ROCK AND ROLL HALL D F FAME D ion By Michael Hill D lO N DiM UCCI was bom in the Bronx in 1939 and was raised there in group. The Schwartz brothers pushed Dion and the Belmonts in a sup­ the borough’s own Little Italy. He showed a gift for singing at an early per-club direction. Their album W hen You Wish upon a Star contained age, much to the delight o f his parents, w ho encouraged him to perform. only standards. The group had lost its momentum, and Dion, eager to re­ His first love was Hank W illiams, the artist who lured him into a Ford' turn to rock 6? roll, launched a solo career. ham Road record store, where he discovered more than just country “Lonely Teenager,” Dion’s first solo hit, went Top Twenty, but his western. A s he recalls in The Wanderer, which he published last year, “I first album, Alone with Dion, still bore traces o f the Belmonts’ Tin Pan was picking up influences from all over the place, mixing in early RfePB Alley side. It wasn’t until 1961, when he co-wrote “Runaround Sue” w ith doo-wop. Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and, o f course, w ith songwriter Ernie Maresca, that Dion happened upon a sound and a Elvis. In other words, like every other teenager in America, I was discov' style he could truly call his own. “Runaround Sue” had a loose, sing- ering rock ’n’ roll.” along feel; Dion himself is hardly the plaintive teenager but a confident Dion and the Belmonts - Angelo D ’A leo, Fred M ilano and Carlo belter who buddies up to the microphone as if he were swapping stories Mastrangelo — discovered rock fe? roll together, as well as an affinity for w ith his pals at the local bar. “Runaround Sue” reached Number One on four-part harmonies. Dion, a tenor, became the lead singer. They were at the pop charts and was followed by the song that would become Dion’s first just a neighborhood thing; they had taken their name from nearby signature, “The Wanderer,” written by Maresca. Belmont Avenue. But they set their sights on mote than street-comer Dion made a brief foray to Hollywood to try his hand at the movies, singing. D ion’s father, eager to help his son break into the big time, ar­ but he spent most o f his time touring. He enjoyed three Top Ten hits in ranged for him to meet a neighborhood man with alleged music-busi­ 1962: “Lovers W ho Wander,” “Little Diane” and “Love Came to Me.” ness connections. By 1963, he had been wooed away from Laurie by Columbia Records, Dion soon found himself at the Manhattan offices of Mohawk Rec­ which offered him a lucrative five-year contract. Dion made his debut on ords, a shoestring operation run by tw o accountant brothers, Bob and Columbia w ith “Ruby Baby,” a remake o f a Drifters’ song, w ith the same Gene Schwartz;. Dion auditioned by singing the Five Satins’ “W onderful spontaneous feeling as his best work. A s he recalls, “It was all funky Girl”; the Schwartzes made Dion the second artist on their roster. The acoustic guitar, hand claps, foot stomps and a strolling bass line that broke Belmonts, however, weren’t part o f the package at first; the Schwartz into syncopated skips as the tune came round for the finish.” brothers wanted Dion to sing over a track prerecorded by a vocal group .“ Donna the Prima Donna,” his next entry into the Top Ten, was a called the Timberlanes. His debut, “The Chosen Few,” actually good-natured sendup o f a local girl with a serious attitude problem. The caused a little stir in Boston. That was enough encouragement for album o f the same name, Dion feels, is a tribute to the music of the Dion to quit school and plunge into his career full time. He told the streets, to “the charge I got from that glorious Crotona Avenue noise.” It Schwartz brothers, however, that the Timberlanes had to go and was also a climax o f sorts, the close o f a chapter in Dion’s career. W ith brought in the Belmonts for an audition. the onset o f the British Invasion, Dion, like many o f his peers, faded from In early 1958, Dion and the Belmonts recorded “I W onder W hy,” an the spotlight W hen he reemerged in 1968, after overcoming a series of appealingly adolescent evocation o f the mysteries o f love. By then, the personal setbacks, he embraced a more introspective, folk-based style. He Schwartz brothers had discarded M ohawk for a more mellifluous name, accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and sang in a mellowed voice that Laurie^ ahd found themselves w ith their first hit. “I W onder W hy” still had that vulnerable edge. reached Number Twenty-two on the pop chart, and Dion and the Bel­ He went back to where he had started, Laurie Records, after staff pro­ monts became the closest thing in real life to an overnight'sensation. ducer Phil Gemhard asked him to do a song he’d found, “Abraham, Mar­ Am ong their first public appearances was a spot on American Bandstand. tin and John.” The single reached Number Four on the pop charts, Dion’s From there, they embarked on a rigorous tour. ten th T o p T e n song. Their subsequent singles, “N o One Knows” and “Don’t Pity Me,” Dion released a folkish version o f Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and re­ made it into the Top Forty, but Dion and the Belmonts didn’t enjoy Top corded an album that included covers o f Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan Ten success until the following year, when Laurie released a D oc Pomus- tunes. He began to tour a different circuit, from the Troubadour, in L A ., M ort Shuman number called “A Teenager in Love.” In the winter of to the Bitter End, in N ew York City. By 1969, he had signed with 1959, as “A Teenager in Love” was moving up the charts, Dion and the 'W arner Bros., recording Ifit D ow n , O ld F rien d, Y o u ’re J\[ot A lo n e and Belmonts joined a package tour called the W inter Dance Party, which Sanctuary. In late 1973, he reunited with the Belmonts for a single per­ featured Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. W hen Buddy formance at Madison Square Garden - “no rehearsals, no nothing, just Holly became fed up with sleeping on the frigid tour bus and decided to me, the guys, the old songs, and a house packed with fans” — that was rent a small plane to take him to the next gig, he asked Dion if he’d like to preserved o n W a rn e r B ros.’ R eun ion . join him. Dion, who was only nineteen, balked at paying thirty-five dol­ Despite the stylistic twists and turns o f Dion’s ongoing career, he has lars, a month’s rent in the Bronx. It wasn’t until the next morning, when always sung what he calls “the Bronx blues,” the sound of a guy who he arrived in Fargo, North Dakota, that Dion learned o f the fatal plane sings w ith a swagger and harbors his heartbreak inside. You can hear the crash that took the lives o f his fellow tour members. Bronx blues in Bruce Springsteen’s hit-the-road dramas, in Lou Reed’s Dion and the Belmonts’ elegant version o f the Rodgers and Hart stand­ street scenes, in the boasting o f today’s rappers and in the voice o f every ard “W here or W hen,” released in 1960, brought them to Number artist, regardless o f age, w ho just has to sing about what it feels Three on the pop chart, but it was the beginning of the end for the 5 like to be a teenager in love..