Being the original lead guitarist for the group, Sha Na Na, in the late 1960’s would have been enough of a career highlight for most of us, but being the youngest person to play on the main stage at Woodstock at the age of eighteen probably trumped it.  Still, singer-songwriter, Henry Gross, was said to be most proud of a hit song he wrote that was inspired by “Shannon,” an Irish Setter, and one of the Beach Boys.

In 1975, Gross was touring the country and had a long strings of dates with the rock band, The Beach Boys.  He became particularly friendly with founding band member, Carl Wilson. They had much in common, and during a break from touring, Gross was invited to visit Wilson at his home in Los Angeles to talk music, guitars, and cars.

As Wilson prepared lunch, his two Siberian Huskies reached the counter and got to the lunch first. While admiring the military perfection of the raid executed by the dogs, he told Wilson about his Irish Setter at home, a dog named Shannon who “came” with the woman he would eventually marry. The dog, Gross told Wilson, was an “uncannily human dog whose ability to manipulate her human counterparts cannot be understated.”  Wilson became a bit emotional as he shared that he, too, had had an Irish Setter named Shannon that had been recently hit and killed by a car.

When Gross was back home in New York City weeks later, his thoughts drifted to The Beach Boys, and to Carl. With his own Irish Setter, Shannon, by his side, he imagined the indescribable sadness of losing such a beloved partner, and within minutes, Gross had written “Shannon.” He later said, “The song seemed to write itself taking no more than ten minutes and with almost no cross outs on the paper. I made a tape of it on my giant Sony cassette recorder and sent it off to Carl.”  Gross took exceptional care in the recording studio to get harmonies that would serve as an homage to the Beach Boys’ sound.

“Shannon” went gold in the U.S. and became a worldwide hit. It reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and #5 on the Cash Box Top 100 in 1976. In Canada it reached #1 in May of the same year, as it did in New Zealand.  Sadly, Carl Wilson died of cancer in 1998. His song, however, lives on: