhino's girl-group box set One Kiss Can Lead to Another, and has a volume in Ace's ongoing songwriters series, the reissue of DeShannon's proper albums has been piecemeal, drawn out over a number of years and a variety of labels. Collectors' Choice recently picked up some of the remaining slack: her self-titled Liberty debut from 1963, a twofer combining 1968's Me About You and 1970's To Be Free, and her 1975 Columbia release, New Arrangement, which includes "Bette Davis Eyes". Taken together, these new releases shine some light on DeShannon's evolution and range, as well as the source of her commercial shortcomings."
- Tom Useted, Pop Matters
Cher, Sonny Bono & Jackie DeShannon
DeShannon's kept busy writing and broadcasting in recent years. As Neil Sedaka has said, her performing skills and songwriting craft stand at the forefront of the first 25 years of the rock 'n' roll movement; neither artist has been elected to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but that's another story (they are, however, both in the Songwriters Hall Of Fame, which is perhaps more apt ...).
"Jackie DeShannon, credited as one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock ‘n’ roll era, is the latest recipient of the Governor’s Award For Lifetime Achievement. DeShannon will receive the award at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum 2013 Induction Ceremony. Previous recipients include are Lionel Hampton, Dwight Yoakam, Homer Ledford and Hugh X. Lewis. This award is used to recognize people that have made a contribution to the music and entertainment industry as well as charitable causes in Kentucky and around the world.
The Kentucky Headhunters, Exile, Skeeter Davis, The Hilltoppers, Old Joe Clark, Emory & Linda Martin and Steven Curtis Chapman will make up the 2013 class of Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum inductees. These artists will join other Kentucky native music professionals to be honored for their contribution to music in the state of Kentucky and around the world. The induction ceremony will take place on Friday, April 12 at the Lexington Center Bluegrass Ballroom (430 West Vine Street, Lexington, KY 40507)."
- Lady Amanda, Nashville Muic Guide
“I am deeply thrilled and honored to be recognized by the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame. It’s been a wonderful journey from my childhood in Hazel and I’ve always kept a piece of Kentucky in my songs as well as in my heart.”
- Jackie DeShannon
'The Other Side Of Me' (written by Howard Greenfield & Neil Sedaka) - Jackie DeShannon
# Jackie DeShannon was portrayed on screen by singer-songwriter Liz Phair in an episode of 'American Dreams'. She was on set to see it being filmed and enjoyed Phair's performance. As she told music journalist Mike Ragogna (Huffington Post) :
"I was invited to watch her film that, and the tears ... I was just crying. She was so perfect. She’s such a great talent, and I couldn’t have had anyone do it any better. She just owned it. It was so amazing."'Nobody's Business' - Glen Campbell, Jackie DeShannon & Jerry Reed
|
'A Song For James Dean'
'Child Of The Street' - Jackie DeShannon
Jackie DeShannon played prostitute Carrie Lane in Victor Stoloff's low budget crime melodrama 'Intimacy' (1966). Carrie says to a client, "Me, I go more for the James Dean type, more like you."
Jackie DeShannon in 'Intimacy' (1966)
DeShannon later wrote a song for James Dean which appeared on her album 'Songs' (1971).
"Jackie (DeShannon) was a great singer herself. I always loved getting her demo tapes because they were just like hit records. Jackie wrote six of my singles -- everything she pitched me, I did. They used to complain about me showing so much favoritism to one writer. She told me she wrote some of her songs specifically with me in mind. The only one I wished she'd sent me was 'When You Walk In The Room.' I'd of sung that in a heartbeat ..."
- Brenda Lee, 'Little Miss Dynamite - The Life And Times Of Brenda Lee'
'Salinas' - Jackie DeShannon
/ - | - \
Jackie 3-D : 'Alone'
("Jacqueline Child Of God")
In more recent years, Jackie DeShannon has been speaking about her early years in the music industry to the Wrecking Crew online ... and helping front a podcast about the Beatles and their artistic legacy.
'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' (... written by Neil Young about Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash according to popular rumour ...) - Jackie DeShannon
'Vanilla O'Lay' - Jackie DeShannon (a song later recorded by Marianne Faithfull)
'Boat To Sail' - Jackie DeShannon with Brian Wilson & Marilyn Rovell Wilson
