Thursday, May 30, 2002 7:43:17 AM
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Jackie DeShannon
Born as Sharon Lee Myers on August 21th 1944 in Hazel, KY. This highly talented singer and songwriter (over 600 songs) was introduced to gospel, country and blues styles while still a child. She was actively performing by the age of 15 and, having travelled to Los Angeles, commenced a recording career in 1960 with a series of releases on minor labels.
Jackie's collaborations with Sharon Sheeley resulted in several superior pop songs including "Dum Dum" and "Heart in Hand" for Brenda Lee and "Trouble" for the Kalin Twins. DeShannon then forged equally fruitful partnerships with Jack Nitzsche and Randy Newman, the former of which spawned "When You Walk In The Room", a 1964 smash for the Searchers. Resultant interest in the UK inspired several television appearances and DeShannon's London sojourn was also marked by several songwriting collaborations with Jimmy Page.
Despite a succession of excellent singles, Jackie's own recording career failed to achieve similar heights, although her work continued to be covered by, Helen Shapiro, Marianne Faithfull, the Byrds and the Critters. DeShannon enjoyed a US Top 10 single with the Burt Bacharach/ Hal David-penned "What The World Needs Now Is Love" (1965), but her biggest hit came four years later when "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" reached number 4 in the same chart.
Although she continued to write and record superior pop, as evinced on JACKIE and YOUR BABY IS A LADY, DeShannon was unable to sustain the same profile during the '70s and '80s. Her songs continued to provide hits for others, notably "Bette Davis Eyes" (with Kim Carnes, 1981), "Breakaway" ( Tracey Ullman, 1983) and "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" ( Annie Lennox and Al Green, 1988). Jackie DeShannon's position as one of the '60s leading composers remains undiminished.
Few performers have enjoyed as versatile a career as Jackie DeShannon, and although she made a couple of well-remembered Top Ten pop hits in the '60s, she's never achieved the level of success or artistic recognition she deserves. Starting as a pop-rockabilly singer as a teenager in the late '50s, she quickly developed into one of the L.A. pop scene's hottest songwriters, penning hits for Brenda Lee, the Fleetwoods, and Irma Thomas, and often collaborating with fellow noted songwriter Shari Sheeley. One of the first established rock figures to see the potential for crossbreeding rock and folk, she was a crucial midwife to the birth of folk-rock, with the wonderful singles "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room." Using the circular, jangling guitar lines that would become a prime feature of early folk-rock, both of those songs were covered by the Searchers for much bigger hits; she also wrote"Don't Doubt Yourself Babe," covered by the Byrds on their first album, and penned a couple of Marianne Faithfull's early hits. In the mid-'60s, she also found time to write some songs with then-sessionman Jimmy Page, and perform as an opening act for the Beatles on the group's first big American tour.
DeShannon's famous affiliations and success as a songwriter have sometimes obscured her own enormous talents. She's a superb singer, capable of both sweet ballads and (more satisfyingly) a gutsy, soulfully husky delivery. She performed her own material with an honest, vulnerable, intelligent intensity that pre-figured the singer/songwriter movement by several years, and demonstrated command of pop, soul, hard rock, girl group, and country styles. Her greatest success, however, came not with her own material, but with Bacharach-David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," which made the Top Ten in 1965. Perhaps as a result, she gravitated toward more middle-of-the-road pop sounds in the last half of the '60s, though she cut a good deal of strong material, by both herself and emerging writers like Randy Newman, Tim Hardin, and Warren Zevon.
The soft-rock "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" gave her another Top Ten hit in 1969, and she made some well-received singer/songwriter albums in the 1970s. One of the songs from her '70s LPs, "Bette Davis Eyes," became a number one hit for Kim Carnes in 1981.
-- by Richie Unterberger,
All-Music Guide
Discography (albums) and compilations
http://home.wanadoo.nl/rock_and_roll/deshann.htm
]
Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
Born as Sharon Lee Myers on August 21th 1944 in Hazel, KY. This highly talented singer and songwriter (over 600 songs) was introduced to gospel, country and blues styles while still a child. She was actively performing by the age of 15 and, having travelled to Los Angeles, commenced a recording career in 1960 with a series of releases on minor labels.
Jackie's collaborations with Sharon Sheeley resulted in several superior pop songs including "Dum Dum" and "Heart in Hand" for Brenda Lee and "Trouble" for the Kalin Twins. DeShannon then forged equally fruitful partnerships with Jack Nitzsche and Randy Newman, the former of which spawned "When You Walk In The Room", a 1964 smash for the Searchers. Resultant interest in the UK inspired several television appearances and DeShannon's London sojourn was also marked by several songwriting collaborations with Jimmy Page.
Despite a succession of excellent singles, Jackie's own recording career failed to achieve similar heights, although her work continued to be covered by, Helen Shapiro, Marianne Faithfull, the Byrds and the Critters. DeShannon enjoyed a US Top 10 single with the Burt Bacharach/ Hal David-penned "What The World Needs Now Is Love" (1965), but her biggest hit came four years later when "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" reached number 4 in the same chart.
Although she continued to write and record superior pop, as evinced on JACKIE and YOUR BABY IS A LADY, DeShannon was unable to sustain the same profile during the '70s and '80s. Her songs continued to provide hits for others, notably "Bette Davis Eyes" (with Kim Carnes, 1981), "Breakaway" ( Tracey Ullman, 1983) and "Put A Little Love In Your Heart" ( Annie Lennox and Al Green, 1988). Jackie DeShannon's position as one of the '60s leading composers remains undiminished.
Few performers have enjoyed as versatile a career as Jackie DeShannon, and although she made a couple of well-remembered Top Ten pop hits in the '60s, she's never achieved the level of success or artistic recognition she deserves. Starting as a pop-rockabilly singer as a teenager in the late '50s, she quickly developed into one of the L.A. pop scene's hottest songwriters, penning hits for Brenda Lee, the Fleetwoods, and Irma Thomas, and often collaborating with fellow noted songwriter Shari Sheeley. One of the first established rock figures to see the potential for crossbreeding rock and folk, she was a crucial midwife to the birth of folk-rock, with the wonderful singles "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room." Using the circular, jangling guitar lines that would become a prime feature of early folk-rock, both of those songs were covered by the Searchers for much bigger hits; she also wrote"Don't Doubt Yourself Babe," covered by the Byrds on their first album, and penned a couple of Marianne Faithfull's early hits. In the mid-'60s, she also found time to write some songs with then-sessionman Jimmy Page, and perform as an opening act for the Beatles on the group's first big American tour.
DeShannon's famous affiliations and success as a songwriter have sometimes obscured her own enormous talents. She's a superb singer, capable of both sweet ballads and (more satisfyingly) a gutsy, soulfully husky delivery. She performed her own material with an honest, vulnerable, intelligent intensity that pre-figured the singer/songwriter movement by several years, and demonstrated command of pop, soul, hard rock, girl group, and country styles. Her greatest success, however, came not with her own material, but with Bacharach-David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love," which made the Top Ten in 1965. Perhaps as a result, she gravitated toward more middle-of-the-road pop sounds in the last half of the '60s, though she cut a good deal of strong material, by both herself and emerging writers like Randy Newman, Tim Hardin, and Warren Zevon.
The soft-rock "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" gave her another Top Ten hit in 1969, and she made some well-received singer/songwriter albums in the 1970s. One of the songs from her '70s LPs, "Bette Davis Eyes," became a number one hit for Kim Carnes in 1981.
-- by Richie Unterberger,
All-Music Guide
Discography (albums) and compilations
http://home.wanadoo.nl/rock_and_roll/deshann.htm
] Breaking Clay Makes My Day!
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