Dion 1989.Pdf
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.
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