Dion DiMuccis "lost album"
Last edited Fri May 26, 2017, 09:46 PM - Edit history (2)
May 26, 2017
Earlier this month, one of my all-time favorite rock & rollers, Dion DiMucci, released an album called "Kickin' Child:The Lost Album 1965"
The 15 songs on the album were recorded during Dion's time at Columbia Records in sessions that started in the spring of 1965 and intensified during September and October with a group called The Wanderers, which included The Belmonts' drummer, Carlo Mastrangelo.
Columbia didn't release the full album but put out a few songs, including the title track, as singles.
Dion, now 77, tells "Billboard" that hearing the full album again recently eased a lot of feelings about it being passed over by the label.
"I just forgot about this album," Dion says.
"There were a lot of bad relationships that got very convoluted up at Columbia with me - what they expected from me."
The frustration led him to leave the label.
"I left Columbia in the mid '60s...I had a guaranteed contract for like $100,000 a year...And I just let it go...And I wasn't a rich man," he says.
"There were a lot of bad vibes around the whole thing."
Fast forward to 2017.
Dion is listening to a finished copy of the album and says hearing it again made all the bad feelings go away.
"I'm coming across Alligator Alley about three, four weeks ago, and Rob Santos,
(V.P. for A & R for Sony Music and Legacy Recordings) sent me a mastered copy of the album and I'm listening to it on my way home...And it just seemed to lift..
The cloud lifted and I heard the music," he said.
"I had (previously) heard it as a very negative kind of thing...I put it in kind of a box."
But all that changed.
"I'll be honest with you...I was really appreciating it...The cloud lifted like vapor.
It just lifted right out of my head...And I heard the music loud and clear like it was present to me...It wasn't a novelty...It was rich...It was artistic...It was heartfelt..
It was live...It was the real deal...And I said, 'Man this stuff is good.'
And I was proud of it."
More:
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7728696/dion-talks-lost-1965-album-his-decision-to-release-it-52-years-later-exclusive
DION PAYS HOMAGE TO GUITAR ROCK GIANTS
(From transcript of 11/4/2008 Fresh Air interview)
TERRY GROSS:
This is Fresh Air..I'm Terry Gross...Fans who love Dion's hits from the '50s & '60s like "The Wanderer," "Runaround Sue," and "Teenager in Love," were surprised to hear his two recent albums paying tribute to the blues musicians that influenced him...Now, Dion has a new CD called "Heroes: Giants of Early Guitar Rock"
It pays tribute to some of his contemporaries, most of them are no longer with us, people like Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Roy Orbison, and Gene Vincent.
Dion, welcome back to Fresh Air..It's really great to have you back.
Did you know Eddie Cochran?
DION:
I did...He and I played the Palace Theater on 46th Street & Broadway back in his heyday...It was, you know, the late '50s and (he was a) great looking guy...
He wore this tan suit, had this orange guitar, you know, that Chet Atkins Gretsch guitar with the whammy bar on it that Bixby invented in the '50s...And he'd come out, man, take that stance and get it on, you know?...He was like, he was a little guy, was about five-foot-two."
Listen to complete 11/4/2008 Fresh Air interview, including Dion playing several of his songs on acoustic guitar:
(Sorry, I was unable to post a link to this great 2008 Fresh Air interview with
Dion DiMucci...If someone else has a newer, faster computer than I do, please post the link in a reply)
Meanwhile, you can hear the entire 2008 Fresh Air interview with Dion by doing a Google search of "Dion Pays Homage To Guitar-Rock Giants: NPR"
Re; Dion and The Belmonts
"As Dion & The Belmonts' songs rose nationally, they began touring in the U.S. beginning in 1958.
On one tour in early 1959, they were part of the "Winter Dance Party" featuring
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.
On February 2, 1959, after playing the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa,
Buddy Holly had arranged to charter a plane to fly the performers to their next gig.
Dion, however, decided not to ride with the group because of the expense.
Shortly after midnight, however, on February 3rd, 1959, the plane carrying the other members of the tour crashed not far from Clear lake, Iowa, killing Holly, Valens, the Big Bopper and the pilot.
Dion's autobiography is called:
"The Wanderer: Dion's Story" by Dion with Davin Seay DiMucci
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/dion-with-davin-seay-dimucci/the-wanderer-dions-story/
= new reply since forum marked as read
...that was a rough time for record labels and big recording stars. The ground that shifted the pre-Elvis stars out of style shifted again... but we can still look back at all their good music!
