My Cousin was a Pop Star

by Nancy Gibson

Charles Weedon Westover was born December 30, 1934, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Bert Westover

and Leone Mosher. He was named after his great great grandfather, Charles Edward Westover of Northumberland, Ontario.

He grew up in Coopersville, a small farming town near Grand Rapids. His mother taught him to play the ukulele when he was a child and by the age of fourteen he was a great guitar picker. During his late teens he played in bands in the night clubs of Grand Rapids. In 1955 he married Shirley Nash, his childhood sweetheart. He was drafted into the Army in 1956 and sent to Germany. While there, he played in a band called the “Cool Flames” and spent much of his time entertaining the troops.

Shannon and Crook continued to play and compose music together. While sitting on the rolls of carpet in the store where he worked, Shannon wrote the lyrics for his first song “Runaway”. In January 1961, they went to New York to record the song. “Runaway” was released as a single in February 1961. It reached number one on the Billboard Chart in April 1961, making Shannon an instant celebrity.

More hits followed during the sixties but none as great as “Runaway”. Some of them were “Hats Off To Larry”, “Handy Man”, “Do you Wanna Dance”, “Keep Searching” and “Stranger In Town ”.

In 1963, Shannon became the first American to record a song by the Beatles. His version of the song “From Me To You” charted in the U.S. before the Beatles’ version.