TMS Muse of the Week: Jackie DeShannon
(Studio Five)
The trifecta of singer-songwriter godmothers tends to be the same three names: Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon. I’ve always been a fan of Carole thanks to my parents’ copy of her 1971 smash hit record ‘Tapestry,’ I’ve only ever been neutral on Joni, and—possibly by unpopular opinion—have never been very impressed by Carly’s lyrics. My top three classic rock female artists are typically Carole, Marianne Faithfull and Jackie DeShannon. Jackie’s career in particular, has always puzzled me with how her overlooked and nearly underrated it became over time. Born in Kentucky and raised in Illinois, Jackie was originally Sharon Lee Myers and began making music professionally in Chicago before changing her name to the more intriguing ‘Jackie DeShannon,’ and heading out to NYC, Hollywood and briefly London. Like Carole, Jackie made an impressive resume for herself as a studio songwriter in the early 1960s as she tried to get her own career off the ground as a singer. Interestingly, in various old interviews from this decade, Jackie actually says she considers herself a vocalist first and songwriter second, and only got into songwriting so she would always have material to work with.
Some of the famous names who recorded songs written or co-written by Jackie include Marianne, the Byrds and Brenda Lee; while her biggest moneymaker would actually be much later when Kim Carnes covered Jackie’s ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ in 1981 to huge success. Jackie’s own stardom came to fruition in 1963, when she released the pop single ‘Needles and Pins,’ written by Jack Nitzsche & Sonny Bono [with possible input by Jackie herself, depending on who you ask]. Along with her own penned and recorded ‘When You Walk in the Room’ that same year, both songs became even more popular when they were covered by the British Invasion band the Searchers in 1964. Looking back at her career, it’s actually not a surprise Jackie didn’t have a bias toward her own songwriting, since her signature tunes ended up being the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition, ‘What the World Needs Now’ in 1965; and 1969’s ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart,’ written by Jackie, her brother Randy and Jimmy Holiday. Both singles soared to the top 10 on the charts and are now classic standards of the ‘60s. Other lovely songs of Jackie’s are ‘A Lifetime of Loneliness’ (1965), ‘Don’t Turn Your Back on Me’ (1965) and her own country rendition of Neil Young’s ‘Only Love can Break Your Heart’ from 1972. Originally part of the generation of ‘singles artists,’ Jackie also proved she could do well in the prime of album production with LPs like ‘Laurel Canyon’ (1968) and the self-titled ‘Jackie’ (1972).
(Earl Leaf)
Why Jackie didn’t catapult to legend status the same way Carole and Joni did is beyond me. She had the talent, cred, appeal and prettiness to be a superstar, yet somehow stayed in the shadows. She didn’t even have struggles with substance abuse to sidetrack her potential like almost happened with Marianne. In fact, it might be surprising to know Jackie’s love life was pretty eventful in her hey-day. Allegedly turning down a fling with Elvis Presley in 1962; an affair with the married Beatle [John Lennon] while she was the band’s opening act on their first US tour in 1964; and a reportedly ‘steamy’ relationship with Jimmy Page in 1964-65, way back when the Led Zeppelin guitarist was an in-demand session player before his infamous rockstar status.
The pair were actually a songwriting duo as well, composing a handful of tracks including Jackie’s ‘Dream Boy’ (1965) and Marianne’s ‘Come Stay with Me’ (1965). Jimmy’s one solo single from that decade, ‘She Just Satisfies,’ was released in 1965 with Jackie on backup vocals. The blonde also has the distinction of being one of the few women to throw Jimmy off his guard when he learned of Jackie’s engagement to Bud Dain, the head of her first label, Liberty Records; while Jimmy was under the impression he and the songstress were still together. Jackie and Bud parted ways by 1967, and Jimmy would spend the rest of the ‘60s as a bachelor. The legend goes the original demo of Zeppelin’s 1970 ballad ‘Tangerine’ was inspired by Jackie.
Jackie’s semi-bad girl period proved to be limited, as she eventually married and successfully settled down with musician/film composer Randy Edelman in 1976, whom she has a son, Noah [b. 1978], with. Besides Jimmy, Jackie usually co-wrote songs with friends and fellow music ladies like Donna Weiss and Sharon Sheeley. These days, southern California radio listeners can hear Jackie regularly commentate on the KLOS morning program Breakfast with the Beatles. Jackie’s legacy is a little complex, since she technically has too many hits to be considered a one-hit-wonder or underrated, but also not nearly as discussed or profiled as most of the superstars she’s associated with. Maybe it’s a rare case where keeping her personal life private and image conventional worked against her. But you could also argue Carole has the same ordinary background, yet became a major star. Still, Jackie could work well with various genres [pop, folk, soft rock, country], and has her talent and efforts captured on record to always be discovered by music fans. Overlooked or not, the music will always be available for new fans and listeners, and that’s something to appreciate.