I love doo wop.

I do love my doo wop music.

Come on, you know the groups - Danny and the Juniors. The Crests. The Danleers. The Diamonds. The Capris. The Tokens. Dion & the Belmonts. Little Anthony & the Imperials. Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.

Wanna start - oh...that's Dion (above) from Dion and the Belmonts. I'll get back to him in a second. Wanna start a DW group? The name's easy. Pick something and put "The" in front of it. Here, I'll look around my room - The Clocks. The Shags. The Calendars. The Knick Knacks. The Oldsmobiles. The Coasters (I know that's a group but there's a coaster setting in front of me). The Hearts. The Radios. The Tams. It's easy.

And the songs...THOSE SONGS! Dammit - the harmonies. And the notes. My falsetto is almost perfect, which may be one of the reasons I love DW so much. "Little Darling". "At the Hop". "Juvenile Delinquent". "One Summer Night". "Remember Then". "Teenager in Love". My head is spinning and I can't type fast enough - so you'll just have to check out this website. I just added this to my "favorite sites" on the right panel, toward the bottom - but here it is: Brian's Doo Wop Fixxx. There are hundreds of DW songs on it - shit I never heard of. You'll recognize some of them.

Back to Dion. Dion DiMucci - The King of Cool. Oh my God - my favorite DW artist of all time. With hits like, "Teenager In Love" (Belmonts), "Runaround Sue" (solo), "I Wonder Why" (Belmonts), "Where Or When" (Belmonts), "Drip Drop" (solo), "Donna the Prima Donna" (solo - my favorite), "The Wanderer" (solo - my other favorite), "Ruby Baby" (solo), "Abraham, Martin and John" (solo) - want me to stop? That's the Belmonts with Dion below.

Anyway, this Italian-American, Bronx boy (Francis is his middle name - it's my confirmation name) by the age of 21 was a millionarie a couple times over, was almost the 4th guy to die in the plane with Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper (didn't wanna pay the $36 fare and drove there instead), later kicked a heroin addiction, became a born-again Christian, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and has continued to make critically-acclaimed music since. Take a listen -

1) the 45 rpm recording of Donna the Prima Donna
2) Dion singing "The Wanderer"
3) Dion & the Belmonts singing Teenager In Love
4) and finally, Dion and Company at the 1988 Grammy's

I love him. How can you not? He was there in '57 when it was all just a baby - R&R, man.

"Ohhhhh, well I'm the type a guy, that likes to roam around. I'm never in one place, I roam from town to town..."

You know - my dad and Dion look an awful lot alike. That's dad's navy picture from around 1960-61 ( I doctored it up a bit). I've seen pictures of my dad that really do look like Dion. Dad played lead guitar and sang lead in a group, The Glenn Mar Trio, from about 1957-1961. That's how he met my mom - playing at a nightclub. Chicks flocked - according to more than one person, dad not included. Dad thought he was cool then and still thinks he's cool. That's a whole nuther post though. He's 70 now and still plays the electric guitar.

My dad and Dion. Too cool for school, baby.