Tag Archives: breakup songs

♫ Runaway ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

In a comment on my Charlie Brown post a few nights ago, Keith mentioned Del Shannon’s Runaway, which naturally stuck in my head … Keith has a way of planting those ear worms!  I did not think I had played this before, but it turns out I had … twice!!!  But not since 2019, so I figure it’s due for a redux!  I think my memory is due for a reboot, but that’s a story for another day.

This song was released in 1961 … sixty-two years ago … I was ten years old.  Wow.

A lot of Shannon’s songs were about broken relationships. He once said he wrote the words to this about himself because he was forever running away from relationships.  The song came about, according to Shannon, thusly …

“We were on stage and Max [Crook] hit an A minor and a G and I said, ‘Max, play that again, it’s a great change.'” The drummer, Dick Parker, followed them and after 15 minutes, the manager of the club shouted, ‘Knock it off, play something else.’ That night I went back to the club and I told Max to play an instrumental on his musitron for the middle part, and when he played that solo, we had ‘Runaway.'”

This was Shannon’s biggest hit. His career trailed off a few years later, and sadly he killed himself in 1990.  Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 1999.

This song is a rarity in that it hit #1 in Canada, the UK, and the U.S., as well as a number of other countries!

Runaway
Del Shannon

As I walk along, I wonder
A what went wrong with our love
A love that was so strong

And as I still walk on
I think of the thing’s we’ve done
Together, while our hearts were young

I’m a walkin’ in the rain
Tears are fallin’ and I feel a pain
A wishin’ you were here by me
To end this misery

And I wonder, I wa wa wa wa wonder
Why a why why why why why
She ran away
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
My run run run run runaway

I’m a walkin’ in the rain
Tears are fallin’ and I feel a pain
A wishin’ you were here by me
To end this misery

And I wonder, I wa wa wa wa wonder
Why a why why why why why
She ran awayway
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
A run run run run
Runaway

Songwriters: Del Shannon, Max Crook
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

♫ Walk On By ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

I had about 40 different songs in my mind to play for you yesterday, but by the time I sat down to actually put fingertips to keyboard, they had all flown from the coop of my mind.  Happens a lot these days.  So, I pondered at 2:30 a.m. … not what would I like to hear, but who.  And the answer came swiftly and without hesitation … the one, the only …

Dionne Warwick!

dionne-warwick

The songwriting team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this. Bacharach came up with the music, and David wrote the lyrics about a woman asking her former lover to leave her alone.

This was released as the B-side to Warwick’s single Any Old Time Of The Day. She’d had several releases that went nowhere, and her latest tune was, in the opinion of her label, her manager, and herself, her last shot at making the Top 40. Murray the K, whose show on radio station WINS was the top-rated program in New York, wouldn’t play it. No matter how many people called and pleaded with him, he played the B-side instead because he knew that was the tune with potential. Warwick’s record company wasn’t happy with this, but listeners agreed with Murray and Walk On By became the hit.

According to Bacharach …

“‘Walk On By’ was the first time that I tried putting two grand pianos on a record in the studio. I can’t remember if I played and Artie Butler played or if Paul Griffin and Artie Butler played but here were two grand pianos going on. I knew the song had something. It was a great date. I walked out of that studio and we had done two tunes in a three-hour session, ‘Walk On By’ and ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’. I felt very good leaving knowing that I had two monster hits on my hands. You never know for sure but you feel a great satisfaction.”

An interesting bit of trivia … On May 12, 2002, Dionne Warwick was arrested at Miami International Airport after baggage screeners found marijuana inside a lipstick container she was carrying. The UK publication The Sun reported the story with the headline: “Walk on high, Dionne.”

Walk On By
Dionne Warwick

If you see me walking down the street
And I start to cry each time we meet
Walk on by, walk on by

Make believe
That you don’t see the tears
Just let me grieve
In private ’cause each time I see you
I break down and cry
And walk on by (don’t stop)
And walk on by (don’t stop)
And walk on by

I just can’t get over losing you
And so if I seem broken and blue
Walk on by, walk on by

Foolish pride
Is all that I have left
So let me hide
The tears and the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye
Walk on by (don’t stop)
Walk on by (don’t stop)
Walk on by (don’t stop)
Walk on

Walk on by
Walk on by
Foolish pride
Is all that I have left
So let me hide
The tears and the sadness you gave me
When you said goodbye
Walk on by (don’t stop)
And walk on by (don’t stop)
Now you really gotta go so walk on by (don’t stop)
If you leave you’ll never see the tears I cry
Now you really gotta go so walk on by (don’t stop)

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Burt Bacharach / Hal David
Walk On By lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network

♫ You Won’t See Me ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Oooooh-la-la-la … Oooooh-la-la-la … Ooo 💥  Oh … oh … here you are!  Sorry, I was wrapped up in the music, singing Oooooh-la-la-la … it grabs you, y’know?  Anyway, today’s song is an ‘oldie but goodie’ by none other than The Beatles from waaaayyyy back in 1965.

Paul McCartney wrote this about his tumultuous five-year relationship with the actress Jane Asher. He wrote it one night after she had walked out.  Up to this point, McCartney wrote lots of “silly love songs.” You Won’t See Me was a departure lyrically, as the song was more personal and mature, and also a little bitter, which reflects how he felt about his relationship with Jane Asher.

This was recorded in two takes. In their early years, The Beatles did so many live shows that they had no trouble recording quickly.  What I did not know was that the melody for the Chicago hit Saturday In The Park is based on this song.

You Won’t See Me
The Beatles

♫ Runaway ♫

Posted on by under music

I had every intention of playing Donna Summer’s Last Dance tonight.  I have no idea where that trail derailed, but derail it did, and somehow I have ended up about about 17 years before Summer would record her hit.  The artist … Del Shannon.  Why?  Because it’s there?

This song was released in 1961 … fifty-eight years ago … I was ten years old.  Wow.

A lot of Shannon’s songs were about broken relationships. He once said he wrote the words to this about himself because he was forever running away from relationships.  The song came about, according to Shannon, thusly …

“We were on stage and Max [Crook] hit an A minor and a G and I said, ‘Max, play that again, it’s a great change.'” The drummer, Dick Parker, followed them and after 15 minutes, the manager of the club shouted, ‘Knock it off, play something else.’ That night I went back to the club and I told Max to play an instrumental on his musitron for the middle part, and when he played that solo, we had ‘Runaway.'”

This was Shannon’s biggest hit. His career trailed off a few years later, and sadly he killed himself in 1990.  Shannon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame posthumously in 1999.

Runaway
Del Shannon

As I walk along, I wonder
A what went wrong whit our love
A love that was so strong

And as I still walk on
I think of the thing’s we’ve done
Together, while our hearts were young

I’m a walkin’ in the rain
Tears are fallin’ and I feel a pain
A wishin’ you were here by me
To end this misery

And I wonder, I wa wa wa wa wonder
Why a why why why why why
She ran away
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
My run run run run runaway

I’m a walkin’ in the rain
Tears are fallin’ and I feel a pain
A wishin’ you were here by me
To end this misery

And I wonder, I wa wa wa wa wonder
Why a why why why why why
She ran awayway
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
A run run run run
Runaway

Songwriters: Del Shannon, Max Crook
Publisher: BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT US, LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind