How many of you remember Jackie DeShannon singing Top 10 hits “What the World Needs Now is Love” and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart?” Did you know she was from Batavia, Illinois?
Born Sharon Lee Myers (8/21/44), her family originally lived on a farm in Kentucky. By age six, she was already singing country tunes on a local radio station there. As her mother was originally from Aurora, the family relocated to the western suburbs, moving to Batavia in 1953. Just in eighth grade, Myers hosted her own Saturday morning radio show “Breakfast Melodies” on WMRO in Aurora. On Saturday nights she performed as a vocalist with Don Lee and his Fox Valley Boys square dance band. And made numerous guest appearances on local TV shows including Pee Wee King’s popular “Country and Western Television Show” on Chicago’s CBS-affiliate channel 2.
She attended Batavia High School for two years from 1955-57, but dropped out to pursue a musical career.
As a 16-year-old, Myers first commercial recording was on the Hammond, Indiana-based Mar-Vel label where she was billed as Sherry Lee. Owned by long-time record entrepreneur Harry Glenn, while the label served as an outlet for Myers, it was not a label that would launch a career. Glenn had an unorthodox method of promotion, “personally promoting his releases in a carnival-like manner,” it was noted in bopping.com, “loading his car up with records and traveling from town to town with his set of loudspeakers trying to persuade all those who would listen that his recordings were a must.”
For this first single, Glenn partnered Myers with country singer Shorty Ashford on “I’m Crazy Darling” with the B-side “Baby Honey” (Mar-Vel 903) being her first solo credited side as Sherry Lee, the label noting her as “Miss Country Music.” Take a listen to her first record “Baby Honey” https://youtu.be/NEiaVdjMl9U.
In her early years, the small independent record labels didn’t seem to like her real name, appearing on various releases as Sherry Lee, Jackie Dee and Sharon Lee before finally settling on the stage name she is best known as — Jackie DeShannon.
Her next single “How Wrong I Was” came out on the Gone label, this time as Jackie Dee. By now, there was enough interest in Jackie that Liberty Records sent her to Nashville where she stepped more into a rockabilly style with a tribute to Buddy Holly, titled simply “Buddy.” And while the record proved she was a rocker on par with the likes of Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee, it was an era where female vocalists were receiving very little airplay from radio programmers.
Yet, the small independent labels still putting out singles by Jackie continued changing her name. Next, she was called Sharon Lee, releasing a single “Kissing Game” b/w “No Deposit No Return” for the Excellent label.
In 1959, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Fraternity Records called her Jackie Shannon. There, she was teamed with Rusty York and the Cajuns. As both Jackie and Rusty were originally from southern Kentucky, there was a familiar vibe to working together. The single “Just Another Lie” came out in the beginning of 1959 billed as Jackie DeShannon and the Cajuns. However, she only appeared on the A-side, the flip being the instrumental “Cajun Blues” by The Cajuns. That record then was licensed to the Sage label, and then to Dot, which released it in April of that year.
York recalled that time when Jackie was touring with his group. “Man, that girl could sing,” he said in an interview in the book We Wanna Boogie: An Illustrated History of the American Rockabilly Movement. “We’d travel around to these little record hops and dance programs, and she would say she wanted to be a big-name singer,” the book noting she was “still a brunette and decked out in fitted shiny gold slacks, the teenager proved a popular regional attraction.”
One more single came out under the moniker Jackie Shannon, “Lies” b/w “Trouble” on the P.J. label, a small outfit that only issued two singles, one by Jackie and one by York. That single was then licensed to Dot, and re-issued the following year on the Sand label.
After a show in Chicago, Jackie met rockabilly star Eddie Cochran who gave her some advice that changed her life. “He was very encouraging,” she recalled in Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music. “He said, “If you really want to get somewhere, you’ve got to come to California.” And that she did. The connection with Cochran also led to an introduction to his girlfriend, songwriter Sharon Sheeley. That resulted in Jackie and Sheeley forming a songwriting team penning songs for the likes of Brenda Lee, Irma Thomas and The Byrds. She would later go on to enjoy a brief songwriting partnership with Jimmy Page, as well as writing hits like “Come and Stay With Me” for Marianne Faithful, the Kim Carnes’ hit “Betty Davis Eyes” earning her a Grammy in 1982 for Song of the Year.
Connecting with the Edison International label, she finally became Jackie DeShannon. In a 2003 interview, Jackie recalled, “In the beginning when I was making records, radio stations were not playing records by girls. It was suggested I choose a name that could be a boy or a girl. So there you have it.” She became Jackie DeShannon. She recorded two singles for this label.
And at long last, Jackie signed a major label deal with Liberty/Imperial, enjoying a long and successful relationship with the label. Her first single “Lonely Girl” hit the U.S. charts. And her big breaks came in 1964, when she opened a U.S. tour for The Beatles and co-starred in the teen movie Surf Party.
From there her releases kept climbing up the charts, her most popular years 1965-69, with records in the Top 100 surveys through 1980.
Discography
Singles
As Sherry Lee
1957 I’m Crazy Darling b/w Baby Honey (Marvel 903)
As Jackie Dee
1957 How Wrong I Was b/w I’ll Be True (Gone 5006)
1958 Buddy b/w Strolypso Dance (Liberty F-55148)
As Jackie Shannon and the Cajuns
1959 Just Another Lie b/w Cajun Blues (Fraternity F-836)
1959 Lies b/w Trouble (P.J. Records 101)
Licensed to Dot (45-1590) in 1959 and re-issued on Sand (330) in 1960
As Jackie DeShannon
1960 I Wanna Go Home b/w So Warm (Edison International F-416)
1960 Put My Baby Down b/w The Foolish One (Edison International F-418)