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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!)..

Miscellaneous UK Press Articles

Shannon. Brown, Dion show-stoppers. By ANDY GRAY

However, Joe had a great advantage-he had his own backing group. Both Del and Dion had to " conduct " the show's British backing combo, the New York Twisters (a new Yorkshire group ?) and Del had to stop them and start again on his opening number. In their solo offerings these boys were terrific, but accompaniment on opening night was another thing.

No doubt about it, Del had the girls screaming with his fantastic version of Roy Orbison's " Crying," and he followed this up with " Runaway " to go off to tremendous applause that begged for more.it was obvious that he was deeply touched by his terrific ovation and said later: " Weren't they wonderful ? 1 was overwhelmed."

Del, often going into falsetto range, started -, with "So Long Baby," followed with " Hey Little Girl " and then played his own guitar-and what power he has with it-for " Cry Myself TO Sleep, following with 1' Hats Off To Larry." Every number got big applause, but then came his phenomenal "Crying" and the crowd went mad

A big, big hit for a Performer who looks so shy and grateful.

Closing the show was Dion , _in a shiney black suit that makes hi Pencil slim. He danced elegan around as he sang and put plenty of power into his delivery, but was obviously having trouble with the group behind, who couldn't get the.beat with him. However, he got just acclaim for such numbers as " Teenager In Love," " Lit Diane. " an energetic "Stagger Le -but it wasn't -until his final number " Runaround Sue," that really took over the crowd, and left them happy on that note.

Brush-toped Joe Brown was easily the most polished and easy going artist in the show. In scar jacket and with his brass-adorn guitar strap round his shoulder, packed his act with good singing and really funny comedy....

Sheldon's cover -of Run-around Sue gives Dion -a surprise

1 didn't know anyone over here had recorded it," he said, "so 1 haven't heard his version yet. 1 wrote the number myself," he went on, "and the funny thing is that 1 used to go with a girl called Sue, but she wasn't in mind when 1 wrote the number.

In fact she was a very faithful girl, but when she moved to Miami we lost sight of each other."

As a current top American singing attraction Dion (real name Dion DiMucci) began his career as an entertainer at the age of 11 with Paul Whiteman's band. His successful vocal group,- The Belmonts, were a group of teenagers who grew up with Dion in New York's Bronx area. They're a great bunch of guys," said, Dion, "and on the road we had a great deal of fun. 1 left them because we felt we should all go our own ways, and although 1 miss them it's worked out well. I've improved as a person since I've been working solo and we're all still very good friends." He looked at me soberly and continued: " You know, 1 consider myself very lucky in being able to do a job 1 enjoy and in being able to Visit places like England. Because most of the kids 1 kicked around with in the Bronx would never have dreamed that any of us would visit England. 1 guess 1 have a lot -to he thankful for."

As a group Dion and the Belmonts had-their share of hits in America with numbers like, Teenage In Love," " I wonder Why," " Where Or, When ', and " No One Knows " * before Dion branched out as a solo artist.

One regret

Dion, who lives with his parents, and two younger sisters in New York, travels a great deal, during the year in package shows. and during his travels has picked up a high regard for British artists.

When 1 was with your Jill Haworth , (the young star of " Exodus') she had a pile of records by English artists and we used to play them a lot." Although he's toured a lot and worked with some top artists, Dion has one regret : "I've never yet met or worked with Elvis, although he's a person 1 admire greatly."

BRIAN GIBSON

Dion From Folk Idol to Poet

Melody Maker 7Aug 1971

THE NEW York subway rattled to a halt at a Bronx station. Four young men climbed aboard, sat down, pulled copies of sheet music from their pockets and started to harmonise a current hit.

This was an early introduction to the public of the vocal style of Dion and The Belmonts. The ,BeImonts have a natural aptitude for music and a special feeling for each song. Handsome, curly haired Dion, 19, leader of the group . . . " (E.M.I. press release, August 1960).

Like most people in their mid-twenties with an interest in rock music 1 grew up with Dion and I feel kind of proprietary about him. Ruby Baby " to me goes hand in hand with adolescent masturbation, Clearsil, Silvikrined quiffs (but definitely post-Brylcreem), and hanging around on the corner under the dim light of the gas lamp watching the progress of a scrap (Okay, it wasn't the Bronx but it was home).

The early sixties, that period which ended with the emergence of the Beatles (and the combed-forward hairstyle, don't forget) can he looked on, in terms of rock geography, as a stagnant pool. The only people worth listening to were The Miracles, Del Shannon and Dion. E1 had got the GI blues, Buddy had bought his, Jerry Lee and Chuck were in disfavour, and R. Penniman was swinging the in sense.

No, it had to be Dion out of the Americans, and if we were going to be chauvinistic there was only Johnny Kidd who made it at all this side of the water. Rernember " Runaround Sue," Donna The Prima Donna (one of Dion's two sisters was called Donna, you know), " Little Diane," " Sandy ' It was like flipping through your dating book. Then there was that poignant summation of self pity, "The Wanderer." all tight pants, winkle pickers and slouching moodily past the penny arcade at the .fair. Boy, does that bring back the smell of candy floss and doughnuts' And then, of course, the Fab Four came along and we all , started to say "y'no" and "grotty". and Hello Goodbye." The Beatles were to say it all later on.

1 have to admit right now that 1 never thought he would come back; most of 'em don't, you have to agree (whatever happened, for instance, to Doug Sheldon who covered " Runaround Sue "?). Probably Dion, in his heart of hearts, might own up now to a feeling of slight disbelief at it all. He faded after 1963 for several reasons. Most obviously his style - the doo wop chorus, the claps, the subway harmonies behind his plaintive, slurred tenor became infra dig when the rock scene went a la mod.

When "Abrah,am, Martin and John " came out in 1968 and became such a. big hit it was a surprise, though not an altogether pleasant one. True it was on the Laurie label again (in the States), but there was none of that racy tension and acapella streetcorner feel to it. What was it? it was.a bunch of platitudinous, sick-making crap that cashed in on American sentiment (Dick Holler wrote it and may God forgive him). It wasn't even funny like "Tell Laura 1 Love Her."

Dion himself says of it .At first 1 thought it was out of my backyard I liked it, 1 gotta admit but I didn't think it was for me; 1 didn't think 1 could make it mine. I just thought it was like a song trying to cash in 0n the guys, deaths, but when 1 listened and got the lyrics, 1 realised it wasn't just-about death, 'that it had to do with now. 1 thought it was simply about assassination ' but it has to do with life.

Well, all right, but it ~Was the record that put him back on the Top 40.

,During his five years in the wilderness, however his approach to music had altered drastically' Early on in the sixties he had wanted to hit Vegas and the night club scene ( 1 want - to be an all round entertainer -) but around the time he was slipping, from sight he had become hung up on the blues.

1 had a few groups and 1 was working in .places and listening to music 1 hadn't listened to before. Then 1 met John Hammond and he said 'Hey, I know You got a thing for the blues' - he mentioned 'Ruby Baby' -and he said, 1 listen to some of these.' And he played me some Leroy Carr and Robert Johnson, and that really screwed *me up 'as far as that scene I'd been moving in was concerned. I realised I'd been just on the surface before - you know? - and this music gave me more meaning. Anyway, I got myself a guitar and a few picks and just started strumming a few chords ' "

Eventually he moved out with his wife Susan to Miami (where most of his last album, You're Not Alone," was recorded - at Criteria Studios, which Stills and Aretha use). He did an album for Laurie called simply " Dion " which was folk rock tarted up with strings.

And then he cut " Sit Down Old Friend." Made last year at United Recording Studios in Hollywood, it offers the best example of his current musical approach. it's white country blues; relaxed, melismatic, and somehow for me touching because it represents a goal grasped at and finally attained. But this is not just an appeal to sentiment and nostalgia.

The songs, mostly written by himself, have a true sensitivity born out of pain ; the guitar work acoustic, of course and always subsidiary ' to the vocals) - is impeccable, and his voice, though pitched lower than in the old days, still has that elasticity and beautiful whinnying tremolo.

"You're Not Alone" 1 don't like quite as much. It"s less open, more elaborate, and the album overall has a "produced" feel about it. But it still makes it for me. One track, indeed, " The Stuff 1 Got," is pure 1961 Dion; a fast tempo overlaid with that deceptively lazy vocal.

Dion is, in short, an artist who has got his second wind, and it's not so much a reincarnation as a transformation. He seems to have come good, moreover, at a time when other artists from his era, like Brian Hyland and Ricky Nelson, are climbing back to favour. It proves that the good don't necessarily die young.

Ruby and Sue and Donna are, of course, in the Past, but he's still got a good word to say for them and those times. " 1 liked the music, I dug it, 1 was havin fun with it. It moves, the sounds were different, and 1 always experimented in the studios."

He is genuinely fond of that bastardised acapella approach he popularised. " The way I used to approach it was to think of all my friends banging on cans in the park with a few bottles of beer. We'd get something going for maybe three hours in the park or on the street corner, and 1 used to think, 'If it's good enough for the corner it's ,good enough for the record.'I tried to capture that sound in the studio, but of course 1 never did."

The Belmonts, of course, he has left way behind. They are probably not too far from Belmont Avenue in the Bronx right now. Carlo Mastrangelo is a jazz drummer, Fred Milano is in some obscure group, and Angelo d'Aleo, who had that beautiful 1 countertenor, works now in a hospital. Dion has had his downers but he's made it, after all. His philosophy? " If it's honest its good. When everyone's tryin to be honest you don't have to be uptight, and the scene is more honest now than it was. The photographer takes a picture and if you look a mess when he did it, well, you look a mess."

The other day 1 met Dion, who was in Britain for the Lincoln Festival. He wears glasses now, and his hair, which is moderately long, is receding a little at the front. He's very amiable, if a little abstracted. All the tirne 1 was thinking, though what happened to those kids who, played on the street corner?