Dion – Runaround Sue

About The Song

In 1961, Dion DiMucci, the prototypical doo-wop star, topped the charts with “Runaround Sue,” an extremely fun but also deeply mean-spirited song about a girl. DiMucci co-wrote the song, and while 1961 was a different time, it’s full of what we would now call slut-shaming: “She took my love, then ran around with every single guy in town.” Two years later, he married a girl named Susan.

Over the years, DiMucci has maintained that his only #1 is not a vicious diatribe against his future wife. But in 1990, Dion and Susan (they’re still married) appeared on Oprah together, and she set the record straight. Apparently, he was mad that she’d asked some other guy directions to the zoo.

And so once again we’re faced with a conundrum: a truly great pop song that flaunts a toxic viewpoint. And it is a toxic viewpoint. It’s not an aberration, either. In 1962, Dion got to #2 with the even-better rambling-man song “The Wanderer,” which is just as mean: “I kiss ’em and I hug ’em, cuz to me they’re all the same / I hug ’em and I squeeze ’em, they don’t even know my name.” I’m not asking a 58-year-old doo-wop song to be woke, but Dion’s biggest hits are, in their own way, as misogynistic as any rap song that causes present-day pearl-clutching.

What a song! Dion, a former Bronx street-gang kid, had been making hits for a few years already, and a year before “Runaround Sue,” he’d broken up with the Belmonts, his old doo-wop group. (He’d also turned down a seat on the same plane that crashed and killed Buddy Holly.) “Runaround Sue” was the first song he recorded with the Del-Satins, his new backing group. And the jumpy, knuckle-headed beat he came up with for them to sing is just cartoonishly perfect. The slow-building awwwwww bit is the best part. It’s so fun!

The whole arrangement is simple but precise, its saxophone honks just hard enough and its acoustic-guitar intro just sweet enough. Dion’s vocal performance is just remarkable, too. It’s angry and vulnerable at the same time, and it draws out the notes with effortless panache. So: great singer, great song, too bad about the lyrics. That old story again.

Video

Lyric

🎵 Let’s sing along with the lyrics! 🎤

 Here’s my story, it’s sad but true
It’s about a girl that I once knew
She took my love then ran around
With every single guy in town

Yeah, I should have known it from the very start
This girl would leave me with a broken heart
Now listen people what I’m telling you
A-keep away from-a Runaround Sue, yeah

I miss her lips and the smile on her face
The touch of her hand and this girl’s warm embrace
So if you don’t wanna cry like I do
A-keep away from-a Runaround Sue

She likes to travel around, yeah
She’ll love you and she’ll put you down
Now people let me put you wise
Sue goes out with other guys

Here’s the moral in the story from the guy who knows
I fell in love and my love still grows
Ask any fool that she ever knew, they’ll tell ya
Keep away from-a Runaround Sue

Yeah keep away from this girl
I don’t know what she’ll do
Keep away from Sue!

She likes to travel around, yeah
She’ll love you and she’ll put you down
Now people let me put you wise
She goes out with other guys

Here’s the moral in the story from that guy who knows
I fell in love and my love still grows
Ask any fool that she ever knew, they’ll tell ya
A-keep away from-a Runaround Sue

Stay away from that girl
Don’t you know what she’ll do now
Keep away from that girl