Dion

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  • Year:
    1989
  • Inducted by:
    Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground)
  • Category:
    Performers
Dion

Introduction

Bold. Suave. Swaggering. Dion helped usher in a new era.

With one foot in the Fifties and one in the future, Dion blended R&B with doo-wop and helped ring in the age of rock and roll.

Hall of Fame Essay

1989

Michael Hill

Dion DiMucci was born in the Bronx in 1939 and was raised there in the borough’s own Little Italy. He showed a gift for singing at an early age, much to the delight of his parents, who encouraged him to perform. 

His first love was Hank Williams, the artist who lured him into a Fordham Road record store, where he discovered more than just country western. As he recalls in The Wanderer, which he published last year, “I was picking up  influences from all over the place, mixing in early R&B with doo-wop. Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley  and, of course, Elvis.

In other words, like every other teenager in America, I was discovering rock ’n’ roll.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program 1989
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Dion_quote
unmistakably from New York, Bronx soul.
Lou Reed

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Gallery

Photography: Kevin Mazur, WireImage