Jackie DeShannon

Jackie DeShannon Bio

Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers; 21 August 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, radio broadcaster and actress whose career began in the 1950s and achieved prominence in the 1960s. One of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock-and-roll era, she is best known for recording Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love” and her own hit “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” DeShannon also wrote enduring songs such as “When You Walk in the Room” and co-wrote “Bette Davis Eyes,” which became a worldwide number-one hit for Kim Carnes in 1981. In addition to recording and songwriting, she has worked as an entertainment broadcast correspondent for Breakfast with the Beatles and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010.

Early Life and Background

Sharon Lee Myers was born on 21 August 1941 in Hazel, a small community south of Murray, Kentucky. She was the daughter of James Erwin Myers and Sandra Jeanne LaMonte, a farming family with a strong musical bent. By the age of six, Sharon was already singing country tunes on a local radio show, and by eleven she was hosting her own radio program in the area. These early performances laid the foundation for what would become one of the most durable careers in American popular music.

When life on the farm became difficult, the Myers family relocated to the Fox River Valley in Illinois in the early 1950s, first settling in her mother’s hometown of Aurora, Illinois, where her father continued his career as a barber. In 1952 the family moved a short distance north to Batavia, Illinois, where the young performer, now calling herself Sherry Lee, attended Batavia High School. By the spring of 1955, while still in the eighth grade and just thirteen years old, she was being featured in the local Batavia Herald for her vocal talents, personal appearances at community gatherings, and her Saturday morning radio show Breakfast Melodies on station WMRO in Aurora. She attended Batavia High School for two years, leaving after her sophomore year in 1957 to pursue music full time.

Path to Singing

DeShannon began recording under several names, including Sherry Lee, Jackie Dee, and Jackie Shannon, with mixed early results. In 1957 Billboard noted that sixteen-year-old C&W singer Sherry Lee Myers of Batavia had signed with George Goldner’s Gone label in New York as a rockabilly artist, and her handlers, Irving Schacht and Paul Kallett, changed her name to Jackie Dee. Her interpretations of country songs, including “Buddy” as Jackie Dee and “Trouble” as Jackie Shannon, drew the attention of rock-and-roll star Eddie Cochran, who arranged for her to travel to California to meet his girlfriend, singer-songwriter Sharon Sheeley. That meeting led to a songwriting partnership with Sheeley in 1960 that produced Brenda Lee’s hits “Dum Dum” and “Heart in Hand.”

In 1960 DeShannon signed with Liberty Records and adopted the stage name Jackie DeShannon, reportedly after executives felt the name Sharon Myers would not help sell records. She chose “Jackie” as a cross-gender name because her low singing voice could be heard as either male or female. After finding “Jackie Dee” too similar to other artists of the era, she settled on Jackie Dee Shannon, which audiences soon heard as DeShannon. Using her new name, she made the WLS Chicago radio survey with the single “Lonely Girl” in late 1960 and steadily built a profile as both a performer and a songwriter through a string of singles on Liberty.

Jackie DeShannon Career

Early Career (1955-1963)

DeShannon’s first notable recorded work arrived in 1957 with the Gone label single “I’ll Be True” backed with “How Wrong I Was,” released under the name Jackie Dee. She performed these songs at major venues including the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia and Alan Freed’s Big Rock ‘n’ Roll Show at the Paramount Theater in New York. Although early singles were uneven, her talent caught the eye of established artists and executives, and her 1960 move to Liberty Records under the name Jackie DeShannon marked the true beginning of her professional recording career.

Through 1961 and 1962 she released a string of mostly unsuccessful singles, although “The Prince” bubbled under at No. 108 in the United States in early 1962, and “Faded Love” became her first US Billboard Top 100 entry, squeaking in at No. 97 in February 1963. She fared better with the Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche song “Needles and Pins” and her self-penned “When You Walk in the Room” later that same year. Both reached the lower rungs of the US pop chart but became Top 40 hits in Canada, with “Needles and Pins” reaching No. 1. Both songs later became hits for The Searchers in the United Kingdom and United States.

Breakthrough (1964-1969)

DeShannon’s biggest break came in 1964 when she was selected to support The Beatles on their first US tour, an experience that cemented her reputation as a leading rock-and-roll artist. During this period she formed a touring band that included guitarist Ry Cooder and co-wrote “Breakaway” with Sharon Sheeley, later recorded by Irma Thomas in 1964 and Tracey Ullman in 1983. She also wrote “Don’t Doubt Yourself Babe” for Mr. Tambourine Man, the 1965 debut album of The Byrds. In 1965 she traveled to England, where she formed a songwriting partnership with guitarist Jimmy Page that produced “Dream Boy” and “Don’t Turn Your Back on Me,” and she wrote material for singer Marianne Faithfull, including the Top Ten UK and US hit “Come and Stay With Me.”

Also in 1965 DeShannon recorded Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” which led to club tours, regular television appearances, and a No. 7 placing on the US chart, as well as a No. 1 position in Canada. Her recording of the song was later used in the 1969 film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. In 1969 she released her next smash single and album, both titled “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” which she co-wrote with her brother Randy Myers and Jimmy Holiday. The single sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc, and the song was later performed as the closing number at the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert broadcast from the United Nations General Assembly.

Notable Works and Milestones

DeSh Shannon’s signature recordings include “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” and her own composition “When You Walk in the Room,” all of which became enduring standards. Her songwriting achievements are equally significant, most notably her co-write of “Bette Davis Eyes” with Donna Weiss, which became a worldwide No. 1 single for Kim Carnes in 1981 and earned her the 1982 Grammy Award for Song of the Year. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on 17 June 2010, recognizing a body of work that has influenced generations of performers and writers.

Jackie DeShannon Award Nominations

Jackie DeShannon has been recognized by some of the most respected institutions in the music industry throughout her six-decade career. Verified nomination-level recognition includes the Grammy Award category of Song of the Year, which she ultimately won in 1982 alongside Donna Weiss for “Bette Davis Eyes.” Detailed records of additional nominations across her recording and songwriting career are not fully verifiable from the available inputs, so further specifics are not listed here.

Jackie DeShannon Awards Won

Jackie DeShannon has earned several of the most prestigious honors in popular music. In 1982 she shared the Grammy Award for Song of the Year with Donna Weiss for “Bette Davis Eyes,” as recorded by Kim Carnes. On 17 June 2010 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in recognition of her enduring contributions as a writer. Her 1969 single “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” was also certified gold after selling more than one million copies.

Jackie DeShannon Family

Jackie DeShannon was born into a musically inclined farming family in Hazel, Kentucky, the daughter of James Erwin Myers and Sandra Jeanne LaMonte. Her father later worked as a barber in Aurora, Illinois, after the family relocated north. She had a brother, Randy James Myers (1947-2021), with whom she occasionally wrote songs, including the hit “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” DeShannon married Liberty Records executive Irving V. “Bud” Dain on 29 January 1966, though the marriage was annulled in 1967. She has been married to singer-songwriter and film composer Randy Edelman since 1976, and the couple has a son.

Personal Life

In the mid-1960s DeShannon was a companion of guitarist Jimmy Page and dated Love guitarist Bryan MacLean. It is widely believed that Page wrote the song “Tangerine,” which appeared on the third Led Zeppelin album, after the breakup of his relationship with DeShannon in early 1965. Earlier in her career she dated Elvis Presley and formed lasting friendships with The Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson. Since October 2009 she has worked as an entertainment broadcast correspondent for the radio program Breakfast with the Beatles on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, reporting historical anecdotes and current touring and personal news related to Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.