CD CORNER : ‘DeShannon’ Puts Career in Perspective

When you think about classic but overlooked rhymes in rock-era pop, don’t forget the one in the 1964 hit “When You Walk in the Room.”

Consider:

I close my eyes for a second

And pretend it’s me you want

Meanwhile, I try to act so nonchalant.

That may not appear on paper to be a perfect rhyme, but the marvelous vocal phrasing on the original version of the song turns it into one.

The singer and the writer in this case was the same: Jackie DeShannon, a gifted pop-rock figure whose career achievements have sometimes been as overlooked as the rhyme.

That’s because DeShannon, a Kentuckian who moved to Los Angeles in the early ‘60s, aggressively pursued on record such a wide range of musical influences--from rock and folk to R&B; and pop--that many rock purists over the years have been suspicious. In a repeat of the Bobby Darin story, these purists have viewed the switches as commercial opportunism rather than genuine artistic instinct.

But “The Best of Jackie DeShannon,” a 20-song retrospective album just released by Rhino Records, helps put the singer-songwriter’s career and musical shifts into convincing perspective. Whatever the style, there is a touch of soulful integrity in DeShannon’s best work.

“I was brought up with all kinds of music, and it was natural for me to do anything I wanted,” DeShannon says in the album’s liner notes. “It’s hard to believe that people would categorize you into one thing.

“I wanted to be an artist, just like Georgia O’Keeffe, and to be accepted for what I did. But being one of the first female singer-songwriters was a brand new thing, and people didn’t know exactly what to make of it.”

The album’s songs range from the early vitality of “When You Walk in the Room” to the 1965 Top 10 hit “What the World Needs Now . . .” to “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” the Top 10 hit that she co-wrote in 1969. Also included: “Bette Davis Eyes,” a 1975 song that DeShannon co-wrote with Donna Weiss and which became a No. 1 single in 1981 for Kim Carnes.

Despite the variety of styles on the album, including the Beatles-influenced “Don’t Turn Your Back on Me,” the collection leaves considerable room for a second volume drawn from her interpretations of songs by such writers as Bob Dylan, John Prine and Van Morrison, and from versions of her songs by other artists, including Brenda Lee (“Dum Dum”), the Byrds (“Don’t Doubt Yourself Babe”) and the Searchers (“When You Walk In the Room”).