Maxfield Doyle Crook was an American musician, a pioneer of electronic music in pop.
12 Facts About Max Crook
1.
2.
Max Crook was the featured soloist on Del Shannon's 1961 hit "Runaway", which he co-wrote and on which he played his own invention, the Musitron.
3.
The family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, when Max Crook was a child.
4.
Helen Max Crook was classically trained as a pianist in her early schooling and graduated from college with a degree in music.
5.
Max Crook first learned to play the accordion before taking up the piano, and by the time he was fourteen he had already built his own studio.
6.
Max Crook was unable to patent the Musitron because most of its components were previously patented products.
7.
Max Crook first used it for recording at a session at Berry Gordy's studio in Detroit, on an unreleased version of "Bumble Boogie" for which he used a crude self-made four-track tape recorder.
8.
In January 1961, Shannon and Max Crook recorded "Runaway" at Bell Sound studios for Big Top Records in New York City, and it soon became an international hit.
9.
Max Crook set up his own record label, Double A, in Ann Arbor.
10.
Hyland's version of Curtis Mayfield's "Gypsy Woman", featuring Max Crook's keyboards, became a hit in 1970.
11.
Max Crook wrote the score for James Sturgen's movie Time and Beyond.
12.
Max Crook can be seen in the group's music video of the song filmed in Shannon's hometown of Coopersville, Michigan.