Dion and His Roots in “Vaudeville”

All hail Dion (Dion Francis DiMucci, b. 1939)!

I’d inevitably have written an appreciation of this great idol of the interregnum between Elvis and the Beatles anyway, but certain news came to my attention that made further delay out of the question. As it is commonly given in most articles: “Dion’s father was in vaudeville and he toured with his dad.” The factoid is misleading though. His dad, Pasquale DiMucci may well have been in vaudeville per se in earlier years, but by the time Dion came along the circuits were long gone. When one learns that Pasquale was a puppeteer though, it all falls into place. Puppetry can be described as a characteristically vaudevillian genre of entertainment, and there were no doubt still bookings to be had for traditional Italian puppet performances at caffe concertos, social clubs, and the like in the ’40s and ’50s. Dion has described his father as a bit of a dreamer, who whiled away as much time making his puppets as he did performing.

Dion himself started out as a stoop singer in the Bronx when doo wop was popular. As a solo artist and with his early group The Belmonts, Dion had over three dozen top 40 hits between 1958 and 1963, making him something of a chart phenomenon. His well remembered (and oft resurrected) hits included “I Wonder Why” (#22), “A Teenager in Love” (#5), “Where or When” (#3), “Runaround Sue” (#1), “The Wanderer” (#2), “Lovers Who Wander” (#3), “Ruby Baby” (#2), “Donna the Prima Donna” (#6), and about another 30 tunes.

And naturally Dion (with and without the Belmonts) appeared on a lot of TV variety shows during those years, including The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, The Dick Clark Show, Ready Steady Go, and others. He also appeared in three films: Teenage Millionaire (1961), Twist Around the Clock (1962), and Ten Girls Ago (1962). The latter, a TV movie, is especially notable not only because Dion was the actual star, but because it also featured Buster Keaton, Bert Lahr, and Eddie Foy Jr as old vaudevillians seeking Dion’s help to get back into show business. Yipes! It also featured Jan Miner (Madge from the Palmolive commercials), Jennifer Billingsley (later of Lady in a Cage) as a chick named “Dollina”, and child star Babette Bain. Boy, I hope this still exists somewhere!

Tellingly Dion’s streak of hits stopped abruptly in 1964, and that is of course the year of the British invasion. Dion’s initial tactic for adjusting to changed conditions was sensible and moderately successful. Like a lot of the British groups at the time in ’64, he released covers of rock and blues classics: Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”, the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”, and the Willie Dixon penned Muddy Waters hit “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” and these all made the Top 100 or got withing hailing distance. But by ’65 he’d slipped off the charts completely.

By 1968, Dion had reinvented himself as a folk singer, and that’s when he had his #4 surprise comeback hit “Abraham, Martin, and John”, which mourned the loss of the decade’s three major political leaders to assassinations. Not to be crass, but it’s still a sure fire tearjerker, at least among those of us who care. Dion hit the Top 100 a few more times through 1971, then was at sea again.

He got another burst of attention in the mid ’70s with the ’50s nostalgia craze stirred up by Happy Days, and this is when your correspondent caught him on a lot of TV variety programs like Sha Na Na,The Bobby Vinton Show, American Bandstand,Cher, Merv,Mike Douglasetc. In 1975 he had released an album called Born to Be With You that was produced by Phil Spector (the same period Spector produced John Lennon’sRock and Roll LP) and he was no doubt promoting this new album at the time, though it didn’t score on the charts.

In ensuing decades Dion continued to be hugely productive and successful in a niche way by focusing on different music genres. Like Bob Dylan he had a Christian phase in the 1980s. In 1989 he released a comeback album Yo Frankie, with contributions by Paul Simon,Lou Reed, k.d. lang, Bryan Adams, et al. He then went on to turn out several critically acclaimed blues albums over the ensuing decades. At this writing, he’s still very much cooking — his most recent record came out just a couple of years ago.

For more about vaudevilleconsult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.