The 1970s weren't overly kind to
Dion. After his reunion with
the Belmonts early in the decade, he returned to his "real" career as a singer/songwriter without a huge amount of success. Then, in 1978, came
Return of the Wanderer, produced by
Terry Cashman and
Tommy West for their Lifesong label. The singing, the songs, and the sound were as contemporary to 1978 as the single "The Wanderer" had been to 1961, and his group, the Streetheart Band, between
Rusty Steele's lead guitar, Lee Foy's sax and harmonica, and Buzz London's drums, was an outfit that could have shared a stage with the E-Street Band without any embarrassment. The most personal songs dealt with different aspects of coming to terms with being 40 and a rock & roller, and elements of
Dion's past, personally and musically, but none of it was overly maudlin, even at its most confessional -- sandwiched in between the originals by
Dion and songs written by
Tom Waits and
Bob Dylan, he also found room for a quietly intense version of "Do You Believe In Magic." In many ways, this album was his equivalent of the best of
Sinatra's work of the late '50s and early '60s -- vulnerable and sophisticated -- yet it rocked.
Return of the Wanderer got rave reviews, but it never charted and was generally overlooked, despite being
Dion's best album; only in New York did it resonate in any serious way, not enough to drive up sales in 1978 but sufficiently to command prices of $20-$30 in collector's shops by the early 1980s.