"Runaway" is a number-one Billboard Hot 100 song made famous by Del Shannon in 1961. It was written by Shannon and keyboardist Max Crook, and became a major international hit. It topped the Billboard charts for four consecutive weeks, and Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1961. It was No. 472 on the 2010 version of Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and No. 466 on the 2004 version.

Original recording

Singer-guitarist Charles Westover and keyboard player Max Crook performed together as members of "Charlie Johnson and the Big Little Show Band" in Battle Creek, Michigan, before their group won a recording contract in 1960. Westover took the new stage name "Del Shannon", and Crook, who had invented his own clavioline-based electric keyboard called a Musitron, became "Maximilian". After their first recording session for Big Top Records in New York City had ended in failure, their manager Ollie McLaughlin persuaded them to rewrite and re-record an earlier song they had written, "Little Runaway", to highlight Crook's unusual instrumental sound. On January 21, 1961, they recorded "Runaway" at Bell Sound Studios in New York City, with Harry Balk as producer, Fred Weinberg as audio engineer and also session musicians on several sections: session musician Al Caiola on guitar, Moe Wechsler on piano, and Crook playing the central Musitron break. Other musicians on the record included Al Casamenti and Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass, and Joe Marshall on drums. Bill Ramall, who was the arranger for the session, also played baritone sax. After recording in A minor, producer Balk sped up the recording to pitch just below a B-flat minor. "Runaway" was released in February 1961 and was immediately successful. On April 10 of that year, Shannon appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, helping to catapult it to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for four weeks. Two months later, it reached number one on the UK's Record Retailer chart, spending three weeks in that position. On Billboard's Hot R&B Sides, "Runaway" peaked at number three. The song was ranked No. 5 on Billboards end of year "Hot 100 for 1961 – Top Sides of the Year" and No. 9 on Cash Boxs "Top 100 Chart Hits of 1961".

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

All-time charts

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. 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. 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. 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.

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".

Certifications

Covers

In popular culture

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".