Artists:Dion
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DION and his music represent a special time and place. . . a moment when a song could mean so much and a singer could sum up what it means to be young, in love and on top of the world.
Dion, street poet and singer of extraordinary versatility, range and resonance defined Rock 'n' Roll for a generation.
That mastery began at a very early age on the mean streets of the Bronx, New York. It was in the bars and on the street corners of his Bronx neighborhood that Dion's musical skill and style really began. R & B, blues, doo-wop and rock 'n' roll all influenced his approach to music, but it was country's great singer songwriter Hank Williams who first sparked Dion's singing ambitions. Whatever the reason, Williams' hard driving lonesome sound attracted the city boy. By age twelve, Dion had collected seventy of Hank's singles and could sing as many by heart.
Dion's natural affinities and abilities were further honed on the stoops and on the street corners of Cartona Avenue, where he rounded up other local singers, inventing acapella licks. Then in 1957 he brought the best of the neighborhood rockers together to form Dion & The Belmonts, named after Belmont Avenue, in the heart of the Bronx.
"I Wonder Why" was Dion & The Belmonts first hit and over the next two years the group earned a reputation not only for topping the charts but for creating some of the most vital and exciting doo-wop music on the American scene. With songs such as " A Teenager In Love" and "Where or When," Dion and The Belmonts earned their place in the history books, while the group's pioneering role in the development of rock 'n' roll underscored their enduring accomplishments. A national sensation, they toured extensively and were co-headliners on the star-crossed winter Dance Party, the tour that took the lives of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. Dion was, in fact, scheduled to fly in the fateful plane that went down "the day the music died."
But the vitality of the music lived on when Dion, venturing out as a solo artist in 1960, racked up a string of #1 hits that many still consider to be the best of that, or any other era. Dion cut one quintessential rock classis after another, from the rocker "Runaround Sue" to the driving "lovers Who Wander" to the anthemic "The Wanderer" - it was an unparalleled musical feat that elevated him to the top ranks of recording artists. As the first rock and roll artist ever signed to Columbia Records, he continued his streak with such smashes as "Ruby Baby," "Donna the Prima Donna" and "Drip Drop."
--From his website
Dion DiMucci, better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter born July 18, 1939, in the Bronx borough of New York City. His career in popular music began in the 1950s with his group Dion & the Belmonts (named after his northern Bronx neighborhood, Belmont). He went solo in the early 1960s and continued to have hits with songs like "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer" and "Ruby Baby" until 1964, when changing public tastes and heroin addiction caused him to enter a commercial decline. Nevertheless Dion, along with Bob Dylan, was the only pop artist to be featured on the album cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967).
During the mid-1960s, he struggled with his addictions and recorded songs in a folk-rock vein. After getting clean from drug use (he has remained so ever since, except for a brief period in the mid-1970s), he switched to protest songs in the late 1960s. Perhaps his best-known song as a soloist, "Abraham, Martin & John" (1968), was a response to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy during the summer of 1968. Dion continued to record protest songs into the 1970s.
His album Born To Be With You, produced by Phil Spector and released in 1975, was a commercial failure, but has been cited by Jason Pierce of Spiritualized as a major influence on Spiritualized's work. Pete Townshend of The Who has also praised the album.
In the late 1970s, Dion recorded albums in a contemporary Christian music vein; he is today a devout Roman Catholic. In the 1980s and 1990s, he returned to secular pop music. His Déjà Nu album found him covering Bruce Springsteen, a major follower over the years. In January 2006 he released Bronx in Blue, an album of blues and country standards, to critical acclaim.
In 1988, Dion's autobiography (co-authored by Davin Seay), titled The Wanderer: Dion's Story, was published by Quill. Dion was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The induction speech was given by Lou Reed.
--From Wikipedia.
External links
| Dion on MySpace |
| Dion on Wikipedia |
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This artist lives in New York. |
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The gender of this artist/group is male. |
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Artist name is|Dion Last played| more than 1 month ago ---------------------------------------- Show name| Songs by Dion Length| 15 minutes Order by| random Limit| 3 songs ----------------------------------------
Stats
- Spotlighted: Monday, August 11th 2008
- Songs on WWR: 14
- Total plays: 254
- Total requests: 208
- Total listens: 7248
- CDBaby referrals: 0
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