Jackie DeShannon
Sun-drenched 1960s pop that bridges the gap between folk earnestness and orchestral grandeur. Warm, hopeful songs for bright mornings and open roads.
Sun-drenched 1960s pop that bridges the gap between folk earnestness and orchestral grandeur. Warm, hopeful songs for bright mornings and open roads.
Jackie DeShannon’s music feels like a warm embrace from a decade of transition. It carries the polished sheen of 1960s studio production but is grounded by a soulful, folk-inflected sincerity that was rare for pop stars of her era. Her voice is versatile, moving from a breathy, intimate whisper to a powerful, gospel-tinged belt that can fill a room with light.
What truly sets her apart is her dual identity as a hitmaker and a profound songwriter. While her contemporaries were often interpreting the Great American Songbook, DeShannon was busy writing the future of rock and roll, blending jangly guitars with sophisticated orchestral arrangements. There is a persistent sense of humanitarian hope in her work, a belief that music can actually change the temperature of the world.
Start with her 1960s singles to hear the blueprint for the singer-songwriter movement. 'What the World Needs Now Is Love' is the essential anthem, but tracks like 'When You Walk in the Room' reveal her sharper, more rhythmic edge that influenced everyone from The Searchers to Bruce Springsteen.
Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers; August 21, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, radio broadcaster and actress who has had many hit song credits beginning in the 1960s, as both a singer and composer. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock and roll period. She is best known as the singer of "What the World Needs Now Is Love" and "Put a Little Love in Your Heart". She is the writer of "When You Walk in the Room" and "Bette Davis Eyes", which became hits for The Searchers and Kim Carnes, respectively. Since 2009, DeShannon has been an entertainment broadcast correspondent reporting Beatles band members' news for the radio program Breakfast with the Beatles.
Shares orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style); traditional pop, baroque pop (subgenres)
Shares orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style); traditional pop, baroque pop (subgenres)
Shares orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style); traditional pop, baroque pop (subgenres)
Shares orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style); traditional pop, soul, baroque pop (subgenres)
Shares traditional pop, folk rock (subgenres); orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style)
Shares traditional pop, soul (subgenres); orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style)
Shares studio polished, analog warmth, orchestral arrangement (production style); breathy, gentle, harmonized (vocal style)
Shares hopeful, wistful, joyful (moods); orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style)
Shares orchestral arrangement, analog warmth, studio polished (production style); traditional pop, baroque pop (subgenres)
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