Growing up, Dion DiMucci says he never asked for favors. As an adult, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has discovered that it actually doesn’t hurt to ask fellow musicians for some help.
The proof can be found on Dion’s recent albums. Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Brian Setzer and Paul Simon were among those who answered his call to guest on Blues With Friends (2020). Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Bruce Springsteen and others did the same for Stomping Ground (2021).
Dion has kept the trend rolling with Girl Friends, released in March on Keeping the Blues Alive Records. All 12 songs feature female artists on vocals and/or an instrument, and the notables this time around include Susan Tedeschi (“Soul Force”), Carlene Carter (“An American Hero”) and Shemekia Copeland (“Mama Said”).
“It’s a lot of fun working with these artists,” Dion says. “I made a lot of friends doing this, like Peter Frampton and Mark Knopfler. It makes your life enjoyable.”
Dion has enjoyed a music career that few can match in terms of length and catalog diversity. As a teen fronting The Belmonts, he scored his first Billboard chart entry, “I Wonder Why,” in 1958. More doo-wop hits with his Bronx, New York–bred vocal group followed before he launched a solo career. As a swaggering rock singer-songwriter, Dion was a steady presence in the upper reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 into the mid-1960s, most notably with “Runaround Sue,” “The Wanderer” and “Donna the Prima Donna.”
For his version of “Abraham, Martin and John,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 1968, Dion opted for a more sensitive, folk-rock style. And in the decades since, he’s also taken deep dives into gospel, blues and country, picking up Grammy Award nominations — and those famous friends — along the way.
Dion is as soulful in conversation as he is in his music, and he recently had plenty to say about the making of Girl Friends — and other topics, too. There was relief in his voice as he shared what it took to finally come to terms with the plane-crash deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, his tour mates on 1959’s Winter Dance Party. And he was elated when asked to comment on what’s next for his biomusical, The Wanderer.
GOLDMINE: As you and Mike Aquilina were writing songs for Girl Friends, were you also talking about who might fit best as female guests? Or did the material come
