Runaround Sue

Dion started putting the song together at an informal party for a friend's birthday, improvising lyrics while his friends added doo-wop backing harmonies to a clapping rhythm. He took the idea to Ernie Maresca and they finished the tune and lyrics together. Having just left the Belmonts, he found another vocal group, the Del-Satins, and rehearsed it with them. Gene Schwartz of Laurie Records liked it, and it was recorded in summer 1961 at Bell Sound Studios in New York. The musicians were Teacho Wiltshire on piano, Buddy Lucas on saxophone, Mickey Baker and Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Milt Hinton on bass and Panama Francis on drums.

The lyric is a warning from a man whose former girlfriend Sue is unfaithful to every guy she meets. In his autobiography, Dion said that the spark was Gary U.S. Bonds's Quarter to Three, which had just come out. The single reached number one on the Hot 100 in October 1961, number four on the R&B chart and number eleven in the UK, and sold over a million copies. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002, and Rolling Stone placed it at number 351 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs.