DION and his music will always 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. But Dion is more than a cherished memory. Critic Dave Marsh notes that Dion is the only artist from the 1950’s who has remained creative and relevant into the 2000s. In 1958 he had three top-forty hits. In 2008 he was nominated for a Grammy. In 2020 he released Blues with Friends, accompanied by Joe Bonamassa, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, and many other rock luminaries.In the ’50s he was one of a handful of innovators who defined rock 'n' roll.

R & B, blues, doowop, and that first wave of rock all influenced Dion’s approach to music. But it was Hank Williams, the great country artist, who first sparked his ambitions. Williams’s hard-driving lonesome sound attracted the city boy. By age twelve, Dion had collected fifty of Hank's singles and could sing them by heart. It was his feel for pure country that led to his first professional appearance on Paul Whiteman's radio and television shows, singing Hank’s “Jambalaya.”

In his teen years Dion sang on street corners in the Bronx and then in neighborhood bars. He rounded up other local singers and they made their own a cappella arrangements, imitating instruments with their voices.

In 1957 Dion brought the best of the neighborhood singers together — Freddy Milano, Angelo D'Aleo and Carlo Mastrangelo — to form Dion & The Belmonts, named after Belmont Avenue, in the heart of the Bronx.

“I Wonder Why" was Dion's first hit with The Belmonts, 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 doowop music on the American scene. With songs such as I Wonder Why” “A Teenager In Love” and “Where or When,” Dion & The Belmonts earned their place in the history books. A national sensation, they toured extensively and were featured artists on the fateful Winter Dance Party, the tour that took the lives of Buddy Holly and other musical greats. Dion was, in fact, scheduled to fly in the plane that went down “the day the music died.”

But the great music kept coming. Dion ventured out as a solo artist in 1960, racking up a string of #1 hits. Over an incredible four-year run he cut one classic after another, from the rollicking “Runaround Sue" to the driving "Lovers Who Wander” to the anthemic "The Wanderer.” He quickly rose to the top ranks of recording artists. As the first rocker ever signed to Columbia Records, he continued his streak with such smashes as “Ruby Baby,” “Donna the Prima Donna,” and “Drip Drop.”

He kept growing artistically. When he wasn’t in the recording studio, he sought out the backstreet bars where he could take in roots music, the blues, and the folk scene

In 1968, Dion shot to the top of the charts once again with “Abraham, Martin, and John,” a song that was as much an anthem for that era as his early hits had been in theirs. What followed was a string of acclaimed LPs.

Dion’s early interest in roots music came to the fore in his recordings in the 1970s. He turned increasingly to folk blues and Gospel, again earning a reputation as an innovator.

He also recorded a series of albums that reflected his renewed faith in God. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1985 and won Contemporary Christian Music’s coveted Dove Award.

In 1989 Dion was voted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. One of the earliest honorees, he was inducted immediately after the Beatles and Bob Dylan, on the same ticket as the Rolling Stones and Otis Redding.

That same year Dion released his album Yo Frankie, which included appearances by Paul Simon, Lou Reed, Bryan Adams, and Dave Edmunds. The single “The Night Stood Still,” recorded with Patty Smyth, was a hit video on the still-new MTV.

In six decades he has never stopped writing, recording, or performing new music. In 2000’s Déjà Nu he found new stylings for roots-rock sounds. His 2006 release, Bronx in Blue, won him another Grammy nomination.

He recorded the 2016 single, “New York Is My Home,” with Paul Simon as a tribute to the hometown they share. In the years that followed, the song — which was the title track for Dion’s album — garnered airplay and social-media notice. It was used as a musical theme in television dramas and on fashion runways.

Dion has published two memoirs, The Wanderer (William Morrow, 1988) with Davin Seay, and DION: The Wanderer Talks Truth (Servant, 2011) with Mike Aquilina.

The Wanderer, a musical based on Dion’s life is world premiering next year at the Tony Award winning Paper Mill Playhouse on April 8th, 2021. They tell a story of transformation end personal redemption

His voice is unmistakable. His music is original and entirely his own. His story is more relevant than ever.