Bronx Blues: The Columbia Recordings (1962-1965) (1991)

After leaving his singing homeboys back on Belmont Avenue in the Bronx, Dion DiMucci embarked on an ambitious solo career that set his yearning voice in a stylistic panorama wider than just doo-wop. While hits like ''Ruby Baby'' and ''Donna the Prima Donna'' are clearly echoes of his earlier work, this fascinating 20-track compilation also reveals a rewarding interest in blues, ballads, Presleyesque gospel-country, and Bob Dylan. If the idea of a pretty- boy teen idol giving Chicago blues great Willie Dixon's ''Spoonful'' a convincing performance seems bizarre, rest assured that Dion makes it work. Bronx Blues — which has excellent liner notes, amazing sound, five previously unreleased recordings, and not a bad performance in the bunch — shows just how restless ''the Wanderer'' really was. A