About Del Shannon
Charles Weedon Westover (December 30, 1934 – February 8, 1990), known professionally as Del Shannon, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter, best known for his 1961 number-one Billboard hit "Runaway", which was covered later by various major artists, including Elvis Presley and the Traveling Wilburys. In 1999, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to his music career, he had minor acting roles. == Biography == Shannon was born Charles Weedon Westover on December 30, 1934, in Coopersville, Michigan, to Bert and Leone Mosher Westover. 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 singer Doug DeMott's group, the Moonlight Ramblers, working at the Hi-Lo Club. When DeMott was fired in 1958 for drunkenness, Westover took over as leader and singer, giving himself the name Charlie Johnson and renaming the band the Big Little Show Band. In early 1959, he added keyboardist Max Crook, who played an instrument he called a Musitron (an early synthesizer of Crook's own invention, though modeled on the commercially released Clavioline).
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.