Dion DiMucci was one of the leading rock and rollers of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, and his work still sounds great to me to this day. He was the front man for Dion and the Belmonts and had several hits beginning with “I Wonder Why” in 1958. On the strength of their early success, they were brought along on the Winter Dance Tour with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. At one stop, Holly chartered a plane to get to the next date on the tour; but Dion turned down the offered ride, saying that he couldn’t afford the $36 cost. On February 3, 1959, the plane crashed in a cornfield in Iowa, killing Holly, Valens, the Big Bopper, and the pilot. (Waylon Jennings, who was in Buddy Holly’s new band after he left the Crickets, also decided against getting on the plane).
Further hits followed for Dion and the Belmonts, including “A Teenager in Love” – considered by many to be one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever – and the Rodgers and Hart show tune “Where or When”. Dion became a solo artist by 1960 and had another string of wonderful hit songs, “The Wanderer”, “Runaround Sue”, “Donna the Prima Donna”, and “Ruby Baby” among them. In the wake of the horrific political assassinations of the 1960’s, Dion later had another hit song in the summer of 1968 with the simple but highly effective song, “Abraham, Martin and John”.
After a period of Christian contemporary recordings, Dion was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and released a great comeback album called Yo Frankie in 1989. The sticker on the cover proclaims: “The man who invented the rock & roll attitude . . . has now perfected it”. Produced by Dave Edmunds, the album features numerous guest appearances: Paul Simon, Lou Reed, k.d. lang, Patty Smyth, and Bryan Adams. Reed’s speech at the induction ceremony is also included on the sleeve.
(March 2015)
