An Italian Opera and Bo Diddley Inspired This Incredible Dion Hit Single From 1961

Dion (whose full name is Dion DiMucci) has had plenty of hits, both with his group, The Belmonts, and as a solo artist. But few of his songs are as well known as “The Wanderer”. Out in 1961 on his Runaround Sue record, “The Wanderer” was written by Ernie Maresca.

“The Wanderer” says in part, “They call me the wanderer / Yeah, the wanderer / I roam around, around, around, around.” Although Dion didn’t write the song, he was very inspired when he decided to record “The Wanderer”. 

“It’s a deeper song than people think,” Dion maintains. “Those lyrics, ‘Oh well, I roam from town to town / I go through life without a care / And I’m as happy as a clown / I with my two fists of iron and I’m going nowhere,’ that’s not just some throwaway song. There’s a lot more going on than you might think. I used an image from Pagliacci. My grandfather took me to that opera as a kid, and that inspired the song.”

The Artist That Inspired Dion To Record “The Wanderer”

The Italian opera Pagliacci isn’t the only reason Dion recorded “The Wanderer”. He later reveals that he was also trying to emulate another musical act, namely Bo Diddley, a well-known artist in the 1950s.

“I was trying to do what [my record label] wanted me to do. It was the times, you know?” Dion says. “You could say ‘The Wanderer’ is my little white version of ‘I’m A Man’.  I saw Bo Diddley do ‘I’m A Man’, and he had this big belt buckle. And I thought, ‘I gotta get a song like that,’ so I did ‘The Wanderer’. But if you listen to the lyric, it’s really a sad song, and it actually turns in on itself. …You’ve got a thin veneer of what a man is. The guy’s going to hell, but he’s having a lot of fun doing it.”

Dion might be the first to record “The Wanderer”, but other artists later put their own spin on the song, including The Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, and Status Quo, among others. In 1988, Eddie Rabbitt had a No. 1 hit at country radio with this song.

After “The Wanderer”, Dion had several more hit singles, including “Lovers Who Wander”, “Love Came To Me”, and “Ruby Baby”. Dion’s last Top 10 single came in 1968, with “Abraham, Martin and John”.

Photo by: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images