Transcript (Dion DiMucci) Inducted in 1989 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Dion
b. 1939 (Dion DiMucci)
Inducted in 1989
• Raised in Little Italy in the Bronx
• Influenced by R&B and doo-wop
• Formed Dion and the Belmonts in
1957
• Viewed as a pioneer of rock and roll
attitude
The Wanderer
(1961)
Vocal Harmony
• Two or more different pitches (or notes) that
sound simultaneously in patterns to accompany
the melody (tune)
• In “The Wanderer” Dion’s backup singers
harmonize with his melody
Dion and the Belmonts, 1960
Rock and Roll and Urban
Communities
“In my neighborhood, you always had to be cool… you could
never… look, at that time, a lot of my friends were dyin’
around me, you know, zip guns, drugs, car crashes, and at
that time I didn’t know how to handle that. There were two
faces you had to have… your public and private, and I’m
talking about those tender breakaway years—13, 14. Well,
my music got me through a lot of that […].”
-Dion, 1976
Second Wave of Rock and Roll
• The plane crash that killed Buddy
Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big
Bopper in 1959 is often viewed as
the end of the first wave of rock
• Golden age of rock in the United
States begins with the British
Invasion
• The Beatles performed in the US for
the first time in 1964