Del Shannon

 Del Shannon, born Charles Weedon Westover (December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990)

Shannon was a rock and roll and country musician and singer-songwriter, best known for his 1961 number 1 Billboard hit "Runaway". He learned to play the ukulele and guitar and listened to country-and-western music, by artists such as Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell. He was drafted into the Army in 1954, and while in Germany played guitar in a band called "The Cool Flames". When his service ended, he returned to Battle Creek, Michigan, and worked as a carpet salesman and as a truck driver for a furniture factory. He found part-time work as a rhythm guitarist in the singer Doug DeMott's group, "The Moonlight Ramblers", working at the Hi-Lo Club. in 1961, highlighted by Shannon's falsetto and keyboardist Max Crook's wailing Musitron (an invention of his). It shot to #1 in both the US and the UK. He had several follow-up hits, including "Hats Off to Larry" and "Little Town Flirt", but his last big hit came in 1965, with "Keep Searchin' ". His career decline didn't keep him from working, however, and he had a few modest hits, notably a cover of Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance?". Shannon spent much of the late 1960s and early 1970s touring Great Britain, where he found a more receptive and admiring audience than he did in the US. In 1985 he had a minor hit on the US country music charts with "In My Arms Again". Shortly afterwards he began touring in rock-n-roll revival shows. On February 8, 1990, after battling a combination of drugs, alcohol and depression for years, he shot himself to death. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered.