Only a limited number of music artists could be universally recognized by their first name. In Las Vegas, everyone knew it was Elvis Presley when the  International Hotel simply installed E-L-V-I-S on their huge marquee.

Cher is another who comes to mind.

So goes the story of Dion DiMucci, of Dion and the Belmonts fame back in the heyday of Dick Clark’s American Bandstand with such artists as Chubby Checker, Bobby Darin, Leslie Gore, Sonny James, Tommy James, Brenda Lee, Peggy Lee, Little Eva, Little Richard, Little Anthony, and Little River Band.

Dion is only one of two American musicians featured on the ground-breaking, pop-psychedelic cover of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album (Bob Dylan was the other). In music history, trivia and lore, this acknowledges the influence two of America’s greatest voices had on the Beatles’ music and the British Invasion of the 1960s.

Dion has been making music for over six decades, producing over 40 albums in a wide variety of genres. He has recorded many million-seller hits and has sold 28 million albums worldwide. Dion has been nominated multiple times for Grammy Awards, including a nomination for his gospel album “I Put Away My Idols” and for his blues album “Bronx in Blue.” In 1989, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

While many artists continue to make a living performing their original songs from back in the day, Dion endures and pursues new music. 

You don’t have to go through the trouble of making new music—because it is a lot of trouble. You can just show up and sing the old hits, and you’ll get what you want out of them. But it’s different if you think your art is not for you.

If you believe your art glorifies God, you’re going to keep doing it as long as you can still breathe.

When I make music, I feel like I’m crazy King David dancing before the Ark of the Covenant, singing a new song just because I’m still newly in love, or belting out the blues as a psalm of lament. As long as I can still breathe, I hope to be newly in love with the God who made me. He always gives me something to sing about.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Dion’s grandfather would take him to the opera performances where he heard such classics as “La Traviata,” “La Bohème” and “Turandot.” He tells stories of his 7-year-old self standing on a chair at family gatherings to sing the heartbreaking aria “Nessun Dorma” to a captive audience of adult listeners.

Dion, age 10, first heard Hank Williams on the radio and shortly thereafter received his first guitar from his parents.

Despite growing up in New York amid all sorts of musical variety, listening to the radio gave him access to artists and kinds of music he had never heard before. It opened up a new world for him and gave to the young Dion, in his own words, “a first taste of transcendence and a hint of salvation.”

Dion would pursue his passion for music, forming the group Dion & the Belmonts in 1958, thereby putting his stamp on the music he would contribute to American culture.

Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, A Teenager in Love,  Lovers Who Wander, Donna the Prima Donna and Abrahama, Martin & John are some of my favorites.

On Feb. 3, 1959, a day immortalized by Don McLean in his 1971 classic “American Pie” as “the day the music died,” Dion was supposed to board the single-engine plane that would tragically crash, killing all on board, including Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. As Dion tells the story, he chose to ride on the tour bus with the rest of the band to avoid paying $36 for his plane seat, the exact amount that his parents struggled and saved to pay for the monthly rent on their Bronx apartment. 

Dion found success early, perfecting the doo-wop sound that American audiences loved. In the course of his long career, he would branch out into many musical genres, including classic rock ’n’ roll, gospel, folk music and, perhaps most compellingly, the blues—a genre he describes as “the naked cry of the human heart longing to be in union with God.”

In the coming months, a new musical will be opening on Broadway about Dion’s life, titled “The Wanderer.” A tale of transformation and redemption, the play tells his story and also demonstrates the ways in which music and the arts can save a person’s soul.

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IN GOD WE TRUST

Loralyn ‘Dodie’ & Jack Dennis

Thanks for supporting independent true journalism with a small tip. Dodie & Jack

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