Biography for
Sharon Sheeley

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Date of Birth

4 April 1940, Los Angeles, California, USA

Date of Death

17 May 2002, Sherman Oaks, California, USA (complications after cerebral hemorrhage)

Spouse

Jimmy O'Neill

(? - ?)

Trivia

Best known for writing #1 song "Poor Little Fool, which Rick Nelson took to top of charts in 1958. She later co-wrote many other hits with 'Jackie De Shannon'.

She and singer Gene Vincent survived car crash in 1960 in England, which killed her boyfriend guitarist Eddie Cochran, at age 21.

Has a son named Shannon Burg

Sheeley wrote "Poor Little Fool" while still in high school in Newport Beach, California. Rick Nelson recorded it and in 1958 and it soared in the charts. She was the girlfriend of Eddie Cochran, riding with him in the taxi that crashed April 16, 1960, near Bath, England. The crash injured her (breaking her pelvis). It killed Cochran. She helped start the mid-1960s ABC network musical show "Shindig!" with her then-husband Jimmy O'Neill, the series host.

How Sharon and Eddie Cochran became boyfriend and girlfriend formed the basis of one of a series of wildly successful television advertisements for Levis 501 jeans in the mid- 1980's. The story goes that she wore jeans after failing to attract his attention in dresses. As was to happen with the other adverts' soundtracks, to coincide with this advertisement, Eddie's single, 'Come on everybody' was re-released.

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