Listen to music by rock & roll legend Dion.

Dion DiMucci is an American singer-songwriter from the Bronx in New York City whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, rock and R&B styles, and most recently, straight blues. He began his career in the late 50’s as the lead singer of the Belmonts, and several years later went solo in 1960. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, along with The Rolling Stones, The Temptations, Otis Redding, and Stevie Wonder.

Dion was a first-generation rock and roll artist who is still active at 77 today with new albums and concerts. In 1958 he had three top-forty hits, in 2007 he was nominated for a Grammy, and his last three albums have some of his best work.

As a 19-year-old leading Dion & the Belmonts in 1959, he declined the chartered plane ride that crashed and killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson on the “Winter Dance Party” tour. He and Bob Dylan were the only American singers in the pictures of 57 famous people on the cover of the The Beatles album cover for Sgt. Pepper (he’s between Tom Mix’s cowboy hat and Tony Curtis up and left from John Lennon, and Bob Dylan’s in the upper right).