Del Shannon

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  • Year:
    1999
  • Inducted by:
    Art Alexakis
  • Category:
    Performers
Del Shannon

Introduction

Not your average teen idol.

He had the commercial success and good looks of a teen pop star, but Del Shannon was so much more. He wrote, played guitar on and sang his own songs, often in a minor key that predicted the trends of the British Invasion.

Hall of Fame Essay

1999

Michael Hill

The characters that populated Del Shannon’s songs often could be found, to paraphrase a fellow inductee, in the darkness on the edge of town.

His haunted heroes were always either leaving or being left  behind, in pursuit or being pursued. For Shannon,  there were no happy endings, even though his protagonists already had the girl-in fact, that’s usually where the  trouble started.

“Love’s a deadly game,” he sang in one of his later tunes. But if the subject matter was dark, the music was some of the most uplifting rockin’ around.  

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program Cover 1999
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"Runaway" left a really lasting, indelible impression on me
Art Alexakis

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Gallery

Photography: Kevin Mazur, WireImage