The long-lost 1967 reunion album from one of New York’s defining vocal groups is available again, restoring a key chapter in American pop history.
by Paul Cashmere
Nearly 60 years after it first appeared and quietly disappeared, Together Again by Dion & The Belmonts has returned, now officially available on digital streaming services for the first time since its original release in January 1967. Issued via Dion Productions under exclusive licence to Reservoir Recordings, the album restores a rarely heard reunion that captured an important moment of transition for both the artists and popular music itself.
Dion DiMucci and The Belmonts, Fred Milano, Carlo Mastrangelo and Angelo D’Aleo, were inseparable from the sound of late-1950s New York. Formed in the Bronx, the group emerged from the same street-corner harmony tradition that shaped acts such as The Flamingos and The Five Satins. Their breakthrough came in 1958 with I Wonder Why, followed by enduring classics including A Teenager In Love and Where Or When. These records helped define the doo-wop era while pushing it toward the pop mainstream through national television appearances and relentless touring.
The partnership fractured in 1960 as Dion pursued a solo career, soon becoming one of the most reliable hitmakers of the early 1960s with Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, Ruby Baby and Donna The Primadonna. The Belmonts continued independently, finding success of their own with songs such as Tell Me Why, which became a staple of the era’s harmony-driven pop.
By the mid-1960s, however, the musical landscape had shifted. Folk-rock and singer-songwriters were reshaping popular music, and Dion, always adaptable, was writing more of his own material. In late 1966, he reunited with his old group at Regent Sound Studios in New York to record Together Again. Released by ABC Records, the album stood apart from their earlier hits, reflecting both maturity and changing tastes.
The newly restored digital release presents the album’s eleven tracks in their original mono mixes. Dion contributed four original songs, including Come To My Side, New York Town, Jump Back Baby and My Girl The Month Of May. That latter track would later find a second life in the early 1970s when it was covered by British folk collective The Bunch, featuring members of Fairport Convention and Fotheringay.
The repertoire also revealed Dion’s widening musical interests. Bob Dylan’s Baby You’ve Been On My Mind sits comfortably alongside For Bobbie, credited to H.J. Deutchendorf, soon to be known worldwide as John Denver. The album’s lead single, Berimbau, written by Brazilian composers Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes, pointed toward bossa nova influences then filtering into American pop. A Gershwin standard, But Not For Me, connected the group to an earlier Great American Songbook tradition, while Mort Shuman’s All I Wanna Do reunited Dion with one of his most important early collaborators.
Despite its ambition, Together Again did not chart in the United States. It found a warmer reception in the UK, where My Girl The Month Of May and Movin’ Man both received significant radio play. The reunion itself was brief. Dion & The Belmonts made occasional television and club appearances before once again going their separate ways.
Within a year, Dion returned to solo work and recorded Abraham, Martin And John, a stark reflection on political assassinations that became one of the defining songs of 1968.
The Belmonts would reunite with Dion again for live performances in the 1970s, including a major concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972, but Together Again remained their only full studio reunion.
Today, the album’s reappearance fills a notable gap in the digital catalogue of early rock and roll. It documents a moment when one of the genre’s foundational vocal groups briefly reconvened to engage with a rapidly changing musical world, bridging doo-wop, folk and pop songwriting at a pivotal point in the 1960s.
Dion & The Belmonts – Together Again Track Listing
Movin’ Man
Berimbau
Come To My Side
All I Wanna Do
But Not For Me
New York Town
Loserville
For Bobbie
Jump Back Baby
Baby You’ve Been On My Mind
My Girl The Month Of May
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