Topic: Jackie DeShannon

Jackie DeShannon (born Sharon Lee Myers on August 21, 1944 in Hazel, Kentucky), is an American singer-songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock 'n' roll period.

Sharon Myers adopted the name Jackie DeShannon, believed to be the name of an Irish ancestor. Executives at Liberty Records thought the name Sharon Myers would not help sell records. (She once reported that record executives added "Shannon" to "Jackie Dee," one of the names under which she recorded, to create her name.)

DeShannon was born the daughter of musically inclined farming parents, Sandra Jean and James Erwin Myers, and was singing country tunes on a local radio show at the age of six. By the age of eleven, DeShannon was already hosting her own radio program. When life on the farm became too difficult, the family moved to Aurora, Illinois, her mother's home town, and her father resumed his other career as a barber. After a year, they moved up the Fox River to Batavia, Illinois, where Sharon attended high school.