Here's the story......
You're 7 years old and you hear this song for the first time, but you can't figure the lyrics out. You hear it a second and third time and finally your sister buys the 45 because she loves the song. You "borrow" it from her and try to solve what could be a grisly situation. You know it's about Shannon and she's female. And she.....ummm...well,
The chorus goes like this:
Shannon is gone, I hope she's drifting out to sea
She always loved to swim away
Maybe she'll find an island, with a shady tree
Just like the one in our backyard....
Lyrics as creepy as this are usually grounds for a homicide investigation. Did Mr. Gross throw this poor girl overboard off his beachfront property, expecting her to swim to Tahiti or something in shark infested waters? (this song came out at the same time as America was beach nervous because of the movie Jaws....) My 7 year old mind was abuzz with suspicion. And sharks.
As it turned out, "Shannon" was about Brian Wilson's Irish Setter, who had passed away, (hopefully of natural causes.) But singing a song about somebody else's dog is kinda creepy too......
It became a gold single for Henry Gross (and one of the biggest one-hit wonders of the '70s......)
Let's not forget this song was responsible for the legendary Casey Kasem "Snuggles meltdown" where he went totally batshit crazy when he had to do a long-distance dedication of this song for someone's dead dog immediately after playing the decidedly uptempo Pointer Sisters hit, "Dare Me".
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