Talk:Jackie DeShannon

"Needles..." and "When You Walk..."
The article is misleading. While Jackie's versions of "Needles and Pins" and "When You Walk in the Room" were both hits in the USA, they were not "major." Also, it sounds as if The Searchers' remakes had success only on the UK charts, when, in fact, both went on to become sizable hits in the USA, both outperforming the earlier DeShannon versions.


 * Super. Make the change and add a reference, please.  Luigibob 10:25, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Accurate Chart Information
After reading this article, I'm confused by the following contradiction: Under Hit love songs it says, In late 1965, DeShannon recorded Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and it provided her first Number 1 hit... However under U.S. Chart Singles as a Recording Artist the article contradicts itself with, "What The World Needs Now Is Love" #7, May 1965 Which is it? A number one hit or a number seven hit? A blatant error (even if the result of simple typo) makes the rest of the article's information suspect. 66.17.118.207 13:16, 14 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Okay. Make it right...And place references if needed, please.  Luigibob 10:25, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

There is also a difficulty with the cited usage of her recording, "What the World Needs Now", as being used in the film, "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice". Following the embedded link to the movie article, it states that the soundtrack recording of the song was performed by Merrilee Rush.Jkolak (talk) 06:55, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

The article references television station Channel 2 in Chicago (WBBM TV) as a CBS affiliate. actually it was one of the network-OWNED CBS stations, not an affiliate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.238.122.195 (talk) 14:01, 4 September 2020 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Jackiedeshannon.jpg
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Songwriter vs. performer
It would be nice to have a compact list of songs that she wrote, separate from hit singles as a performer. The distinctions are blurred in this article.

"Break-a-way" was a hit for Irma Thomas around 1965...not sure how major or minor. Same song as the one Tracey Ullman had a hit with later on. Sojambi Pinola (talk) 17:06, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Dating Elvis
Jackie has stated before that she did NOT date Elvis Presley (http://jackiedeshannon.tripod.com/jdsas021905.html) This information should be removed or amended. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.176.178 (talk) 07:18, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Year of birth
According to the following sources, Sharon Lee Myers was 13 years old (and in 8th grade) in May 1955, and 14 years old in March 1956, which means that she was born in 1941 (not 1944 as stated in the article):— PlaysInPeoria (talk) 19:36, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * "Sharon Lee Myers, Only 13, Is Talented Batavia Vocalist." Batavia Herald [Batavia, Ill.], 5 May 1955, p. 1
 * "Batavia Banter: On Television Show." Batavia Herald [Batavia, Ill.], 1 March 1956, p. 12
 * Whatever the Batavia Herald is, it's not the New York Times, and the other sources I'm seeing say 1944. The Herald could just be wrong. Everybody seems to agree that it's August 21, so let's see what else we've got

Taking the rest more or less as they come up in Google for "Jackie DeShannon birthdate":
 * Batavia Herald, by your math: 1941.
 * Allmusic: 1944.
 * Browse Biography: 1942.
 * Famous Birthdays: 1941.
 * Starnostar: 1942.
 * Mystic Games: 1944.
 * Redirectify: 1941.
 * Astrotheme: 1944.
 * iBiography: 1941.
 * IMDb: 1941.
 * Movieweb: 1944.
 * Dead or Alive: 1944.
 * QuotesBy: 1944.
 * Superior Pics: 1944.
 * Ilene on Words: 1944.
 * [URL blacklisted] TV Rage: 1944.
 * A Boat Against the Current: "There’s some question about a birthdate surrounding this post. Most reference sources that I’ve seen on the Web indicate that singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon was born on this date 70 years ago [this was published August 21, 2014 -- ed.] in Hazel, Kentucky. Other sources push the date back to 1941." Sounds about right.

So... what's her birthdate? None of the above sources is at all reliable and probably many are copying off each other. Raw numbers are 4-2-10 in favoring of 1941-1942-1944 but that means nothing, of course. So absent a reliable source I think we should not state a birthdate and I've accordingly removed it. Herostratus (talk) 21:23, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Oops
Oh, OK, those are contemporary articles. I missed that. So (and assuming August 21 of some year), the article "Sharon Lee Myers, Only 13, Is Talented Batavia Vocalist" in the Batavia Herald 5 May 1955. If she was born in 1941 she would be 13 (which would jibe with being in about 8th grade), and if she was born in 1944 she would have been just 10, which would jibe with being in about 5th grade. It's not likely that the Herald would make a mistake of that magnitude and not many 5th graders who could pass for 8th graders to fool a reporter. Although it's possible, and you also have a couple sources giving 1942 which is only a year off from 1941 and a lot easier to pull off if not true.

In addition to which the articles are not online and so hard to assess... it could be a different Sharon Lee Myers for instance, or you could be making the articles up. But both of those are extremely doubtful. I assume that DeShannon at some point wanted to present as being younger than she is and that 1941 is quite probably the correct date, and so I've restored it. Given the plethora of 1944 refs, we can expect that "correcting" to 1944 will be a regular occurrence, though.

However, we also have "Billboard noted (10 June 1957) that Sherry Lee Myers, "16-year old C&W singer of Batavia, Illinois..." near the top of the "Early recording career" section. If she was born on August 21 of 1941 she would have been 15 in June of 1957, not turning 16 until August of that year. This would jibe with the 1942 date given in a couple of references. Maybe Billboard just made a mistake, but it seems likely that at some point Ms DeShannon started getting cute with her age. The question is when she started doing this. If it was at or before the Batavia Herald article we have a problem, and it's possible that in 1955 she wanted to present as older but by 1957 she wanted to present as younger... so... Herostratus (talk) 22:06, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Birth Certificate
Sharon Lee Myers was born on 21 August 1941 in Calloway County, Kentucky. (Hazel, Kentucky, is located in Calloway County.) Source: Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Kentucky Birth, Marriage, and Death Databases: Births, 1911-1999. Volume No. 203, Certificate No. 93361. For anyone interested in replicating the search, this record was found on Ancestry.com.

By the way, her parents, James Erwin Myers (who was, in fact, a barber in Batavia, Illinois) and Sandra Jeanne Myers née LaMonte, are buried at South Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Murray, Calloway County, Kentucky. PlaysInPeoria (talk) 23:36, 27 January 2015 (UTC)


 * How official is that? According to a document on a web page of the Jackie de Shannon Appreciation Society, called To whom it may concern, she writes herself that she was born in 1942. Ymnes (talk) 14:26, 12 July 2015 (UTC)


 * One hardly knows how to answer such a question. With all due respect to Jackie DeShannon, or whomever actually posted on the Society's page in her name, I am willing to accept the authenticity of an official government record of a birth certificate, which was recorded in Calloway County in 1941. PlaysInPeoria (talk) 01:33, 28 February 2018 (UTC)

Discography needs work
A number of singles—or rather individual songs from singles—are missing from the discography. In addition, the discography would benefit from label, number, and even format information. (At least one of DeShannon's records was issued in 78 rpm.) In the hope that it is not inappropriate to add B sides to the discography—only one B side currently appears in the article, in a separate chart—I started to add songs found in "Sweet Sherry: The Early Recording Career of Jackie DeShannon" by Pete Lerner to the main Singles chart, and I added this useful source to the External Links section. Lerner also provides additional evidence that Sherry Lee Myers was born in 1941, and identifies a very early song recorded in 1958 as Jackie Dee, but not released until 2002 as part of a compilation album. PlaysInPeoria (talk) 03:13, 1 April 2013 (UTC)