Dion discusses new female duets album, ‘70s and ‘80s records

On pages 16 through 22 of our new Goldmine Spring 2024 print issue, Chris M. Junior looks back at Dion’s music of the ‘50s and ‘60s prior to his discussion with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee on his new duets album Girl Friends, released on blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa’s Keeping the Blues Alive Records. In this article, we continue the chronology, reflecting on ‘70s and ‘80s music, including a flip side, before sampling five songs from Dion’s new collection.

GOLDMINE: On page 19 of our current Goldmine Spring 2024 issue, there is a photo of you from your 1978 tour, which my wife Donna and I enjoyed in Cleveland. That is when you released the album Return of the Wanderer. The opening song, “Heart of Saturday Night,” was being used that year as the theme song for Ted Alexander’s Saturday night oldies show on WBBG 1260 AM. The album also included the single “Midtown American Main Street Gang.”

DION DiMUCCI: I had a great time putting that album together and co-writing most of the songs. “Midtown American Main Street Gang” was a lot of fun. I grew up in a time when you made a two-and-a-half or a three-minute record, but when we played those songs on the tour bus with Buddy Holly and the guys, we played six-minute renditions with guitar solos. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, those long guitar solos made it to the records, which I loved. Doo-wop was still popular as the ‘60s began but electric guitars forced their way into the forefront of that era. It was fun following that path with this six-minute album cut, which was shortened to four minutes for the single. I had a lot of fun writing about growing up and how you were part of a gang of friends, and then one guy finds a girl, then another guy goes to the Army, another guy opens a business, and how the gang splits up due to these different pursuits. 

GM: You put a lot of emotion into “(I Used to be a) Brooklyn Dodger.”

DD: I put myself in that scene because they had torn down Ebbets Field and there were guys in my neighborhood upset because they were such Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson fans. I was into the Yankees, but there were certainly some heavy Brooklyn Dodgers fans. It was just a good metaphor to jump on. I love that song.

GM: Congratulations on your American Music Honors award last month where, in addition to “The Wanderer” and “Abraham, Martin and John,” you performed a song that reminded me of “Midtown American Main Street Gang” in theme, the opening song on your 1989 album Yo Frankie, “King of the New York Streets.”

DD: I write over-the-top songs like this, and I call it bragging rights, singing, “I’m the king of the New York streets.” At the American Music Honors event I was thrilled to finally meet Mavis Staples.

GM: I bought Yo Frankie after hearing a song from it on Kid Leo’s afternoon drive time FM radio show on WMMS in Cleveland in 1989. Last year, Hozak Books published The White Label Promo Preservation Society Vol. 2, where different music authors wrote about lesser-known albums worth checking out. I wrote a chapter on Jay & the Americans’ Capture the Moment and Mitchell Cohen ended the book with a behind the scenes look at Yo Frankie.

DD: I was very grateful that I was able to make that album. I got a call from Cousin Brucie asking me to do a show at Radio City Music Hall. I wasn’t singing my hits at the time. I hadn’t been on the road, but he was an old friend and I said, “I’ll do it for you Brucie.” The two nights of shows sold out in a couple of hours. I did the show and had such a good time. Darlene Love was there along with Phoebe Snow, Steven Van Zandt, Paul Shaffer, and a big band. It was just a lot of fun and a great reunion show for me. Mitchell Cohen, Roy Lott, and Clive Davis were in the audience. They wrote me a note and asked me if I would be interested in coming to Arista. I said, “I’d love to.” Clive is such a visionary and an organizer. He suggested Dave Edmunds as a producer. I love his solo work and his work as a member of Rockpile. I thought it would be fun to hang out with Dave. He came over, I sang him a bunch of songs and he liked all of them. We went to a studio on 57th Street where Lou Reed was recording the song “Dirty Blvd” downstairs for his album New York, and I sang on it. We all had a good time. Chuck Leavell was there on piano. Terry Stewart was on drums. Phil Chen was on bass. Dave was on guitar. There were some great guys in the studio, just a great rock and roll band. “Always in the Rain” was one of my favorites. I loved writing that song and singing it. I remember that album with great fondness. Even in my recent shows, I still pull up songs from that album.

GM: You mentioned Darlene Love, well “Always in the Rain” reminds me of a record she would make with Phil Spector. Another key musician on Yo Frankie is Jim Horn, with a wonderful saxophone solo on “Tower of Love,” one of my many favorites on the album, and used as the flip side for the single “And the Night Stood Still.”

DD: Oh my god, I haven’t thought about that song for decades and haven’t sung it since I recorded it. “Tower of Love” is a sexy song that is poetic with symbolism versus being explicit. It is a song celebrating male and female attraction. I have been married 61 years. When I first saw my wife Susan, I couldn’t think of anything else. She was on my mind constantly. That theme of love continues with every album at different angles. I wish I had met you before I put the songs together for the Girl Friends album because that flip side you have chosen to highlight would fit perfectly in the new collection. Thank you for reminding me of this song.

Dion

Fabulous Flip Side: Tower of Love

A side: And the Night Stood Still

Billboard Hot 100 debut: August 5, 1989

Peak position: No. 75

Arista AS1-9797

GM: The flip side of 1978’s “Midtown American Main Street Gang” was “Guitar Queen.” You open your new album Girl Friends with a real-life guitar queen, fellow Floridian Susan Tedeschi.

DD: Susan and I both regret that she didn’t sing on it, but she said she would do something in the future. I love the way she plays guitar and I love the way she sings. She is a great artist, and I was just very humbled to play with her. She was just delightful to be with and to work with. She is so down to earth. I called her to work on a song and she asked, “Can I Facetime you? I want to show you these deer that are coming up to the porch in my backyard.” That’s what we watched and talked about for thirty to forty minutes before we talked about music.

GM: Speaking about singing, Maggie Rose, who I met here in Daytona Beach in 2017 and am now interviewing her about her wonderful new album No One Gets Out Alive, has such a beautiful voice. She comes through so nicely on “I Got Wise.” All the triple rhymes in that song is creatively great.

DD: Sometimes you sit around the house and a melody just falls out of the sky into your head, and with “I Got Wise,” it was just one of those days. I met Maggie on the Joe Bonamassa Blues Cruise. I was walking through the atrium and heard her distinctive voice. I asked, “Who is that?” It stopped me in my tracks. I stayed, watched the rest of her set, and asked her to be on my album. I enjoyed her voice so much on “I Got Wise” that I had her sing more than I do on the song. I gave her the verses and said, “Just do your thing.” She is so good.

GM: You mentioned the tour bus with Buddy Holly, so that takes us to a song sounding like that late ‘50s era, “Hey Suzy” with Sue Foley, creating an Everly Brothers-like harmony.

DD: You should have heard her when she first did it. She sang the whole song with me in harmony. She is so cool, and I don’t know how she did it. She stayed right with me. It was her suggestion to take her out of some of the parts, telling me that it would be more effective. 

GM: The first song I heard was “An American Hero” with Carlene Carter, released ahead of the album. This is patriotic with hopeful storytelling and wonderful chorus harmonies.

DD: I always liked Carlene Carter. She was like a punk country singer with an attitude. Over the years her voice has evolved and matured, almost like a fine wine. It is distinctive and a little style goes a long way.

GM: Randi Fishenfeld has a wonderful style with her violin on “Endless Highway.”
DD: Randi is local here in South Florida and she packs places. She is very demonstrative in her performances. I sent her the song and she worked on it. When she started playing in the studio I liked it right away. She plays music through inspiration versus reading sheet music. Randi does it in one take, bada bing bada boom!

GM: I wish you success on Broadway with your musical The Wanderer.

DD: Thank you. If it doesn’t debut later this year, then it should do so early next year. It is on track for us. What a great run I have had. In the last three years I have written around forty songs which I think are among the best in my life. I’m getting better. When I first heard Hank Williams and Jimmy Reed as a kid, it hurled me into a place of enchantment, delight, pleasure, and transcendence, like it wasn’t from this planet! I am still like that. I remember these moments in my life that are vividly strong, and they have changed and inspired me in such a way that I continually write about them. Oh, this was so much fun being with Goldmine again. You certainly know so much music and I appreciate you including my music in what you share with your readers. Thank you and have a great day.

In our Goldmine Spring 2024 issue you can read Dion’s positive comments on recording with Eric Clapton, Joanne Shaw Taylor, who has a new album coming out next month, Christine Ohlman and so much more. The magazine ends with a historic February 3, 1959 Winter Dance Party concert poster of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Big Bopper, Ritchie Valens, and Dion and the Belmonts, “The Day the Music Died,” which recently sold for $447,000 through Heritage Auctions.

Related links:

diondimucci.com

ktbarecords.com

Fabulous Flip Sides is in its nineth year

goldminemag.com/columns/fabulous-flip-sides

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