March 3, 1978 Gusto feature: Jackie DeShannon

What’s not to love about Jackie DeShannon? Apparently, that’s what the folks at Amherst Records were thinking too. 

March 3, 1978 

There First 

          Mention Fleetwood Mac to Jackie DeShannon and the singer-songwriter is obliged to set the record straight. “The only thing I can say,” she insists over the phone from Los Angeles, “is that I was there first. I hear a lot of influences coming back at me over the radio these days. Actually, I consider it a great compliment.”

          DeShannon is quite right in claiming her place as one of the unsung pioneers of the modern sound. Her two big hits – the Bacharach-David “What the World Needs Now Is Love” in 1965 and “Put a Little Love in Your Heart” in 1969 – foreshadowed the soft-focused romance that has won the ‘70s for Olivia Newton-John, Linda Ronstadt and the rest.

          “With the radio opening up to adult-oriented rock,” she says, “I don’t think there’s quite as many barriers as there used to be. All these years there’s been me preaching about why women don’t get more airplay. I think since Carole King and ‘Tapestry,’ the companies are realizing that women buy a hell of a lot of records.”

          DeShannon’s realizations have always been a little ahead of everyone else’s. Born in Kentucky, she grew up in a musical family. She had her own radio show when she was 11. At 15, she was touring. By 1960, she was in Los Angeles, singing in front of a group that would later become the Crusaders, making rock records and singing songs like “Dum Dum,” which was a hit for Brenda Lee.

          She was in the thick of the newly-born L.A. music scene in the early ‘60s, working with then-unknowns like Ry Cooder, Delaney Bramlett and the Byrds. Her recordings of “Faded Love,” “Needles and Pins” and “When You Walk in the Room” were remade into hits by the Searchers in England. On one of the early Beatles tours, she was among the opening acts. Later, she wrong a number of songs with pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page.

          “One of my greatest thrills,” she says, “has been hearing Bruce Springsteen singing ‘When You Walk in the Room.’ People here from the ‘60s pretty well know me. I’m glad I was here for it. I’ve seen a lot of people make it and disappear.”

          Despite her talent, DeShannon ran aground on the music industry’s aversion to creative women. Imperial Records wanted to cast her as a bubble-gum star. She struggled in the studio too, where producers and technicians weren’t always willing to try for the sounds she wanted. Nevertheless, she holds no grudges.

          “In the beginning,” she says, “it was very tough, being the only one out here, writing and producing records. All that has really changed now. You have to do it and keep doing what you believe in. If you have a dream and put enough effort into it, it’ll happen.”

          DeShannon has spent the ‘70s pretty much out of the limelight, quietly writing tunes and making records. She married another songwriter, Randy Edelman, who penned Barry Manilow’s hit, “Weekend in New England.” For her first new album in two years, “You’re the Only Dancer” on Amherst Records, she took seven months to compose six songs.

          “There’s a lot of self-editing and self-rewriting involved,” she says. “What I tell young songwriters is try not to get married to your first draft. ‘Tonight You’re Doing It Right,’ I just played it for Jim Ed (Norman, her producer), just fooling around. ‘Don’t Let the Flame Burn Out’ was the roughest. We tried several different choruses. It was like Paul McCartney and ‘Yesterday,’ where he started out singing ‘scrambled eggs.’”

          “Don’t Let the Flame Burn Out” put her back on the charts last fall. For a second single, Amherst has decided to go with her highly-appealing remake of the old Bee Gees hit, “To Love Somebody.”

          “I just knock on wood,” she says. “I haven’t planned things out any special way. I just try to do artistically what I feel and not try to grab everything and saturate myself in boredom. ‘Don’t Let the Flame Burn Out,’ that to me is the real Jackie DeShannon. That is totally my outlook. No matter what, you always have to have that kind of hope.”

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IN THE PHOTO: Cover of Jackie DeShannon’s “You’re the Only Dancer” LP.

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FOOTNOTE: Jackie DeShannon had quite the varied career before she had her breakthrough hits in the ‘60s – child prodigy country singer, co-writer of that Brenda Lee hit “Dum Dum” and at least one date with Elvis Presley. Not only did she write songs with Jimmy Page, she had a romantic relationship with him. Her other songwriting credits include Kim Carnes’ hit “Bette Davis Eyes.”

          This album of hers on Amherst yielded three singles. “Don’t Let the Flame Burn Out” reached No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the most successful. “To Love Somebody” didn’t crack the Hot 100, but popped onto the Adult Contemporary charts. The third one, the title track, didn’t chart at all. Nevertheless, she got to release a second album on Amherst, “Quick Touches,” later in 1978.

          Happily, Jackie is still with us – she’ll turn 82 on Aug. 21 – and she’s still married to Randy Edelman. Fans of the Beatles Channel 18 on Sirius XM Satellite Radio will know her voice. A friend of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, she contributes anecdotes to weekend broadcasts of “Breakfast with the Beatles.”