A-side "The Majestic" Length 2:51 | Format 7" single Label Laurie | |
Released November 1961 (1961-11) Genre Rhythm and blues
pop
rock and roll | ||
"The Wanderer" is a song written by Ernie Maresca and originally recorded by Dion. The song, with a 12-bar blues-base verse and an eight-bar bridge, tells the story of a travelling man and his many loves. The song is ranked #243 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Contents
History
Maresca had co-written Dion's previous # 1 hit, "Runaround Sue", but originally intended "The Wanderer" to be recorded by another group, Nino and the Ebbtides. They passed on it in favour of another Maresca song, so Dion was given it as the B-side of his follow-up single, "The Majestic", a song which his record company had chosen for him. The record was turned over by radio DJs who preferred "The Wanderer", which duly entered the US charts in December 1961 and rose to # 2 in early 1962 (behind "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler). It also reached # 10 in the UK and # 1 in Australia.
The song was recorded with an uncredited background vocal group, the Del-Satins, in a rockier style than Dion's earlier hits with the Belmonts. The Del-Satins were an established doo-wop group led by Stan Ziska (later known as Stan Sommers), who at the time were also contracted to Laurie Records, and who later formed the core of Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge. Musicians on the original recording included Bobby Gregg, Bucky Pizarelli and Johnny Falbo on guitars, Jerome Richardson on alto sax, Buddy Lucas on tenor sax, and Panama Francis and Sticks Evans on drums.
Dion said of "The Wanderer":
At its roots, it's more than meets the eye. "The Wanderer" is black music filtered through an Italian neighborhood that comes out with an attitude. It's my perception of a lot of songs like "I'm A Man" by Bo Diddley or "Hoochie Coochie Man" by Muddy Waters. But you know, "The Wanderer" is really a sad song. A lot of guys don't understand that. Bruce Springsteen was the only guy who accurately expressed what that song was about. It's "I roam from town to town and go through life without a care, I'm as happy as a clown with my two fists of iron, but I'm going nowhere." In the fifties, you didn't get that dark. It sounds like a lot of fun but it's about going nowhere.
However, on Maresca's original demo of the song, the lyrics were "with my two fists of iron and my bottle of beer", and the change to "with my two fists of iron but I'm going nowhere" in fact seems to have been at the record company's insistence.
The song has been categorized as rock and roll, rhythm and blues and pop. Today, "The Wanderer" is part of the Mijac publishing catalog.
Cover versions
"The Wanderer" has been covered by many other popular singers and bands, including Bad Company (band), Status Quo, Dee Snider, Gary Glitter, The Beach Boys, Leif Garrett (US #49 in 1978), Alvin and the Chipmunks, Arthur Alexander, Bruce Springsteen, Sick City Daggers, Delbert McClinton, Ted Chippington, Dave Edmunds, The Alley Cats, Avenue D, The Heimlich Experiment, by My Morning Jacket at Madison Square Garden on 31 December 2008 and more recently by Laurence Collyer/The Diamond Family Archive. Status Quo covered the song twice, once as a complete version, and once again as part of their Anniversary Waltz, Pt. 1. Status Quo's version was a #7 hit in the U.K. in 1984 and later included on the 2016reissue of Back to Back, and Rabbitt's version was a Number One hit on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart in mid-1988. Mel Gibson sings a version in the animated movie Chicken Run.
The Portuguese version by Renato e Seus Blue Caps & Erasmo Carlos was a huge hit in Brazil in the 1960s, changing the title to "O Lobo Mau" (which translates as "The Big Bad Wolf"). The "Big Bad Wolf" in the Portuguese lyrics is somewhat like the wanderer, riding in his car and getting all the girls. Another cover version can be found on Kidsongs video and DVD, "A Day with the Animals".
The French version "Le Vagabond" (which tells the same story as the original) was a hit in French-speaking countries by Richard Anthony.
In popular culture
"The Wanderer" is played before all Bolton Wanderers and Western Sydney Wanderers home matches.
Featured prominently in The Wanderers (1979).
NYC Rockabilly band The Stray Cats have used "The Wanderer" as their live intro music since their initial run in the early 1980s. It is the song usually played loudly over the house PA as the lights dim just before the band appears onstage and begins to play.
In Brian Azzarello's Watchmen prequel comic Comedian, the song is featured twice, in small but pivotal scenes.
The song was used in a 1995 ad for Black And Decker's "Snake Light".
Actor Ray Sharkey sings part of "The Wanderer" in the 1993 movie Cop and a Half.
In the Canadian Showcase series Lost Girl, the song is featured prominently and repeatedly in seasons 3 and 4 as a callout to a character referred to by the same name, including an arrangement performed by Merry-Go-Round Instrumentation.
The TV show The West Wing uses the song in Season 4, Episode 2 "20 Hours in America: Part 2".
In the movie "Behind Enemy Lines" the song was also used.
The song is featured very prominently in the 2015 Bethesda video game Fallout 4. It is used in the revelatory trailer and is included in the game as part of the Diamond City Radio station, accessed through the Pip-Boy.