Rock ‘n’ roll was music for teenagers. That’s what was magic about it. The best of those ’50s and early ’60s singles are the ones that treat teenage concerns — life-altering crushes, soul-obliterating ...

A simple minor chord strummed on the guitar sets the mood for the 1961 smash hit “Runaway.” The tinkling piano, upright bass, drums, and baritone saxophone back the simple figure. Del Shannon would go ...

COOPERSVILLE – Del Shannon had an inkling "Runaway" might be a special rock song, so he played it again and again long before it was released in 1961 and shot to the top of the charts. His wife, ...

Perhaps you remember Del Shannon. He's the guy who sang "Runaway" ("and I wonder where she will stay, my little runaway, my run-run-run-run-runaway..."), which was a No. 1 hit in 1961 and was later ...

Enchanted by Del Shannon's "Runaway" as a boy, Tom Petty later paid the ultimate tribute to this No. 1 single and its singer: He saluted the tune in his own 1989 hit song, "Runnin' Down a Dream." ...

The album may or may not be obsolete, but the fact remains: Listeners have long obsessed over individual songs. The Single File is The A.V. Club’s look at the deep cuts, detours, experiments, and ...

If you’re not in the music business, you probably don’t know who Max Crook is. But you might know of his work. In the early 1960s, crooner Del Shannon released the ethereal hit “Runaway,” which went ...

Charles Westover might have been from Grand Rapids. But Del Shannon, the rock and roll legend, was "born" in Battle Creek. Del Shannon, Westover's stage name, came to be when he wrote and performed ...

“Trees flew by / Me and Del were singin' little ‘Runaway’ / I was flyin.'” In that line from "Runnin’ Down a Dream," Tom Petty refers to Del Shannon and his 1961 No. 1 hit, "Runaway." While that ...