ALBUM BY ALBUM

He’s a rebel: the great American singersongwriter relives his long musical trip

DION DiMucci has followed his muse to some unexpected musical destinations –from doo-wop to folk, gospel, Christian music and the blues –but he couldn’t have done it without Hank Williams. “He took me to aplace of enchantment and Ihave never been the same since,” says Dion. “That took me right out the Bronx and into a place that didn’t exist on this plane. My whole existence since then has been to capture that and transmit it to others. That’s what I’ve been doing all these years, trying to take people on atrip.”

And what atrip it has been. Across eight decades, Dion has toured with Buddy Holly and Sam Cooke, recorded with Phil Spector and inspired a legion of fans including Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen.

According to Bob Dylan, “Dion knows how to sing.” Afitting compliment, considering Dion began his career with vocal group the Belmonts, with whom he recorded the classic “A Teenager In Love”. After going solo he struck gold with “Runaway Sue” and “The Wanderer” before moving into other styles and genres. His current love is the blues. His latest album is Girl Friends, recorded with female artists including Carlene Carter and Susan Tedeschi and imbued with the same indomitable spirit that has driven his work since his earliest days. “Darlene Love wrote the liner notes for my new album,” he reveals. “She said, ‘Dion, when I did “He’s ARebel” we were singing about you’.”

PETER WATTS

Dion & The Belmonts: “I hearalot of innocence”

DION &THE BELMONTS PRESENTING DION & THE BELMONTS

LAURIE, 1959

Bronx teenager Dion teams up with the Belmonts to produce a hit-packed debut, including “A Teenager In Love” and “Where Or When”. DION: This first album was convoluted. There were alot of people in the room and each one would ask us to record one song in return for something. It became amishmash of songs; some I like and some I did for favours for others. The owner of the record company loved “Where Or When”. I wasn’t crazy for it but we put that together. Before that came “Teenager In Love”. The Belmonts came up with those smooth background vocals and I just felt like Iwas sitting on it and kind of gliding. “I Wonder Why” was the first song we really put together ourselves, an instinctive moment in my life and amajor moment because it was the first time Angelo [D’Aleo], Carlo [Mastrangelo], Freddie [Milano] and myself got together in aroom and came up with these very distinctive ideas for this song. Basically, we wanted to sound like the horns at the Apollo theatre. When I listen back to my early stuff, I hear alot of innocence, but I don’t sound like that any more. I like melodic stuff, but Iam so blues-based. I define the blues as the naked cry of the human heart longing to be in union with God and it was always the foundation of everything I did.