#14: Need You by Donnie Owens
City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: November 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #26
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #25
YouTube: “Need You”
Lyrics: “Need You”
Donald Lee Owens was born October 30, 1932, in Chester, Pennsylvania. Out of high school Owens went into the U.S. Air Force where he served as Airman First Class. He was a veteran of the Korean War. Taking the stage name, Donnie Owens, for five years Donnie Owens and the 4 Jacks played at a Harry’s Capri Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona. Owens recorded three 45’s on the Guyden Records label. Each featured Duane Eddy on guitar. Owens was a pop singer and guitarist. He played guitar for Duane Eddy’s backing band, the Rebels. In that capacity, Donnie Owens was one of the guitarists heard on “Because They’re Young” and other hits by Duane Eddy. Though he was American, Donnie Owens only had one hit record in the USA. On October 6, 1958 Owens made his Billboard Hot 100 debut with “Need You”.
“Need You” was written by Phoenix (AZ) native Buddy Wheeler. In “Need You” we learn about someone who is single after a breakup of a relationship. They plead with their ex-partner, “Come back and help me find the will to live.” Since they are not together, almost in a use of understatement, he bereft guy sings “Seems your love for me has gone.” Ya think? He laments, “I hurt for you each minute we’re apart.”
As things are, he has memories of his old flame:
“
No matter that his old flame had “tenderness” and an “understanding heart.” It seems likely he was failing to meet her expectations, whatever these were. He wants his old flame back. He’s at a loss to understand how the relationship fell apart. The Ben Denton Singers supplied angelic backing vocals on “Need You”.
“Need You” peaked at #1 in Buffalo, and Rockville (MD), #3 in London (ON), and Washington DC, #4 in Cleveland, New Orleans and Orlando, #5 in Arlington (VA), and Albany (NY), #7 in Boston, Dearborn (MI), and Akron (OH), #8 in Wheeling (WV), Pittsburgh, and Denver, and #10 in San Francisco, Sioux Falls (SD), and Albuquerque (NM).
“Need You” was later covered, note-for-note after listening to Donnie Owens recording, by doo-wop singer Jeff Stevens in 1958. In 1962, Pittsburgh singer Johnny Jack charted the song into the Top 60 on WIBG in Philadelphia. It was covered by Steve Alaimo, whose version charted in Bluefield (WV) in 1965. The Titans, from Minnesota, had a Top Ten hit with the song in 1967 in Duluth (MN). The Philadelphia quartet, the Kit Kats, recorded the song in 1968. Maryland Rockabilly cover artist, Robert Gordon, recorded “Need You” in 1980. The song has also been covered by Kenny Vance and the Planotone’s.
Donnie cut a few more records but they failed to chart in the USA. His follow up to “Need You,” was “Tomorrow.” It made the Top 30 in Phoenix and was play listed in Chicago and Boston. While it missed the Billboard Hot 100, it did climb to #89 on the Cashbox Top 100 Singles chart. His third and final release on Guyden Records was “Ask Me Anything”, which became a Top 30 hit for him in May of 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona. These tunes were country-pop songs.
His next single was “Stormy (Came To Town)”. It charted to #7 in Vancouver (BC). By the end of 1961 Trey 3 Records folded and with it the recording contract Donnie Owens had. Lester Sill went on to form Philles Records with Phil Spector.
Owens was a session musician for Denny Reed on “A Teenager Feels It Too“, a minor hit in 1960. He was also playing guitar for Nancy Sinatra on her 1966-67 hit “Sugar Town”.
Donnie Owens went on in the 60s to write songs for a number of recording artists. These included Budd the Spudd and the Sprouts, Virgil Warner, Johnny Wakely, Ray Sharpe, Sanford Clark and Mac Wiseman. None of the songs they recorded written by Owens became hits. Meanwhile, on December 24, 1966, Billboard magazine reported that LHI Records, “owned jointly by Lee Hazelwood and Decca Records” was “entering the country market.” The vision to collaborate arose from a recent country music convention in Nashville. The magazine wrote that “Donnie Owens will be executive producer of country product…. Owens, with an extensive musical background, will produce most of his recordings in Phoenix, which he feels will give him access to a previously untapped source of country music songs and artists.”
In 1971 Donnie Owens was the arranger for Lee Hazelwood’s album, Requiem For An Almost Lady. Owens business relationship with Hazelwood went back many years. Before the Wrecking Crew was named as such, Hazelwood had rhythm guitarist, Donnie Owens, playing on numbers of the recordings of the songs Hazelwood wrote. He was also in the recording studio as a session musician for Conway Twitty, Townes Van Zandt, Waylon Jennings, Sanford Clark, Duane Eddy, and Dino, Desi & Billy, and others.
Owens recorded a country tune in 1966 called “Climbing The Walls” which was co-produced with Waylon Jennings. Donnie was accidentally shot to death in Phoenix, Arizona, on October 27, 1994 at the age of 61, just a few days prior to his 62nd birthday.
March 19, 2025
Ray McGinnis
References:
Donnie Owens, Wikipedia.org.
Donnie Owens, Discogs.com.
Donnie Owens, “Reviews and Ratings of New Records,” Billboard, January 30, 1961.
“20 Musicians Shot, Stabbed, or Otherwise Left for Dead,” Elmore Magazine, January 3, 2012.
Kenny Vance and the Planotones, “Need You“, Oceans of Time, La Plano Records, 2009.
Johnny Jack, “Need You“, Ricky Records, 1962. (Backing vocals include Lou Christie).
Steve Alaimo, “Need You“, ABC-Paramount, 1965.
CKSL 1410-AM London (ON) Top Ten | November 29, 1958
I have always liked this tune. However, when I heard Kenny Vance do this live in 2008, he knocked it out of the park. I liked the tune even more after that.