Guest
“Runaway“ was a number one Billboard Hot 100 song in the spring of 1961 by Del Shannon. It was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and became a major international hit. It is #466 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was notably covered by Bonnie Raitt in 1977. Singer-guitarist Charles Westover and keyboard player Max Crook performed together as members of “Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Show Band“ in Battle Creek, Michigan, before their group won a recording contract in 1960. Westover took the new stage name “Del Shannon“, and Crook, who had invented his own clavioline-based electric keyboard called a Musitron, became “Maximilian“. After their first recording session for Big Top Records in New York had ended in failure, their manager Ollie McLaughlin persuaded them to rewrite and re-record an earlier song they had written, “Little Runaway“, to highlight Crook’s unique instrumental sound. On January 21, 1961, they recorded “Runaway“ at the Bell Sound reco
