But every day she grew unhappier

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts.

01/09/63 : Hats Off To Del Shannon - Del Shannon


I know Del Shannon did "Runaway" (which I like in an amusing 60s cheesy fashion) and I believe he was American (which Google confirms) but apart from that, I've got nothing, so I'm intrigued as to where this takes us.

Hmmm - I wasn't expecting to start with yet more bloody yodelling. Although the track in question, "The Swiss Maid", is actually quite funny because it describes a girl who lived on a mountain and was pining for love and you assume she'll get it sorted by the end of the song - but no, she just dies. I didn't mind the album though and even quite liked "Hats Off To Larry" - I think it's already sounding a bit dated by now, but they are decent enough tunes and with twelve tracks lasting 28 minutes, there's not enough time to get bored with it. He's a bit menacing on the album cover though!

We've finally reached rock bottom, being at #20 in the chart this week on his last week of a four week run, which came after a previous thirteen week run in which it peaked at #9 in four separate weeks. The top five this week were The Beatles, The Searchers, The Shadows, the Cliff Richard best-of and West Side Story, with the highest new entry being Kenny Ball (#15). 

Wikipedia tells us it's his second album and is basically just his last six US singles and b-sides, released in the UK to coincide with his tour over here. So it's not a proper album at all or even a "best-of", but a "what-we-had-lying-around" offering. However, it is worth noting that he wrote most of the tracks, so we'll give him some credit for that and New Record Mirror declared it to be "as entertaining a collection of contemporary pops as you will find" which has an amusing Smashy and Nicey feel to it. 

discogs.com surprises me by telling me this is a relatively expensive album, setting you back £8 for a basic version - but a mint version is only £25, so why not splash out? This was a fun enough visit - very much of its time but perfectly listenable and you can understand why people went for it back then.

08/09/23 - We were never going to avoid him

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