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Dion Dimucci Information Exchange

(I've used a text copier to transfer these articles- unfortunatly some words get mangled which I then try to untangle - If I've missed any apologies in advance!)..

Three articles from UK RNR fanzine NOW DIG THIS

THE MAJESTIC WANDERER!

DION PROVIDES THE RUNAROUND

By PAUL HARRIS

Enter stage right onto the dimly lit stage, five band members and the legendary Dion who receives a warm welcome from the mixed age audience. He opens with some numbers that 1 fail to recognise (obviously of more recent vintage than me), though they are very enjoyable and reveal the quality of the band: lead guitar, bass, drums and two keyboards -one of whom I'm sure was introduced as Paul Harris. Despite the usual difficulty of catching the names, the other keyboard man, who doubled-up on sax, seemed to be named after his head gear, 'Pork Pie'. My only complaint was that the lead guitarist went into heavy metal overdrive each time he had an extended solo, notably on the first song 1 recognised which came 15 minutes into the show: jimmy Reed's 'Baby What You Want Me To Do'. Fifteen minutes later came one of the highlights, an apparently rare rendition of Dion's 1963 hit 'Ruby Baby', originally a Drifters number. This was immediately followed by 30-vear-old Dion claiming that he was a 'Teenager In Love'! By now, we 'oldies' were transported way back in time (30 years to be precise), but the youngsters seemed to know ail the words as well.

Fifty minutes in came the finale with 'Runaround Sue' and 'The Wanderer' (which included a 'wander' around the stage by guitarists and sax-man), both complete with original style vocal backings from the band, with 'Pork Pie' blasting out the sax riffs and with Dion playing some great guitar himself. One hour: exit stage right - but not for long. The twenty-minute encore opened with the great new single release 'King Of The New York Streets', followed by another fine track from the current album, 'Always In The Rain'. Back to 1958 for the exciting first hit with The Belmonts, the doo-wop styled 'I Wonder Why', which contrasted with the following vocal and guitar solo, Rodgers & Hart's 'Where Or When'. After one more number the encore was over.

The tumultuous crowd reaction brought a second encore which, perhaps surprisingly, consisted of a lengthy 'Whole Lotta' Shakin" where Dion, by now glassy-eyed, produced a nice bluesy guitar solo and allowed the front row of the audience to pick a few strings before making a final exit.

It is always nice to see a performer enjoying himself and it was patently obvious that Dion was having a ball. The whole show was videoed so watch out for it - a memorable evening.

DION AT THE TOWN & COUNTRY CLUB, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 26th 1989.

THE WANDERER

DION RETURNS

Well, what did happen to the mighty Dion Dimucci? He had those essential white Doo-wop tracks with Angelo, Carlo and Freddie, The Belmonts, that made New York seem so attractive at the end of the '50's.

They dit- ditted through 'i Wonder Why' as Dion's sweet voice strained high above them, sweetly crooned 'No One Knows', and cooed 'Don't Pity Me' to lots of little girls' maternal instincts.

The world began to share in their new brand of white harmony through 'A Teenager In Love' in 1959, and they went classy with 'Where Or When' - their version of the fabulous Flamingos' arrangement of the Rodgers & Hart standard - and with 'When You Wish Upon A Star' - the Disney theme just made for Italian doo-wop cool.

There's no fodder here for the proto-punk image which seems to have grown up around Dion. My theory is that that came from The Four Preps' parody 'More Money For You And Me' where The Belmonts were said to be 'Stealing hub caps off of cars" as they lamented "Why must 1 be a teenager in jail?"

Meanwhile, Dion went solo, still on the Laurie label on which the boys had had their hits, and several New York girls sobbed into their hankies, bewailing the end of an era, Dion had a couple of flops, but came back with a harder, less wimpish image on the wonderful Ernie Maresca-written numbers 'Runaround Sue' and 'The Wanderer'. 1 saw Dion on the Tele at this time and saw a very strange figure - his body seemed too small and his head inordinately huge. But then so did Freddie Cannon, so maybe it was those tight Italian suits. (Or perhaps you just had a dodgy tele? - Ed.)

Further hits followed for Dion, now an international star, in this tougher mould -favourites include 'Lovers Who Wander' and 'Love Came To Me' - but the group sound remained as he was backed by The Del Satins. Then came the next split - from Laurie to the lucrative pastures of Columbia. Now he began to show even more love of black music, and hard rnb at that. He made superb versions of The ' Drifters' 'Ruby Baby' and 'Drip Drop', and The Dell-Vikings' 'Come Go With, Me', as well as hard pop with 'Donna The Prima Donna'.

Meanwhile he was getting into the dreaded "all-around entertainer" field and made some dreadful LPs of, standards, totally unsuited to his voice and talent. He recorded with the appalling Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and then a combination of Beatle mania and heroin took his success away from him.

He was, however, too grown up (musically) to chase cheap hits with ersatz Liverpool, as he delved deeper into the blues, developing a very impressive and highly personal guitar style, and turning in remarkable performances such as 'Hoochic Coochie Man', 'Spoonful' and 'Kickin' Child', while on the 6-sides he was doing excellent bob Dylan-type stuff such as 'The Road I'm On (Gloria)' and 'No One's Waiting For Me' on which his lovely voice added a dimension to the Dylan style that deserved a mass audience, but it was not to be.

He disappeared. In 1968 he resurfaced, cleaned up, and did 'Abraham, Martin And John' on Laurie again, but 1 personally didn't like this new manifestation. He was good at it, but 1 hankered for the doo-wop, rock, blues and introspective folk of the heroin-ridden Dion.

Many agreed with me, and as a sop to us he joined up with The Belmonts for a 1972 concert and Warner brothers LP 'Reunion', and good it was too. He went with Phii Spectot for an LP which still contrived to disappoint me, yet pleased many in the sterile days of 1975.

Not much really happened that 1 know of until 1984, when a rumour spread that lie was dead. 1 searched in vain through the 'Times' obituaries, and was so happy to read of his present LPs pending release last year. 'Yo Frankie' is finally with us and Dion certainly isn't dead. He's remained true to his desire of keeping with trends, and yet the LP on- ------"--

IF 1 SHOULD FALL BEHIND

WHAT'S DION BEEN UP TO SINCE'YO FRANKIE'?

It may come as a surprise to some, but Dion has had three major album releases since the successful "comeback" album, 'Yo Frankie', in 1989. At the time even the mainstream music press giving Dion rave reviews, comparing 'Yo Frankie' to Orbison's 'Mystery Girl' and even with B Wilson's strange solo album. To we Dion fans it was like a breath of fresh air, having indulged a with Dion on every musical avenue he cared to take us. At long last he had resorted to type delivered us a pure rock n roll LP of vintage stuff. The whole thing peaked in August that year 'King Of The New York Streets' actually hitting the national play lists and reaching the dizzy height of No.74 in the Gallop charts.

So what happened after that? Apart from the devoted followers of the Bronx wonder and those who tend to read every magazine they buy from cover-to-cover, you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd retired. As 1 said, no less than three albums - good 'uns at that - in the last three years. Unfortunately these have been matched by no publicity or promotion whatsoever. Zachary Glickman, Dion's close friend and manager for many years, just seems happy to sit back and hope another 'Yo Frankie' is going to happen.

First out of the hat was 'Bronx Blues' in 1991. To this day it is still only available on import but 1 see it quite regularly in racks at HMV and Virgin, so there must have been a certain amount of anticipated sales after the success of 'Yo Frankie'. This album was a collection of Post 'Runaround Sue' Dion rockers and blues numbers recorded by Columbia between 1963 and 1965, after they picked up his recording contract from Laurie. It's the best of the 'Ruby Baby' and 'Donna The Prima Donna' albums if you like, with all the Las Vegas lounge croony stuff left out, and peaking with alternative versions of 'Two Ton Feather' and 'Kickin' Child'.

As far as fresh material went, Dion contributed songs to two movie soundtracks in 1991: a version of 'Dream lover' was recorded for 'Hot Shots', followed by 'Sea Cruise' for 'Ford Fairlaine'.

In January 1992, Dion performed live on stage for one night at Madison Square Garden, New York with Carlo Mastrangeto and Angelo D'Afeo, two of the original Belmonts, and later in the year toured the United States with The Everly Brothers. Certain efforts were made for him to join them on the British leg of the tour, but to no avail. Instead, in September he was off on the SS Seaward from Miami on a '50s Working Cruise' along with The Platters and Paul Revere & The Raiders. Later that month he was back in his home town of Boca Raton, Florida for the wedding of his eldest daughter, Tane.

The second album of the three, 'Dream On Fire', was released at the tail end of 1992, again only in the USA, but, like the former ' it's readily available in the import racks in this country. Without the help of the celebrity musicians and producers of 'Yo Frankie' and yet another label swap for Dion, he self-produced this 'follow-up'. To be perfectly honest, some would say it does sound like a 'second' album of the old school, if you compare it to 'Yo Frankie'. You'd actually think that five of the ten tracks were from the same session he had back in 1978 when he recorded the superb 'Return Of The Wanderer'; he even reworked (quite well too) 'Guitar Queen' from that album on this one! The outstanding cut on 'Dream On Fire', certainly among the readers of his British fanzine, is 'if i Should Fall Behind', written by Bruce Springsteen for his 'Lucky Town' album. Dion calls on his roots and gives this the accapella treatment in the good ol' New York style. Into 1993 and throughout the Summer he continued to tour with Don and Phil, until September, when he returned to Miami to begin another working cruise around the Carribean, this time with Mary Wilson and Paul Revere.

During that Summer he found time to pop into the recording studio to cut what is still his latest album, 'Rock n Roll Christmas'. Like the previous two, it never saw a UK release and did not even reach the chain store racks. It found our hero on yet another label, this time The Right Stuff, a division of Capitol Records. Two or three mail order companies did, however, see fit to import a few copies in time for Christmas. Those who managed to get hold of a copy found it contained a good party atmosphere with the musicians and singer sounding like they were having a good time. just like the title suggests, the beat throughout is very much rock n roll with plenty doo-wop thrown in along the way.

Significantly, in 1993 EMI Worldwide bought the rights to Laurie Records' back catalogue and promised to release all of Dion's and Dion & The Belmonts' albums in their original format on CD and cassette. As a result of this we recently saw the 1968 'Dion' LP (known usually as the 'Abraham, Martin And John' album) released on CD for the first time. October '93 saw Dion making his television acting debut when he made a guest appearance on 'The John Laroquette Show', an American sitcom.

To get right up to date, Dion has again been touring this Summer, using the backing band The Wanderers - the same guys with whom he recorded the Christmas album - and according to Zachary Glickman they plan to take the tour to Australia in late November and early December for a few shows. Dion is currently working on material for a new album at the moment and has had "considerable" interest from a few labels keen to record the definitive Dion album. We await further developments.