DION’S GOT THE BLUES

Few artists can claim as remarkable a career as Dion DiMucci. In a career that spans nearly 65 years — a remarkable stretch of time by any estimation — he’s not only witnessed the very birth of rock and roll, but played an important part in the process as well. His original outfit, Dion and the Belmonts, had no less than 39 pop hits during the late ’50s and early ’60s, among them such iconic standards as “Runaround Sue,” “A Teenager in Love,” “The Wanderer” and “Ruby Baby,” but once that successful streak came to a close, he reinvented himself as a contemporary folk singer, reigniting his career with the massive hit “Abraham, Martin and John,” an ode to those leaders lost to assassination during turbulent times.

By the end of the ’70s and the early ’80s, Dion’s music morphed again with his rededication to Christianity. He recorded several religious albums, won a Dove Award for his achievements, but he lost much of his following in secular realms. His 1989 album , featuring an array of special guests that included Paul Simon, Lou Reed, k.d. Lang, Bryan Adams and its producer, Dave Edmunds, reignited that interest and brought him back to the mainstream, a