Pop icon Dion stops here

Pop icon Dion stops here

Rock Hall of Fame member will perform at Power Center Thursday

Dion DiMucci comes to the Power Center on Thursday.

PREVIEW

Dion

Who: Pop-rock icon.

What: Classic doo-wop sound.

When: 8 p.m.Thursday.

Where: Power Center, 121 Fletcher St.

How much: $45, $38, $32; available at Michigan League Ticket Office.

For more information: AASF Ticket Office at (734) 764-2538 or toll-free in Michigan at 800-221-1229; www.tickets.com.

BY DAVID HOROWITZ

News Special Writer

There’s Celine Dion. There’s Dionne Warwick. And then there’s Dion.

Oh, he’s got a last name (DiMucci), but for fans of doowop, there was no need for a last name for the lead singer of Dion and the Belmonts, one of the smoothest groups to leave the street corners of the Bronx for airwaves across the country in the late 1950s. Songs like “I Wonder Why” and “A Teenager in Love” cemented the group’s reputation as seminal stars in early rock.

After splitting from the Belmonts in the early ’60s, Dion became a fixture on the charts, with Top Ten hits like “The Wanderer,” “Runaround Sue,” “Lovers Who Wander,” “Ruby Baby,” and “Donna, The Prima Donna.” With sold-out tours, hit records and nice career going, the bottom fell out when his substance abuse problems took their toll. A promising career spun out of control and the record contracts and tours disappeared for almost five years.

Then, in 1968, having kicked his habit, he attracted a new audience with the moving, almost anthemic, “Abraham, Martin and John.” This was a new, more mature Dion, and the record signaled a move into more roots music.

Dion’s always been recognized by his fellow musicians as a singular voice. Bruce Springsteen has been quoted as saying, “I’ve been lucky enough to have Dion cut a few of my songs. I’m gonna ask him to cut a few more just so I can learn how to sing ’em.”

Then there’s this from Paul Simon: “I have been a fan of Dion since I was a teenager. He is one of the great voices of New York rock ’n’ roll.”

And this from Bob Dylan: “If you want to hear a great singer, listen to Dion. His voice takes its color from all palettes; he’s never lost it; his genius has never deserted him.”

Rock critics also recognize Dion’s special qualities. Asked about Dion’s place in pop music history, noted rock critic Dave Marsh, author of a host of well-regarded music books, wrote in a recent e-mail, “No other ’50s rock performer (artist?!) comes close to Dion in sustaining creativity. He still makes records that are interesting and personal and that have moved on musically without abandoning the emotional and spiritual center he always had. He’s still a good songwriter; he’s still a great singer.

“There’s a distinction the art critic John Berger makes between the idol and the hero,” continued Marsh. “Succinctly, ‘the idol is self-sufficient; the hero never is.’ To paraphrase: The idol is there to represent what we could do if we tried; the hero is there to inspire us to do all that we are capable of doing.

“I strongly believe that Dion was the first rock star to make the transition from idol to hero. The tragedy of Elvis is that it slipped from his grasp. Dion did this by overcoming a hero’s share of burdens - his social background, maybe; his drug problem, certainly; the neglect we shame ourselves with in terms of veteran artists and performers.”

This appreciation was given the official stamp of approval with Dion’s 1989 welcome into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame. In making the induction, rocker Lou Reed celebrated “Dion, whose voice was unlike any other I had heard before. Dion could do all the turns, stretch those syllables so effortlessly, soar so high he could reach the sky and dance there among the stars forever.” Many of Dion’s fans may not be aware of his place in musical history on “the day the music died,” or the role faith played in helping him survive success.

As he wrote for his website (www.diondimucci.com), “The Midwest was in the midst of a bitter winter in February 1959. The wind was punishing, trees were freezing up and snapping, and the little yellow school bus I was riding in with Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper had been breaking down.

“Buddy had had enough. He talked the club manager into chartering a plane to fly the headliners to our next show in Fargo, North Dakota, and tried to recruit us to get on board. When Buddy came to me, I thought about the $36 price.

My parents paid $36 a month for rent back in the Bronx. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the same amount on a 45-minute plane ride, so I told him no.

“The next day, I stood in the lobby of the hotel in Moorhead, Minnesota. There was a television on the wall, announcing that the plane carrying Buddy, Ritchie and the Big Bopper had gone down in the storm. There were no survivors. From that moment on, I knew God had a plan for me.”

Wrote Marsh, “We have the best part of rock and pop music today because someone like Dion, for the past 50 years, has had the heart to challenge himself and the love to share the results with us. He set the model out of which came Lennon and Bruce and all the others who really went to their limit and invited us to do the same, who carried their own weight and gave the rest of us a sense of how we might tote our own, with dignity and the occasional dance step.”