Rock history as told by wishful thinkers on both sides of the political spectrum 2012.
The fact is that radio was highly segregated in the early 1960s (isn’t it now still?) If the white stations played Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharpe out of the Philly Cameo-Parker hit factory of white owners, they didn’t play James Brown, Salomon Burke or Major Lance (who?), and the black stations (however they were called then escapes me for the moment, but that was before the ‘soul’ monicker), and those black stations might have played Del Shannon’s Runaway, ‘coz the DJs and the audience thought he was black.
In the UK there was one station that played everything and that was Radio Luxembourg, which is how the Stones caught up to it (besides the lively club blues scene, Alexis Korner, etc.)
No one on the radio played the Delta blues until Al Gore invented the FM channel, and what the general audience took as the blues were the minstrelized duo Sonny Brownie and Terry McGee, an early example of white guilt rewarding questionable performances (those two were authentic and good early on before becoming commercialized.)
No one sang or was allowed to sing “I Just Wanna Make Love to You) on white bread with mayo TV shows like Dean Martin’s before the Stones. Muddy Waters was widely unknown.
I see Motown still doesn’t exist and Berry Gordy has been whitewashed.
Since Shannon's picture is on the cover of the 45, it's amazing they never figured out he was white.