"Shannon" is a 1976 song by Henry Gross. It became an international hit, reaching #6 and achieving gold record status in the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #5 on the ''Cash Box'' Top 100. The song reached #1 in Canada and New Zealand. "Shannon" was written about the death of

Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

member Carl Wilson's Irish Setter of the same name. While touring with the Beach Boys in 1975, Gross visited Wilson's home in Los Angeles and in conversation said he had an Irish Setter named Shannon. Wilson replied that he had also had an Irish Setter named Shannon that had recently been killed when hit by a car. The single went

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

in the U.S. and became a worldwide hit, reaching #6 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #5 on the '' Cash Box'' Top 100 in 1976. In

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

it reached #1. "Shannon" also reached #1 in New Zealand, but peaked only at #32 in the UK.

Television performance

On July 23, 1976, Gross performed "Shannon" on the NBC-TV program '' The Midnight Special''.

The Casey Kasem incident

"Shannon" is remembered for being the subject of a profanity-laced tirade by '' American Top 40'' host

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

, while recording the September 14, 1985 show. A listener from

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...

had requested "Shannon" as a "Long-Distance Dedication" (a regular feature of the show) to his own recently deceased dog, named Snuggles. Kasem was upset that the show's producers had placed the dedication immediately following

the Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, bl ...

' hit " Dare Me", an uptempo song that he considered a poor lead-in to a sad song such as "Shannon". This did not originally air in the broadcast. The outtakes were distributed years later and wound up on

Negativland Negativland is an American experimental music band which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970s. They took their name from a Neu! track, while their record label (Seeland Records) is named after another Neu! track. The co ...

's '' U2''. The audio was occasionally played on ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The show has aired on Howard 100 a ...

'', '' The Don and Mike Show'' and ''The

Neil Rogers Neil Rogers (November 5, 1942December 24, 2010) was an American talk radio personality. Until his retirement on June 22, 2009, ''The Neil Rogers Show'' aired weekdays from 10am-2pm on WQAM-AM, 560 WQAM. It was consistently the top-rated show ...

Show''. The September 14, 1985 episode, as originally aired, has been rebroadcast in recent years as part of

Premiere Radio Networks Premiere Networks (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a wholly owned subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. I ...

' ''American Top 40: The '80s'' series.

Musicians

* Henry Gross: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, background vocals *

Allan Schwartzberg Allan Schwartzberg (born December 28, 1942) is an American musician and record producer. He has been a member of the rock band Mountain, Peter Gabriel's first solo band, toured with Brecker Brothers' Dreams, B.J. Thomas, Linda Rondstadt, Stan Get ...

: drums * George Devens: percussion * Warren Nichols: bass *

Philip Aaberg Philip Aaberg (born April 8, 1949) is an American pianist and composer. He gained international recognition through a series of successful piano recordings released on Windham Hill Records. Although classically trained, Aaberg incorporates clas ...

: piano, electric piano * Mike Corbett, Marty Nelson, Tommy West: background vocals

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* 1976 songs 1976 singles Lifesong Records singles Songs about dogs Songs written by Henry Gross RPM Top Singles number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand {{1970s-song-stub