Runaway (Del Shannon song)

Last updated
"Runaway"
Runaway (Del Shannon song).jpg
Single by Del Shannon
from the album Runaway with Del Shannon
B-side "Jody"
ReleasedFebruary 18, 1961 (1961-02-18)
RecordedJanuary 21, 1961 [1]
Studio Bell Sound (New York City) [2]
Genre Rock and Roll
Length2:20
Label BigTop
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Harry Balk
Del Shannon singles chronology
"Runaway"
(1961)
"Hats Off to Larry"
(1961)
Official audio
"Runaway" on YouTube

Other recordings

Del Shannon re-recorded "Runaway" in 1967, intended for his album Home and Away (shelved until 2006), with John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins and Jimmy Page as session musicians. This version was issued as a single, and reached No. 122 on Billboard's Bubbling Under the Hot 100 and reached the Top 20 in Australia. [29] [30]

Shannon re-recorded the song a second time in 1986, this time as the theme music for the NBC television series Crime Story , which starred Dennis Farina and was set in the early 1960s. [31] [32] This version featured new lyrics to make the song more fitting for a crime drama.

Shannon appeared on Late Night With David Letterman on February 10, 1987, performing "Runaway" with Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band. [33] [34] Letterman introduced Shannon as having sold as many as 80,000 singles of "Runaway" per day at its peak in popularity.

The best-known original version is in mono. However, in subsequent compilations a different take from the same recording sessions is available in stereo. [ citation needed ]

Lyrics

The song is sung from the point of view of a man whose girlfriend has left him. She is mostly referred to in the third person, but she is briefly addressed in the second person in the lyric "wishin' you were here by me".

Covers

The song was used in the 1973 movie American Graffiti , the Crime Story television series as opening theme, the 2020 film Siberia , and multiple times in the Showtime miniseries Dexter: New Blood , including an episode with the same title as the song.

Tom Petty mentions the song in his 1989 song "Runnin' Down a Dream". Similarly, Barenaked Ladies mention "Runaway" in their song "When You Dream", from the 1998 album Stunt .

Genesis included the lyric "my little runaway", sung to the same melody as in Shannon's song, in their song "In the Cage", from the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway . It is one of many references to hit songs from the 1960s on the album.

Echo & the Bunnymen quote the lyrics "I'm walking in the rain, to end this misery", sung to the same melody as in Shannon's song, in their song "Over The Wall", from the album Heaven Up Here .

The song can also be heard playing in the background of the mechanic shop on Good Will Hunting . Also in the car ride in a scene in Eddie and the Cruisers .

The song can also be heard briefly at the end of episode 1 of the HBO miniseries "The Sympathizer".

See also

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