Ten Facts About And Twenty Songs By Dion

Ten Facts About Dion:
1. In 1957 Dion was signed to Gene and Bob Schwartz’s Mohawk Records. The Schwartz brothers soon took Dion and his backing group The Belmonts to their new label, Laurie Records. I am not related to the Schwartz brothers. Not those Schwartz brothers, anyway.
2. Including his hits with The Belmonts, Dion has hit the US top forty 21 times.
3. In 1959 Dion & the Belmonts were part of the Winter Dance Party Tour. After a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa, some of the acts on the tour chartered a plane to take them to the next tour stop. Dion didn’t want to pay the $36 the flight cost so he traveled by bus. That plane crashed, killing everyone aboard – Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and the pilot.
4. His hit “Runaround Sue,” which he co-wrote with Eddie Maresca, is about a real girl named Roberta.
5. “Runaround Sue” knocked Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack” for #1 on the pop chart in October 1961.
6. Dion married a woman named Sue, who likes to tell people “Runaround Sue” is about her.
7. The follow-up single to “Runaround Sue” was “The Majestic,” but the single’s b-side got more attention. That song, “The Wanderer,” peaked at #2.
8. Two rock artists appear on the cover of The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Bob Dylan and Dion.
9. In 1975 Phil Spector produced an album for Dion. It was withdrawn by the producer shortly after its release, to be reissued a year later only in the UK.
10. Dion was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

BONUS: Dion Francis DiMucci was born on July 18, 1939 in The Bronx, New York. Here are twenty career highlights.

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